05-27-2011, 10:45 PM
I just passed the calculus CLEP a few hours ago! I scored a 65. I'm so glad I found this forum. This thread specifically is the reason I passed. I would like to contribute by sharing my experience with the CLEP in chronological order so that I cover the details of my experience instead of repeating information that is found easily on the CollegeBoard website. I am sure someone who is looking to take the Calculus Clep will appreciate the small details, and perhaps relate to some of them.
BACKGROUND WITH CLEP:
I was introduced to the CLEP 5 months ago. I decided to switch from business to engineering, and suddenly the "business math" courses I was enrolled in were worthless. I knew bits and pieces of many subjects, but there was no way my college would let me take on the course load I needed to get back on track, and it was too late to sign up for classes towards a new major. It looked like I was stuck until summer. Fortunately the CLEP offered a solution, and I was thrilled to discover that I could use what I had learned in my business math courses for quick and cheap credit towards my new major!
Soon after learning about CLEP I took the College Algebra (scored a 70) and Pre-calculus (scored a 66) CLEP tests without much trouble. I haven't been out of high school very long and I only needed a quick review to pass. Calculus was a different story, and I had never even heard of a "derivative" until 3 months ago. I had signed up for an online self-paced "business calculus" course which basically means "calculus without trigonometry". I learned some of the material, but I would need to learn a lot on my own.
Through acquainting myself with the world of "self-study", I discovered this thread. The possibility of getting credit through ACE/ALEKS/StraighterLine went out the window the first time I asked my advisor about it, and got a blank stare, followed by a confused look from the head of advising, and ending with an unfulfilled promise to "look into it" and get back to me. CLEP was the ideal method.
STUDYING:
I was not familiar with studying for CLEP. All I knew was that if you had taken a class before then you should be able to pass the test. I tried Thinkwell Calculus for 2 weeks, but I felt that it was not the fastest method to passing CLEP if you've already been exposed to some calculus. If you are new to calculus, be prepared for lectures by a professor who single-handedly proves that math isn't all that bad. He can make calculus video lectures almost fun to watch, and that's saying something.
My major weak point was trig, so I got a subscription to ALEKS for trigonometry. It was nice and tedious, which was perfect for learning the basics of a subject I had avoided for so long. Its a slow but effective way to prepare for calculus if you are lacking in a specific area.
REA STUDY GUIDE
Last week I took the advice of the geniuses in this thread and bought the "REA CLEP Calculus" study guide w/CD. I cant begin to describe how helpful it was. I hardly studied the book, honestly, I stuck almost exclusively to the practice tests except for a few references to learn more about integrals, "trapezoidal approximation of an integral" and Riemann sums since I had not learned them. This guide is essential because the questions are similar to the CLEP, and it gives you an in-depth understanding of the CLEP topics with functions that are "meatier" than the ones I encountered on the actual test. It is more complicated, and that's a good thing.
My study plan consisted of completing the first practice test, viewing my results, and working to understand the explanations for the problems I missed. Once I felt comfortable with the explanations, I took the test again. I concluded with the second practice test last night, and scored a 60, but I did not review the test due to time constraints. It is important to note that I never managed to complete either practice test in 1.5 hours. I tend to get stuck on a problem and instead of moving to the next one, I insist on at least getting an answer that matches one of the available choices. Needless to say, that behavior didn't help on the actual CLEP test.
COLLEGEBOARD CALCULUS EXAM GUIDE
The next brilliant piece of advice I received was to get the "CLEP Calculus Exam Guide" from CollegeBoard. I worked through the practice questions before getting the REA guide, and took it again after I finished both REA practice tests. The practice questions were confusing at first, but after being exposed to the difficulty level of REA questions, I did better with a raw score of 25. Early this morning I did last minute prep by working through the ones I missed until I got the correct answer, which turned out to be very helpful for the actual test.
This guide is extremely useful because of how similar the questions are to the problems on the actual CLEP test. One thing I found surprising is that I thought I was doing well while working through it, but I ended up missing many questions that were simple once I understood why the answer key was right. Many of the questions in the guide were "tricky" instead of "difficult", and it was a very accurate guide to the kinds of questions that were on the CLEP test. The questions are similar to the test because they focus on the concepts of derivatives and integrals, and the difficulty is closer to the CLEP test than the REA practice tests.
TEST DAY:
I don't recommend cramming, but I mastered most of the relevant CLEP calculus test topics only hours before the exam. reviewing the CollegeBoard exam guide in the morning was very useful. To me it seemed like learning calculus is very slow to begin with, but as things fall into place you can master the topics more quickly. The morning study session was probably the most productive study session in preparation for the test.
THE TEST
I spent an unusual amount of time staring at the simple instructions on how to answer a question so that I could put off the moment when the clock started ticking down. I read that some of you had run into issues with time, and I was getting ready to answer the questions as quickly as possible.
