College Composition CLEP essay help

[Bassmanj]

I found this forum and was amazed at the huge amount of information available here. So, first of all, I want to say thank you to everyone for freely sharing their knowledge; it really helps a lot of people.

Now, I am studying for the CC CLEP and am hoping to find some information regarding the essays. I am hoping to take the test in the beginning of February, but the essay section is proving to be very difficult for me. My biggest problem is gathering enough material and writing a long enough essay within the time constraints. So my question for anyone who has taken this test is: how long of an essay do you need to pass? Have you passed without completely finishing your essays? What would you have scored (from 1-6) the essays you wrote for the real test?

So far I have been studying with the CLEP Official study guide, Peterson's CLEP book, reading online writing help websites (Purdue, Sparknotes fast food essay, various sites explaining the 5X5 essay etc.) and Lucile Vaughan Payne's book The Lively Art of Writing. Are there any other study aids that I should really include?

To get an idea of where I am, I took my first Petersons test via my library's testing and education center, and I scored 82% on the multiple choice section. How accurately does Peterson's test represent the real test? If I am scoring a 3 on one essay, and I don't quite finish the other (maybe a score of 2.5?), what do I need to score on the multiple choice section to pass?

Thanks for all your helpful insights,

Joel