Failed English Comp & A&I Lit, Intro to IT & Computers

[cookderosa]

OK, I need some serious advice here. I'm in my early 40's and never completed my college degree and now I am a senior with only 36 electives left and I'm done. I'm not the smartest kid on the block but I apply myself and have a 4.0 GPA.

I would have to take 6 more courses to get my degree and that would mean 6 more months in school and honestly I'm fried with working full-time,a family and going to school full time. So I bought the Collegeboard study book and signed up here on IC. I prepared for the A&I Lit, English Comp and Intro to IT Computers with the stated material and FAILED all three tests miserably. I knew 80-90% of the material in the flash cards and book and felt very prepared, I dont get it!!!!!

I'm beyond frustrated. In addition I do not feel the material I studied actually prepared me for the material on the test. It was like I was expected to be a subject matter expert.

Maybe I'm just 20 years to far removed from this process to make it work for a 40 year old brain.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I just dont know what to do from here other than take 6 more classes and grunt though it.

Thanks

>>

Awwww. I'm sorry to hear you are off to a rocky start. Well, like the others suggested- studying for three tests at a time is probably too much. A few times I did 2, and both times I felt like my brain was going to explode. LOL I always did best preparing for 1 test at a time.

Another suggestion, use practice tests to help gage your success. You can use the one in your Official CLEP book (but that only works once!) and you can get free exam prep books from your library. REA is my favorite- they always include at least 3 exams in each book. You can also use any of the CLEP prep books- there are many- plus get them from various years too. You can probably pull together at least 10 practice tests without paying anything if you hit a few libraries.

Last suggestion, learn to read the answers as hints about additional study needs. For example, lets use this made up question:

Which of the following is a secondary color?
A. red
B. orange
C. blue
D. yellow
E. black

From this study question, I need to know the following:
What are "secondary" colors? What rules include/exclude colors this group?
What other classifications of colors are there?
What are "primary" colors? What rules include/exclude colors in this group?
What are black and white considered?
Do I have a list classifying each of the above colors?
Are there several schools of thought- or an industry consensus on how these colors should be ranked?
Who invented this system?
Who is the primary user of color classifications?
Can I pick out the color if I am shown a picture of it?

***

Ok, so that's how I study. It may seem a little much- and I don't START that way, but start with the basics- as you study deeper, start asking questions about the material. There is no teacher to prompt you to study harder- and no required homework- so you have to be your hardest critic. If you read the above question and only memorize "orange" your sunk.

So, I know you can do it- you just need to set yourself up for success.
1 test + Lots of practice tests + Understanding all the questions and all the answers= success