SECTION 1:
After that delay I was thrilled to see how easy the first question was. In fact, the first few questions were all fairly simple. I don't know if the CLEP is designed this way, but I ended up spending the full 2 minutes for the first few easy questions to check and double check my answer to be sure that I would get credit for those (REA gave me the idea that if i got a raw score of 30, I would get the scaled 60 I was aiming for). I should have saved those precious seconds for the later questions, because they gradually got harder.
I ended up skimming through the last 5 questions and making a few guesses. This was the first CLEP where I actually went ahead of the question I was on to make sure I didn't run out of time and have to guess on a question I knew how to solve. I felt I did reasonably well on this section. Based on the ones I solved I would say its even easier than the CollegeBoard Exam Guide
SECTION 2:
The calculator section focused heavily on trig. I was surprised to find that 4-5 of the problems want you to use the calculator to evaluate a trig function for a rounded decimal answer. I didn't find anything like that in the study guides, so it's lucky I stalled on the instructions to learn how to use the calculator. I only used the calculator once on both the Algebra and Pre-calculus CLEP tests, and that was just to check an answer. If you aren't familiar with the CLEP calculator, learn it!
Again I ran into issues with time, but on this section it was because I was stubborn on 2 questions I wasn't sure about, and spent way too long on them when I should have moved on.
After that was the moment of truth. I thought I did well enough while taking the test, but CLEP just LOVES to make you nervous, with a long drawn out process. They even got me on the College Algebra CLEP, when I was sure I did great. The result of the hours you spent studying and the money you just spent to do calculus problems for 90 minutes of your life is only a mouse click away(and then another mouse click away because they want you to be sure). Its a great feeling when it pays off.
CONCLUSION
I realized 2 days ago that I didn't have much time until my testing appointment, and so I accepted a few flaws such as my less-than-perfect grasp of "log", "ln", and "e". I simply practiced how to take the derivatives/anti-derivatives of simple functions using the chain rule, quotient rule, and product rule. It worked well because the CLEP test does not ask you to manipulate one huge complicated function for hours. It tests you over straight forward concepts that can be answered in about 2 minutes.
This past week I spent more of my free time doing calculus problems than I would recommend for any mentally sound person. Ideally I would have taken more time but it was important to test today so that I could take higher math classes over the summer. My biggest fault during my independent study is the huge chunks of time I wasted by missing a problem, refusing to look up how to solve that problem, and hammering away at it until I got the correct answer.
I hope this serves as a reference for someone who is looking at the calculus CLEP to determine their readiness, and give them an idea of what to expect.
Thanks!
BACKGROUND WITH CLEP:
I was introduced to the CLEP 5 months ago. I decided to switch from business to engineering, and suddenly the "business math" courses I was enrolled in were worthless. I knew bits and pieces of many subjects, but there was no way my college would let me take on the course load I needed to get back on track, and it was too late to sign up for classes towards a new major. It looked like I was stuck until summer. Fortunately the CLEP offered a solution, and I was thrilled to discover that I could use what I had learned in my business math courses for quick and cheap credit towards my new major!
Soon after learning about CLEP I took the College Algebra (scored a 70) and Pre-calculus (scored a 66) CLEP tests without much trouble. I haven't been out of high school very long and I only needed a quick review to pass. Calculus was a different story, and I had never even heard of a "derivative" until 3 months ago. I had signed up for an online self-paced "business calculus" course which basically means "calculus without trigonometry". I learned some of the material, but I would need to learn a lot on my own.
Through acquainting myself with the world of "self-study", I discovered this thread. The possibility of getting credit through ACE/ALEKS/StraighterLine went out the window the first time I asked my advisor about it, and got a blank stare, followed by a confused look from the head of advising, and ending with an unfulfilled promise to "look into it" and get back to me. CLEP was the ideal method.
STUDYING:
I was not familiar with studying for CLEP. All I knew was that if you had taken a class before then you should be able to pass the test. I tried Thinkwell Calculus for 2 weeks, but I felt that it was not the fastest method to passing CLEP if you've already been exposed to some calculus. If you are new to calculus, be prepared for lectures by a professor who single-handedly proves that math isn't all that bad. He can make calculus video lectures almost fun to watch, and that's saying something.
My major weak point was trig, so I got a subscription to ALEKS for trigonometry. It was nice and tedious, which was perfect for learning the basics of a subject I had avoided for so long. Its a slow but effective way to prepare for calculus if you are lacking in a specific area.
REA STUDY GUIDE
Last week I took the advice of the geniuses in this thread and bought the "REA CLEP Calculus" study guide w/CD. I cant begin to describe how helpful it was. I hardly studied the book, honestly, I stuck almost exclusively to the practice tests except for a few references to learn more about integrals, "trapezoidal approximation of an integral" and Riemann sums since I had not learned them. This guide is essential because the questions are similar to the CLEP, and it gives you an in-depth understanding of the CLEP topics with functions that are "meatier" than the ones I encountered on the actual test. It is more complicated, and that's a good thing.
