04-15-2014, 01:21 PM
There's a thread on it, although for some reason I'm not even finding it by searching at the moment. Pretty much I'm in the same boat. Some people say a couple days of study was more than enough, others comment this is a really tough one. While it's only my 5th CLEP, preparing for this one has been the most frustrating by far.
I got the Western Civilization, 7th Edition book which was recommended, and read about the first 550 pages, which should take me past 1648. I'm a pretty quick reader and was amazed at how long it took, although then I realized the really obvious: you can't really compare pages in a novel to pages in a large textbook. Granted it was only a read-through once, but I'm generally pretty good at retaining information. I scored 68% on the CLEP Official Study Guide practice test, which doesn't seem too great. Then I got the REA Study Guide (Kindle version, 2nd edition), also scored 68% on the diagnostic practice test.
The REA guide has mixed feedback, and it seems pretty clear it's dependent on "which" CLEP you get at test time (that's part of why I started with the much more in-depth book). I can say the REA guide is much more high-level and I'd be wary to rely only on it, regardless of how many times you read it. What I'm presently doing is reading an REA chapter (to jog my mind on things I read in the more detailed book) then brush up using IC cards. The new problem is that the IC cards have a lot of minutiae that wasn't in either book. Logic says they're included in the cards because it's relevant to some version of the test, which now makes it even more frustrating because I feel like I've devoted way too much time am nowhere near prepared.
While I've not taken the CLEP yet, I'd say that what I've found consistently the most difficult on both tests and the IC cards is Ancient Near East (and Ancient Egypt). After that, individuals seem easier to remember based on descriptions of their ideals, impacts, etc., but the farther back you go, the more it's just large quantities of name, place, and time.
Maybe it's just the repetitiveness of it, with so many obscure names and lineages (as opposed to, for instance, theories) that you need to memorize more or less by rote. So far, this feels like one of those cases where it's a lot easier to pass the class than to pass the CLEP. I'd scrap the idea of a CLEP on this and sign up for Straighterline, but I don't want to have wasted so much time already, *plus* have to rent/buy another textbook. Also to perspective, the part that's proving the most frustrating isn't the biggest percentage on the CLEP.
Just some food for thought and ranting. Let us know how it goes; I'll probably do mine on Friday.
I got the Western Civilization, 7th Edition book which was recommended, and read about the first 550 pages, which should take me past 1648. I'm a pretty quick reader and was amazed at how long it took, although then I realized the really obvious: you can't really compare pages in a novel to pages in a large textbook. Granted it was only a read-through once, but I'm generally pretty good at retaining information. I scored 68% on the CLEP Official Study Guide practice test, which doesn't seem too great. Then I got the REA Study Guide (Kindle version, 2nd edition), also scored 68% on the diagnostic practice test.
The REA guide has mixed feedback, and it seems pretty clear it's dependent on "which" CLEP you get at test time (that's part of why I started with the much more in-depth book). I can say the REA guide is much more high-level and I'd be wary to rely only on it, regardless of how many times you read it. What I'm presently doing is reading an REA chapter (to jog my mind on things I read in the more detailed book) then brush up using IC cards. The new problem is that the IC cards have a lot of minutiae that wasn't in either book. Logic says they're included in the cards because it's relevant to some version of the test, which now makes it even more frustrating because I feel like I've devoted way too much time am nowhere near prepared.
While I've not taken the CLEP yet, I'd say that what I've found consistently the most difficult on both tests and the IC cards is Ancient Near East (and Ancient Egypt). After that, individuals seem easier to remember based on descriptions of their ideals, impacts, etc., but the farther back you go, the more it's just large quantities of name, place, and time.
Maybe it's just the repetitiveness of it, with so many obscure names and lineages (as opposed to, for instance, theories) that you need to memorize more or less by rote. So far, this feels like one of those cases where it's a lot easier to pass the class than to pass the CLEP. I'd scrap the idea of a CLEP on this and sign up for Straighterline, but I don't want to have wasted so much time already, *plus* have to rent/buy another textbook. Also to perspective, the part that's proving the most frustrating isn't the biggest percentage on the CLEP.
Just some food for thought and ranting. Let us know how it goes; I'll probably do mine on Friday.
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