11-01-2023, 11:15 PM
I know this is an old post - but I just took it (I think the Saylor course is/was also approved for TESU credit and many have said it's easier, but I wasn't 100% sure if that approval had expired so I just went with the option I knew would count). I relied primarily on the Saylor course (but skipped all the videos), then looked to wikipedia and other online resources to do a little more reading on everyone/everything listed in the TECEP study guide. I did buy one of the suggested textbooks and read the excerpts authored by anyone mentioned in the study guide.. I'm not sure I needed to in order to pass the exam, but I was genuinely jnterested in the material and felt it was important to read it as a primary source, not just someone else's analysis. The test was a pretty straightforward multiple choice exam with four essay questions, and I felt relatively well prepared. There were a couple of multiple choice questions that asked for info I just don't remember encountering in the Saylor course, but only one or two (and the topics were familiar, just not the specific details referred to by the questions). I will say it took longer than I thought it would to review the Saylor material, even with skipping all the video lectures... there's just a lot of text to wade through. And I was taking notes, since that helps with my recall on these types of tests.The only real challenge I faced was the 2 hour time limit felt a bit tight. I felt like I breezed through the multiple choice portion, but that still left four essays to cover in the time remaining. I felt pretty confident in my responses for the first three, but for the 4th I only left myself about 5 minutes to dash off a response - that was bad time management on my part, but, I felt I was writing by the seat of my pants for the whole thing! Still TBD how I actually did, but I'm fairly confident it will be a passing grade, probably in B territory (although anything passing is fine by me, since it only counts for credit and not a grade).