Art of the Western World, Has anyone taken the DSST?

[Thundersnarf]

I just sat for the exam today, I scored a 412. I was not very confident I would pass, looking at the pass rate is not very inspiring! I would say to anybody who wanted to take this exam should definitely study Jansons History of Art, watch the Annenburg videos, both of which I enjoyed a lot, and perhaps another text focusing on the last three hundred years of art. I studied for this material only one intense week, although I had also studied for the CLEP humanities for about one month prior. Luckily I find this art interesting, but easily forget dates, I struggled to remember the names of paintings, which is crucial. My version of the test was mostly historical relationships and technique based questions, probably ten percent image based. After quite a bit of studying I still drew randomly on 10 questions.

I suggest really digging into the who-inspired-who, who-apprenticed-who facts, this is not only helpful in remembering the different periods but also came up in the quiz a few times. You need to know why people were painting the way they were. Also, learn the materials and techniques and terminology: impasto, frescoe, oil, when people started painting with which material,where, who was the king, etc. This test was really hard with 70-76% score needed to pass, so I would say it is not worth the three credits alone, unless you are extremely interested, have a good knowledge base already, or are in need of some specific credits. Pair this studying with western civ, or humanities exams to save time and effort.

I hope this helps, as I have gotten a lot of good info from this forum,
Good Luck!

Study Material I used:
instantcert
JansonsHistory of Art(highly recommended, if you have the time, I believe this could be a singular source. It is an enjoyable read, but a little intimidating)
Beckett's The story of Painting
Annenbergs companion videos for art of the western world
Lord Clark's Civilisation, television series produced by the BBC
The Learning companys Lecture series on the Italian Renaissance, with Kenneth Bartlett
numerous artist biopics: caravaggio, lust for life, Turner, documentaries etc.