Alternative to CLEP General Humanities Exam

[jluyt]

Hi all,

I need to get my Humanities credits out of the way. I looked into the 6-credit CLEP Humanities exam, but would rather to 2, 3-credit exams instead.

Any suggestion for other CLEP or Dantes exams that will satisfy my humanities credits?

[PonyGirl93]

Well, all of these are 6 credits, but here's some alternatives:

CLEP American Lit
CLEP English Lit
CLEP Analyzing Lit
CLEP Spanish/German/French (if you speak any of those lol)

[Lindagerr]

If you only need 6 general lower level humanities credits go to the CLEP and DSST pages where they list the exams, they are usually listed there by catagory here is a list of the DSST humanities exams
DSST - GetCollegeCredit.com
I don't have the link for the equivalent CLEP page

[Ruddigore]

I looked into the 6-credit CLEP Humanities exam, but would rather to 2, 3-credit exams instead.

Any suggestion for other CLEP or Dantes exams that will satisfy my humanities credits?

This is how I view the situation:

• 1st Choice: Take Analyzing & Interpreting Literature - 6 easiest credits of my life (with the possible exception of Social Sciences & History, but I think I'm something of an anomaly there). Just make sure your school accepts A&I Lit as Humanities credit for your degree.
  
  
• 2nd Choice: Take Humanities - I found this exam very enjoyable (again, I'm probably something of an anomaly in this), but also very doable. If you master IC's flashcards, do a good bit of Wikipedia reading, and take some practice exams, you should be able to knock out all 6 credits in one sitting.
  
  
• 3rd Choice: Take two 3 credit exams - Just taking Art of the Western World alone would probably end up being as much work as taking Humanities. Plus, there are lots more study materials for Humanities than for many of the other tests than fall under the category "humanities."
  

Should you decide to take Humanities, here's some of my feedback for it:

Though the test is very broad, that does not mean you should become unconcerned with details. I found that reading a few plot summaries of, say, Henrik Ibsen’s plays gave a much better idea of his style than a summary on Wikipedia.

I used a fair number of sources and scored a 75 in the end.
• InstantCert (IC) flash cards
• Kaplan practice exam
• Peterson’s practice exam
• Princeton Review practice exam
• Two REA practice exams
• An art history book, which I gave a cursory reading
• Wikipedia

IC is invaluable. Do it at least twice. Doing it once would be going over it until you can get most all the questions right; doing it twice is going over to see how much you remember (and to refresh your memory). Every time you get a question wrong, look the answer up (particularly if it’s a person) on Wikipedia and learn something about it. One of Wikipedia’s strengths is the “influenced/influenced by” section beneath authors’ photos. With it, you can guide your self to related information not covered in IC (since IC is not all-encompassing).

Hope you get your credits out of the way successfully,
R.

[operalady]

I'm with Ruddigore. So far Art of the Western World is as difficult as Humanities, and there are no IC cards to fall back on. I'll know more in a few weeks when we sit for the exam.

If I just needed 6 and could not stand Humanities I'd try English Lit, for 6.

Just my 2 cents.

[PAWinTX]

Hi,
I just joined IC today and this is my first post/reply.

I only need 3 humanities hours so the extra 3 could go towards my open electives requirements.
Why is Analyzing & Interpreting Literature easier than Humanities? What did you have to study for it? Social Sci and Hist is accepted by my school but doesn't satisfy the humanities requirement.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the easiest 3 credits for humanities for someone who doesn't speak French, German, or Spanish?

Thanks in advance,
PAWinTX

This is how I view the situation:

• 1st Choice: Take Analyzing & Interpreting Literature - 6 easiest credits of my life (with the possible exception of Social Sciences & History, but I think I'm something of an anomaly there). Just make sure your school accepts A&I Lit as Humanities credit for your degree.
  
  
• 2nd Choice: Take Humanities - I found this exam very enjoyable (again, I'm probably something of an anomaly in this), but also very doable. If you master IC's flashcards, do a good bit of Wikipedia reading, and take some practice exams, you should be able to knock out all 6 credits in one sitting.
  
  
• 3rd Choice: Take two 3 credit exams - Just taking Art of the Western World alone would probably end up being as much work as taking Humanities. Plus, there are lots more study materials for Humanities than for many of the other tests than fall under the category "humanities."
  

Should you decide to take Humanities, here's some of my feedback for it:


Hope you get your credits out of the way successfully,
R.

[Lindagerr]

My suggestions would be 1) CLEP A & I Lit.,2) DSST Technical Writing 3) DSST World Religions.

[mlwilliamsiv]

I haven't taken this exam yet but the majority of people on this forum that have say it's not that bad.

Make sure your school will accept DSST Technical Writing as a Humanities just to make sure.

DSST is also offering a $10 off voucher for their exams. See their website for details:

DSST - GetCollegeCredit.com

From a loyal degree seeker,

[Ruddigore]

Hi,
I just joined IC today and this is my first post/reply.

I only need 3 humanities hours so the extra 3 could go towards my open electives requirements.
Why is Analyzing & Interpreting Literature easier than Humanities? What did you have to study for it? Social Sci and Hist is accepted by my school but doesn't satisfy the humanities requirement.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the easiest 3 credits for humanities for someone who doesn't speak French, German, or Spanish?

PAWinTX,
Welcome to the Forum! I hope you find this as helpful a place as I have.

Analyzing & Interpreting Literature is easier than Humanities because there's far less info you need to study in order to pass it. Whereas Humanities requires you to know trivia about everything from Titian to Tchaikovsky, A&I Lit only requires to you be able to read, understand, and answer questions about various passages of literature.

Indulge me by allowing me to post my feedback for A&I Lit. It is in the Specific Exam Feedback Section, which is available to you if you are paying for IC's flashcard service. (Note that IC has no cards for A&I Lit.)

I passed Analyzing and Interpreting Literature with a 70. I used the REA book almost exclusively. My only other study was from a book with literary terms that I could have gotten from the REA book (which had not yet arrived from Amazon at the time).

REA's literary review section covers Prose, Poetry, and Drama. Aside from reading this literary review and writing out the literary terms I was less familiar with on some flash cards, I took the three practice exams, which were definitely more difficult than the real thing. I scored 58% on the first two exams and 68% on the third. (I also took a CLEP Official 50-question practice quiz and got an 82%. I highly recommend it as a confidence booster.)

The REA guide for A&I Lit is one of their best (it is certainly written better than the other REA guides I've read).

If you are inclined to like to read, passing should be easy, otherwise, a week of prep (I had 6 days to go through the book) may not be enough. Either way, this is doubtless the best place (next to this forum) to start with A&I Lit.

This was actually a fun test to take. I enjoyed reading the passages and answering the questions more than I had anticipated. I had over fifteen minutes left when I finished.

Hope that helps you out,
R.

[PAWinTX]

Thanks for all the helpful advice!

I will have to get the DSST list from my college to see if what courses are accepted. I only have the CLEP list right now.

I'm excited about the prospect of a Technical Writing test because I have experience in that area. Anything to keep me from memorizing boring things about opera! :ack:

PAWinTX