Well...I took my first CLEP today in Macroeconomics and passed with a 64. I am very happy to get that one over with. I am now on to Micro...

Anyway, I wanted to make an initial observation about the differences between CLEP and DSST. Having taken 2 DSST exams already, I think that DSST exams are a little bit more difficult. Not that the Macro exam was easy, but I did notice a few things about the CLEP:

Even though there are 5 answer selections instead of 4 on DSST exams, one or two of the options on the CLEP seemed to be obviously wrong if not ridiculous. I found that the DSST exam answer options were far more plausible and difficult to disern.

Second, the difficulty of questions in the subjuct seemed to be a lot easier on the CLEP. There were a lot more "general" questions about macroeconomics that were pretty obvious with very little study on the subject at all. Where as the two DSST exams that I have taken seem to really dive into a lot of the meat of the subjects that require a deeper knowledge.

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this or if it may just be specific to this exam that I took...please share your thoughts...

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Excelsior BS - General Business
Enrolled at Jacksonville State University - MBA - complete in 2010

121 credits...ALL DONE BABY!!!

54 credits transfered in from prior college
54 credits by examination
6 credits from community college
3 credits from CSU-Pueblo (Operations Management)
4 credits for Information Literacy and Business Strategy from Excelsior

CLEP:
Principles of Macroeconomics (64)
Principles of Microeconomics (61)
Principles of Marketing (66)
Principles of Management (72)
Info Systems and Comp Applications (57)
Introductory Business Law (65)
Social Sciences & History (61)
DSST:
Principles of Supervision (58)
Principles of Statistics (67)
Introduction to Computing (60)
Principles of Financial Accounting (56)
Principles of Finance (55)
Money and Banking (52)
Ethics in America (66)
Management Information Systems (58)
ECE:
Ethics: Theory and Practice (B)
Organizational Behavior (C)

GMAT: 600

I agree. CLEPs "feel easier" but I have more luck with DSSTs.

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Passed
Intro to World Religions 68, Social Science and History 60, Principles of Statistics 60,Western Civilization I 58, Intro to Sociology 55, Astronomy 54, Technical Writing 54, Humanities 50

Courses @ TESC
C Programming - C
Electronic Instrumentation and Control - A

Classes In Progress
LSU English 1001

Up Next
LSU English 1002 and then finito! I'm finished!
OR Retake the English CLEP

I have a different view. I have taken about 10 cleps and only 3 dsst exams and I feel that dsst's are way easier than cleps. While taking the dsst exams I have never really felt that they were even a little bit hard. Even when I sat the dsst upper level exam " Civil War and Reconstruction" I felt that there is know way this is an upper level exam. Come to think of it I just realized why I felt they were easy. These are the 3 dsst exams I have taken.

1. Principles of Supervision : I sat this exam right after taking clep "Principles of Management

2. Intro to Computing : I sat this one right after taking clep "Info Systems"

3. Civil War and Reconstruction: I had previously taken clep US History I and II.

So I guess it was my previous knowledge and IC that helped to make the dsst exams only appear to be extremely easy. I will get my first true test in about a week when I will take dsst " drug and alcohol abuse" then I can give a true assessment of the difficulty of the dsst exams.

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Don G. -Atlanta, GA
A.S. Liberal Arts , Excelsior College,3/2007
B.S. Liberal Studies, Excelsior College,"On the Way"

"Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will"
--Dr. Robert Anthony

I dunno - I've taken both CLEP and DSST but I would never be able to make a judgement as to whether one was easier than the other. I think that since there is a vast degree of difficulty swing between tests (for example, Princ. of Mgt and Pric. of Statistics are both DSSTs - does that mean that they are both equally difficult? Ask anyone who's taken stats! LOL) this can never accurately be judged.

Someone mentioned the fact that CLEP has 5 mult choice vs 4 for DSST. While it's true that one of the CLEP is usually off the wall, I can definitely say that TIME has been an issue for me with a few tests. Now if time is an issue, and I am gonna have to blind-guess a few questions because I'm at the end of allowed test time - I would certainly want my guesses to be 1 out of 4 instead of 1 out of 5.

Personally, I much prefer DSST over CLEP. I like the interface and the fact that I have an 'account' where I can log-in and look at my past results. I love that I just log-in and then take my test... no need to go thru all the setup and verification stuff like a CLEP. Also my test center allows me to sched a DSST with 1 day notice, or evenallows me to make taking a second test a 'game-day decision'. They need a few days notice for CLEP, but I recently learned that this may just be an issue at the center that I use.

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You can't fail if you never give up
- Some ridiculous Zach Braff movie, but what a cool quote!!

I'm the king of procrastination. I first submitted my app to TESC in 1993. THIS will be the year of my degree completion!

PASSED:
CLEP-Information Systems & Computer Applications: Scored 62; Nov 07
CLEP-Analyzing & Interpreting Literature: Scored 57; Feb 08
DANTES-Criminal Justice: Scored 54; Jan 08
DANTES-Fundamentals of College Algebra: Scored 47 (and 47 is the req'd pass score! ); Jan 08
DANTES-Drug & Alcohol Abuse: Scored 57; Feb 08
DANTES-Ethics in America: Scored 55; Feb 08
DANTES-Organizational Behavior: Score 54; Mar 08
DANTES-Technical Writing: Score 58; Mar 08

FELL SHORT OF A PASSING SCORE (I'll never say the 'F' word):
ECE-Organizational Behavior: Score D (but passed DANTES version 2 hours later! )

I guess I am biased towards CLEPs. I could walk into my testing center and take one while I still have to take pencil-and-paper based DSSTs and schedule them a least a week in advance (sometimes sooner).

__________________
Passed
Intro to World Religions 68, Social Science and History 60, Principles of Statistics 60,Western Civilization I 58, Intro to Sociology 55, Astronomy 54, Technical Writing 54, Humanities 50

Courses @ TESC
C Programming - C
Electronic Instrumentation and Control - A

Classes In Progress
LSU English 1001

Up Next
LSU English 1002 and then finito! I'm finished!
OR Retake the English CLEP