CLEP Forum - CLEP Study - CLEP Testing

barcotta · #10 (**permalink**) 01-24-2008, 03:31 PM

No problem. I was happy that someone joined the forum who was older than me! Makes me feel young again.

In any event, If I could have changed one thing on my path to a degree, it would have been to eliminate some of the time I spent chasing dead ends. If you sign up for InstantCert, you can literally spend every available moment studying flashcards and preparing for the next test. Instead, I looked into an easy Keyboarding class for elective credits (books ended up being too expensive and too many on-site requirements for something I already knew) and ICDL to convert basic computer knowledge (spent a few hours trying to hunt that down--ultimately didn't pursue it) and AP classes from high school (apparently I didn't take any although I thought I had), etc.

If I had converted all that time to preparing for the next CLEP--I'm sure I could have acquired at least nine more credits. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't research and plan, because you have to--but this forum is a LOT more developed than when I joined less than a year ago so you should be able to eliminate some of the waste I experienced.

In connection with that, I, and others, have decided not to pursue alternative means of obtaining credit, such as portfolio assessment, due to the time and money factor. To me, it looked expensive and somewhat uncertain--plus it looks like you have to bug a lot of people to vouch for you and then provide documentation of your knowledge, etc. At the rate of people like gcalvin--you could have completed 2-3 years of credit by the time you're done with that!

That's not to say that it wouldn't make sense for you if money is less of a factor and you have substantial, easily translatable knowledge, but I thought I'd throw that out there for you to consider.

If I were you, I'd pick a test that you're pretty sure you'll need regardless of the route you take, sign up for InstantCert if you haven't already and start studying the flashcards. Within a week or less you could be ready for something like Sociology and knock out three credits--all while you're figuring the rest of this out. Believe me, once you take a few of these you'll realize how EFFICIENT it can be.

Also, one thing I did that was VERY efficient was use my music knowledge to test out of 12 credits at my local community college using their Credit by Examination program. I learned that those programs are seldom used except for foreign languages, but my school and all but one teacher were very cooperative and I knocked off 12 humanities credits in two days. In addition, I also was able to get 4 credits from a super-easy work/study program. Then there's the famous FEMA credits you'll find folks discussing here...

More food for thought...