Can't figure out the CLEP scoring! Argh!

[barcotta]

I hate Twain, I hate Melville, and I hate the transcendentalists. The only "American" authors I like are Henry James and TS Eliot, both of whom liked to pretend they were British.

You, my friend, are in an entirely different class than your average student and many/most of us in this forum. I'm reasonably intelligent--I scored the equivalent of an "A" on most of my exams--but I rarely got into the 70's WITH study. If you listed those four authors and asked who wrote one of their famous books--I wouldn't know unless it was Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. I don't hate the transcendentalists because I don't know who they are or what they were transcending.

You can find more detailed (and probably more accurate) info re. CLEP scoring than I'm going to supply here, but the following is generally true:

CLEP exams are "normed" to the average "C" student. In other words, as I understand it, the exams are created, they're given to students who have completed the relevant class, and then the scoring curve is created. The average score of the average "C" student is then set at 50. So, if you achieve a 50 on a CLEP exam, you have proven that you know at least as much as the AVERAGE "C" student who completed the relevant class. After that, it's all gravy (unless you need higher scores for your application). The separation of a couple of points once you're in the 70's--even the 60's for that matter--isn't particularly significant and will likely be tough to parse out.

Generally speaking, I have found that the more difficult the exam is--the easier the grading is. I took the DSST Statistics exam after significant study and got a 60--which is an A--but there were large swaths of info I was missing and I did a good deal of guessing on that one. I took DSST Criminal Justice after some study and I thought I knew most every answer on that one. I got a 57--barely an A.

If I were you--I would take the road that one of our members recently took and try a whole host of CLEP and DSST tests with little or no study for any of them. I would guess that you could walk into a class, any class, on the first day knowing more than the average "C" student would know after completing the class. If you have a chance, let us know more about what you are doing and your ultimate goals. Otherwise, here's a link to a thread with an interesting theory re. CLEP scoring. It also include links to other related threads:

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...#post14672