Advice for TESC's TECEPs: Public Relations, Intro to News Reporting or Marketing Com?

[cooperalex2004]

*Bump* I'm going to be taking all three of these TECEPs soon, but I'm currently working on News Reporting. I have all three of the recommended textbooks, but so far, I've only read the one by Carol Rich (I'm almost done with it). I searched the forums already and couldn't really find a lot of specifics on this test. Does anyone have any thoughts (which textbooks were the most helpful, if the time limit was really hard to meet, random tips and things to know, etc.) for this exam? I'm hoping to take it at the beginning of January.

EDIT: I have also found these Quizlet flashcards for this test ----> News tecep flashcard sets and study tools | Quizlet ; did anyone who had taken this exam find them to be accurate?

If you haven't already pay close attention to the breakdown in the study guide located at:
http://www.tesc.edu/tecep_desc/JOU-110.pdf

The test has a lot of writing involved and flashcards only help for part of the exam. You really need to know your stuff as far as news writing goes. For study, I actually took a media writing class and since it didn't overlap credit I found it was a great source of knowledge. For another textbook to look at, this is the one I used for my media writing class and was extremely helpful on the TECEP:
Inside Reporting: Tim Harrower: 9780073378916: Amazon.com: Books

Since the test is paper and has so much writing involved, I actually used all the time on it. I am a fast typist but write rather slowly.

As far as content goes, here is the breakdown:

-60% "Writing the Story", you write three news stories using facts they give you. Note the use of AP Style in the writing example, if you write it like an English Comp assignment you'll lose a bunch of points. I'm not sure of your background, but you want to focus on proper spellings, abbreviations, and capitalization used in the AP style of writing.

-20% "Reporting Terms and Proceedures", see the study guide for examples.

-20% "Legal and Ethical Issues", see the study guide for examples.

I found the exam to match the study guide quite well. Get 65% correct and you'll pass.

If you have further questions then send me a private message on here, News Reporting was the only TECEP exam I completed.