I am currently studying for my second CLEP (Macro Economics) with IC. I was just wondering how others used the website because it seems that i am taking a much longer than everyone else to prepare for exams. I current study one set of questions till i get a 90% or higher than move on to the next set of questions. I study between about 15 hours a week. It will probably take me 2-3 weeks to prepare (already got 1 week down) just see how long it takes me to get through the rest of the material.

I just seems people here are able to test in 1 week. Whats the secret different study method or perhaps i'm not spending enough time studying.

Hi Melissa.

I've only used IC to study for one exam (currently working on the second). I've found that 2 to 3 hours a day for 7-10 days allows me to score 90s or above on each area of the IC pretests. What I do is take on each subsection one at a time, reviewing a section in its entirety once or twice. After that my method is to keep answering questions until I get one wrong, then I restart from the beginning. It motivates me to really read the material, and spend more time learning the questions I am have trouble with.

As far as the amount of time people spend on the exams, I imagine part of that has to do with each persons prior experience in that area, their ability to retain information, and one's test-taking ability. Also, it is possible that some have found that the exams are not as difficult as they've imagined, and cut down on study time as a result.

FWIW, three weeks doesn't sound excessive at all.

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Pursuing B.S. in Liberal Studies through Excelsior
A.A.S. in Allied Health, Community College of the Air Force
A.A.S. in Criminal Justice, Community College of the Air Force
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Exams completed since August 2007:
Psychology of Adulthood and Aging (A)
Research Methods in Psychology (A)
Abnormal Psychology (B)
ECE Gerontology (B)
Drug & Alcohol Abuse (57 - A)
Here's to Your Health (58 - A)
Intro Sociology (71)

Awaiting scores:
ECE Ethics

My strategy is I use IC and some of the other recommended study sites listed in the specific exam feed back. At the end of 1 week I take the practice test, if I do well, I take the petersons practice test, if I do well I take the clep test. I am fortunate I can schedule the same day for the exam. If I don't do well on the first practice test, I don't bother with the petersons practice exam and I study for another week, and repeat the practice exams. This week I try to concentrate on the sections I didn't do well on. I don't know if this helps or not. My judgement is do what feels right for you, this isn't a competition the point is to pass the exams and I like to learn the information as well. I repeat my study cycle until things feel like they are clicking and I am confortable taking the exam. The only ones I didn't do this on were freshman composition and analyzing and interpreting literature which I took cold. This was actually the only way I could force myself to take them. So far I have usually been able to take the exams the first week and if not the second week, but I would continue the study cycle until I thought I could pass. Of course, I suffer from severe test anxiety and I think I over study.

Melissa, macroeconomics is one of the harder clep tests and I supplemented ic with kaplans ap macro/micro economics prep book. I will tell you at the end of 1 week I didn't even attempt a single practice exam as I knew I wasn't ready yet.

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Judy -
AS - Computer Science - Andover college
BS - Mgmt Information Systems -June 08
MS - Info Systems Mgmt - Start Aug 08 - UMBC