Failed Exam

[mlwilliamsiv]

Hello everyone.

I regretfully report that I failed my very first exam ever and I feel like a complete moron. On July 10th I took the English Composition with essay CLEP. I received my test scores back on July 30th and I received a score of 49:mad: . I was pissed beyond belief. How and the hell can you pass Financial Accounting (which I had no prior knowledge in) and fail an exam which I'm relatively well-versed in?!

These are the reasons why I feel like a complete moron:

[SIZE=2](1) In my senior year of high school, I was the Grand Prize Winner of the “Winning Futures Essay Contest.” In addition to that, I also did well in all of my English classes (A's & B's).[/SIZE]

(2) On June 5, 2007 I took the CPT Placement Test at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. After completion of the test I instantly received my Accuplacer Student Report. My scores in the English segment of the test were as follows:

- Sentence Skills 104.8
- Reading Comprehension 89.0

Granted, I am not certain what these scores equate to, and I was not required to complete an essay; however, my staff counselor at Schoolcraft College informed me that I scored very high in these areas. In fact, I do believe that the Accuplacer is administered by the College Board so they can vouch for the validity and substance of these scores. I can provide you with a copy of these results, per your request if needed.

The only part that really sucks is that I can't tell what part of the exam I screwed up on. I don't know if it was Section I or the essay portion. I know that I ran out of time on the essay portion so I couldn't revise or edit my closing paragraph. I thought I produced a well-written, well thouoght out essay in traditional essay format. On Section I thought the questions were basic and simple. I know "at least" I scored at least 30 right out of 50.

When I first received my results on July 30, I was dumbfounded. I wrote the College Board a letter asking for a second review of my exam. They obliged and I received a call yesterday stating that my score was the same--49.

I just wanted to post this because I will share both my successes and failures; even though I didn't want to share this because I feel like a complete idiot. This exam really took a toll on my self-esteem which has delayed me from taking further exams. I've done nothing but veg-out in front of the tv watching the Sopranoshilarious !!! (not really being funny...excuse the exclamation points.)

Now I'm scared about my options. I can either take 2 courses--Eng 101 & 102 for 6 credits online or self-paced, spending more money; or, I can wait 6 months (January 2009) and retake the Eng Comp w/essay CLEP. To be perfectly honest, I'm scared to retake this exam because I don't understand how I failed it the first time.

Sorry for the long post guys...thanks for listening to my tangent. I'll check back in later on tonight...I'm going bowling!

From a loyal degree seeker,

Marshall

[Old Rusty Pipe]

Is there any reason you cannot take the CLEP Freshman College Composition w/Essay? According to the TESC Student Catalog, it is worth the same credits that the English Composition w/Essay is. If at first you don't succeed, take a duplicate test.

[Lindagerr]

Marshall

I am sorry to here of your disappointment. Won't they tell you how you did on each section? Don't let this keep you down, have you read The Last Lecture"? You could think of this failure as just a brick wall in your path. Remember you just have to find YOUR way to the other side.

I just made a homemade from scratch blueberry pie with blueberries I picked, I will send you a virtual piece of pie to make you feel betterhilarious

Keep your head up and remember you WILL get past this.

[lrgaul]

[SIZE="2"][COLOR="Navy"]I am so sorry to hear about your "not quite there" score on the English Composition with Essay exam. I was a little surprised when I got my official score in the mail too because I thought I had done quite a bit better than my score indicated. I will admit that I didn't do anything to formally study for the exam (which I probably should have) and it was my first CLEP, but I (like you) really believed that English was a super strong subject for me. I am not sure that I would be inclined to suggest that this is an easy exam at all.

I think one of the issues is that English is one of those subjects that we actually use all the time. Sometimes it is even harder to break old habits than it is to learn something new from scratch. As a result, those pesky grammatical errors follow us around all the time and we are blissfully unaware of them.

As for looking ahead, can you take the Freshman Composition exam? If not, would retaking the English Comp. exam in six months mess up your timeline at all?

I would try to avoid taking the class if you feel like this is a strong subject for you. Even though I only got a 52 on the English Composition with Essay CLEP, I got a real "A" (as in 100% on the syllabus) in an Advanced Grammar class at a B&M about two months later, which may offer us some insight into the scoring on this particular exam. It is TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH![/COLOR][/SIZE]

[WendyR]

I'm sorry to hear this news, Marshall. What a bummer.

You could take the TECEP for this class. They are way pricier than CLEP or DSST, but it still saves time and gives credit without taking a class. I took the ENG 102 TECEP and it was just writing an essay and a requirement to cite at least three times. There was nothing to do with multiple choice questions at all.'

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Wendy

[Aqutis]

One ultimate truth that I have realised over the years is this: Different English professors grade completely different. I noticed this one time when I took English 1010 and my professor wrote all over my paper saying thsi wasnt right and this wasnt right but then I go to English 1020 and she is like "yes, [B]I BELIEVE[B] that you can start certain senteces with a conjunction". See its things like that which burn me up when it comes to English. Most professors I have had in this area are basiclly grammar nazis in sheeps clothing if you get teh analogy :p Keep your head up and try again and I garuntee you that you will succeed!!

[Lydia]

Sorry to hear that Marshall. Sometimes it is difficult to guage the exams. In many cases I received higher score on subject I was weaker in, and lover scores on the onces I usually excel in. I still don't understand it. I wish they gave a breakdown with the score report.

[twosidneys]

Marshall,

I appreciate that it was a shock. They seem to be marking that exam very stiffly. I'd suggest taking the course online. Would one course do?

Don't let it throw you.

Good luck!

Sidney and Donna

[mlwilliamsiv]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement, it is greatly appreciated.

I did notice in the TESC Program Planning Handbook that it does list Freshman College Composition with essay as an option for credit. I know that this is an old handbook so I'm going to send TESC an email on Monday to see if they can confirm this.

I'm just going to focus on the rest of the exams I have coming up. The only good thing is that this failure didn't screw up my timeline at all. I won't be graduating until next year anyway. So either I'll wait 6 months to retake the CLEP or just take the Freshman College Composition with essay CLEP in a month or two.

I'll let you all know what I find out.

Peace be with you all and thanks again for your support.

From a loyal degree seeker,

Marshall

[ali4nia]

I m going to teach all of you today some thing about freshman composition with essay, I asked like 10 times about this test and nobody NOBODY in this forum could answer my questions, you can just search for my previous posts and see they have been left without answer but now I went through the whole thing by my own so here you go:

basically freshman composition with essay does not exist as a unique exam,the college board test description on their website is not clear and doesnot explain the whole process at all !! when you want to pass this test, in the drop down menu to chose the test on the Clep registretion screen (right after where you put your info and credit card number etc) you will notice that there is only ''freshman college composition'' as opposed to english composition with essay and english compostion without essay, what you need to do is to call clep with your proctor (test center guy or girl) the proctor has to first give his information( name, test center number etc..) then they will put you on the phone and ask you your credit card information and charge you 10 bucks, (charged by ETS not college board) after a week or two your proctor will receive 2 essay topics that you need to complet and the proctor has to send it to your school, meanwhile you can take the computer based multiple choice test whenever you want, the same day when you receive those essays or before but again on all the score paper and transcript you will see the mention freshman college composition period lol doesnt say with or without essay! and basically Its going to cost you 70$ college board and 10$ ETS + proctor fee and 1 week or 2 of your time waiting for the essays, so you got it I think after all these time, someone could answer my questions about this shady test and this wonderful person was myself