My study plan consisted of completing the first practice test, viewing my results, and working to understand the explanations for the problems I missed. Once I felt comfortable with the explanations, I took the test again. I concluded with the second practice test last night, and scored a 60, but I did not review the test due to time constraints. It is important to note that I never managed to complete either practice test in 1.5 hours. I tend to get stuck on a problem and instead of moving to the next one, I insist on at least getting an answer that matches one of the available choices. Needless to say, that behavior didn't help on the actual CLEP test.
COLLEGEBOARD CALCULUS EXAM GUIDE
The next brilliant piece of advice I received was to get the "CLEP Calculus Exam Guide" from CollegeBoard. I worked through the practice questions before getting the REA guide, and took it again after I finished both REA practice tests. The practice questions were confusing at first, but after being exposed to the difficulty level of REA questions, I did better with a raw score of 25. Early this morning I did last minute prep by working through the ones I missed until I got the correct answer, which turned out to be very helpful for the actual test.
This guide is extremely useful because of how similar the questions are to the problems on the actual CLEP test. One thing I found surprising is that I thought I was doing well while working through it, but I ended up missing many questions that were simple once I understood why the answer key was right. Many of the questions in the guide were "tricky" instead of "difficult", and it was a very accurate guide to the kinds of questions that were on the CLEP test. The questions are similar to the test because they focus on the concepts of derivatives and integrals, and the difficulty is closer to the CLEP test than the REA practice tests.
TEST DAY:
I don't recommend cramming, but I mastered most of the relevant CLEP calculus test topics only hours before the exam. reviewing the CollegeBoard exam guide in the morning was very useful. To me it seemed like learning calculus is very slow to begin with, but as things fall into place you can master the topics more quickly. The morning study session was probably the most productive study session in preparation for the test.
THE TEST
I spent an unusual amount of time staring at the simple instructions on how to answer a question so that I could put off the moment when the clock started ticking down. I read that some of you had run into issues with time, and I was getting ready to answer the questions as quickly as possible.
SECTION 1:
After that delay I was thrilled to see how easy the first question was. In fact, the first few questions were all fairly simple. I don't know if the CLEP is designed this way, but I ended up spending the full 2 minutes for the first few easy questions to check and double check my answer to be sure that I would get credit for those (REA gave me the idea that if i got a raw score of 30, I would get the scaled 60 I was aiming for). I should have saved those precious seconds for the later questions, because they gradually got harder.
I ended up skimming through the last 5 questions and making a few guesses. This was the first CLEP where I actually went ahead of the question I was on to make sure I didn't run out of time and have to guess on a question I knew how to solve. I felt I did reasonably well on this section. Based on the ones I solved I would say its even easier than the CollegeBoard Exam Guide
SECTION 2:
The calculator section focused heavily on trig. I was surprised to find that 4-5 of the problems want you to use the calculator to evaluate a trig function for a rounded decimal answer. I didn't find anything like that in the study guides, so it's lucky I stalled on the instructions to learn how to use the calculator. I only used the calculator once on both the Algebra and Pre-calculus CLEP tests, and that was just to check an answer. If you aren't familiar with the CLEP calculator, learn it!
Again I ran into issues with time, but on this section it was because I was stubborn on 2 questions I wasn't sure about, and spent way too long on them when I should have moved on.
After that was the moment of truth. I thought I did well enough while taking the test, but CLEP just LOVES to make you nervous, with a long drawn out process. They even got me on the College Algebra CLEP, when I was sure I did great. The result of the hours you spent studying and the money you just spent to do calculus problems for 90 minutes of your life is only a mouse click away(and then another mouse click away because they want you to be sure). Its a great feeling when it pays off.
CONCLUSION
I realized 2 days ago that I didn't have much time until my testing appointment, and so I accepted a few flaws such as my less-than-perfect grasp of "log", "ln", and "e". I simply practiced how to take the derivatives/anti-derivatives of simple functions using the chain rule, quotient rule, and product rule. It worked well because the CLEP test does not ask you to manipulate one huge complicated function for hours. It tests you over straight forward concepts that can be answered in about 2 minutes.
This past week I spent more of my free time doing calculus problems than I would recommend for any mentally sound person. Ideally I would have taken more time but it was important to test today so that I could take higher math classes over the summer. My biggest fault during my independent study is the huge chunks of time I wasted by missing a problem, refusing to look up how to solve that problem, and hammering away at it until I got the correct answer.
I hope this serves as a reference for someone who is looking at the calculus CLEP to determine their readiness, and give them an idea of what to expect.
Thanks!
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