Do you really read the whole textbook from A-Z?

[charismo]

cookderosa's advice does make a lot of sense thanks for the breakdown; I will keep that "content distribution" in mind as I go along with my studying.

But yeah the general consensus for tackling the TECEP is simply trial and error. There is, until now, no formulaic way of passing TECEP similar to CLEP/DSST.

I hope my journey of studying TECEP's could yield some tip for later students as we perfect a system for best studying the TECEPs.

Also, I forgot to mention TESC course outline has mentioned Saylor's course for Environemental Ethics so that's gonna help a lot. Actually I hope Saylor's curates content and align it with all the TECEP's. It's a tall ask but I hope they do it in the near future. That will make learning more organized and structured since they mix their syllabus with video and mini notes.

[KittenMittens]

cookderosa's advice does make a lot of sense thanks for the breakdown; I will keep that "content distribution" in mind as I go along with my studying.

But yeah the general consensus for tackling the TECEP is simply trial and error. There is, until now, no formulaic way of passing TECEP similar to CLEP/DSST.

I hope my journey of studying TECEP's could yield some tip for later students as we perfect a system for best studying the TECEPs.

Also, I forgot to mention TESC course outline has mentioned Saylor's course for Environemental Ethics so that's gonna help a lot. Actually I hope Saylor's curates content and align it with all the TECEP's. It's a tall ask but I hope they do it in the near future. That will make learning more organized and structured since they mix their syllabus with video and mini notes.

Well said! Keep in mind that the pattern for CLEPs/DSSTs apply to several UExcel exams as well, so don't discount those either if they somehow can work for you! The nice things with UExcels is that they are very doable for many of them that are offered by InstantCert, combined with forum advice (from the subscriber's forum), and 2 practice exams. For instance, UExcel Psychology of Adulthood and Aging, I studied about 6 hours total before the exam. Other good ones are UExcel Human Resources Management, Organizational Behavior, Labor Relations, and Ethics which are all upper level.

[dewisant]

I read entire textbooks before I discovered InstantCert and the Specific Exam Feedback thread.

[KittenMittens]

I read entire textbooks before I discovered InstantCert and the Specific Exam Feedback thread.

My point exactly.

[passit1]

Hi! As a a student who has taken a bunch of TECEPs, this is the way I tackle them:

1) obtain recommended textbook used or rented from Amazon; I did purchase a few I thought would be good reference material. Print out reference material from these forums if available.

2) print out TECEP description and compare to textbook; usually I didn't have to read all the chapters in the book - the description from TESC's website usually matched the sections of the table of contents word for word. If chapters did not show up in the TESC TECEP description, I didn't read them.

3) write out study plan on the printed TECEP description detailing what chapters would be read on what days- timeline was 1 week with the capstone the only exception, I gave myself 2 weeks for that but ended up taking 2 of those days off to bang out Project Management at Sophia during the free offer. After all the chapters were scheduled, I wrote in the review days as well, usually for the last 2 days of the week.

4) Initial go through the chapters was a read with a highlighter. Pausing occasionally to lay a groundwork memorization on lists if the TECEP involved essays. If the test was just multiple choice, I only read through with the highlighter. Use instantcert flashcards at lunch at work, while waiting on line at stores, basically anywhere I couldn't use the textbook.

5) Review days involved highlighted material only. If TECEP involved essays, the review involved memorization of lists. As a conceptual learner, I memorize by applying the list/what I'm learning to actual situations I have experienced to cement them in the old noggin.

6) Pumped myself up mentally for the test by telling myself I'm the best there is at taking tests and I know the subject better than anyone else. It didn't matter if it was true or not, as long as I believed it at the time. Getting my swagger on improved my performance. Still does.

7) Pass TECEP. All of them. Because once the plan is in place the plan happens.

[SuzanneD]

Pasit1 and Cookderosa,
I like your break down on how to study for test. Thanks!

[NYCMIA777]

I love reading, all of the ebooks that I have. When I get bored, I have a program that will read them out loud for me. Or I´ll change the format from PDF to MP3 and then take it on the road.

[mednat]

I love reading, all of the ebooks that I have. When I get bored, I have a program that will read them out loud for me. Or I´ll change the format from PDF to MP3 and then take it on the road.

What do you use to convert to mp3? How do you handle pages like table of contents or image captions?

[clep3705]

I've mostly stopped buying textbooks because I know the chance of me using them is very low and I really don't want to spend money on something I won't use. Instructors who provide detailed PowerPoint slides for every lecture tend to test from their slides. Get one of those teachers and you may not need any textbooks. This won't work with every course. Nor will this work for every student.

My real point is that you should strive to learn efficiently. An instructor should provide a clear list of objectives. Study to the objectives, not to the assigned pages. Your grade is based on how well you know the objectives, not on having read the assigned pages. Reading a textbook is efficient for some people and not for others. If reading textbooks works well for you, keep doing it. If not, start doing something else.

[KittenMittens]

I've mostly stopped buying textbooks because I know the chance of me using them is very low and I really don't want to spend money on something I won't use. Instructors who provide detailed PowerPoint slides for every lecture tend to test from their slides. Get one of those teachers and you may not need any textbooks. This won't work with every course. Nor will this work for every student.

My real point is that you should strive to learn efficiently. An instructor should provide a clear list of objectives. Study to the objectives, not to the assigned pages. Your grade is based on how well you know the objectives, not on having read the assigned pages. Reading a textbook is efficient for some people and not for others. If reading textbooks works well for you, keep doing it. If not, start doing something else.

Textbooks are 9/10x good only for reference. They're almost always too dry, too verbose, and make it difficult to explain concepts especially at the undergraduate level. The problem with the TECEPs is that they use a very particular edition of a textbook, and the test makers tend to just take the test questions out of very particular sentences of a particular chapter on a particular page. So if you're willing to read a textbook cover to cover, you can scan it all, and recognize/be familiar that some test question came from some random sentence on some page. Straighterline does the same kind of thing as well.