Excelsior and Freshman Comp Essay?

[CouchPotato]

So I may be screwed.

I decided to take the CLEP Freshman Composition exam last week. I had searched the forums for information prior to deciding on which exams to take and had put a note down to take this exam w/out essay. I was also taking Technical Writing but was not sure about the essay for that exam. I asked Excelsior and they stated that no essay was required for any DSST exams so I was happy. I decided to double check about the essay for CLEP Freshman Comp, but did not recieve a reply before my scheduled exam.

I took the CLEP Freshman Composition and passed with a 64. There was no mention of an essay on the exam. Later I got a response from Excelsior stating that the essay was required. So now I'm thinking, WTF?

First, can anyone confirm that the essay is required at Excelsior? This exam is being used as an elective in Arts & Sciences and I will only get 3 credits instead of 6. I am taking College Writing for my Written Requirement.

Second, the exam didn't offer an essay portion. I just found a post today where someone stated that the proctor has to call CLEP and have the essay questions mailed out and I take them later? That sounds freakin bizarre!

If the essay portion is required, is it too late to have them sent? Do I have to wait 6 months to take this exam again and ask for the essay even though I passed? I mean they're only giving me 3 credits instead of 6 anyway, shouldn't that exclude the essay ?

I'm hoping the Excelsior person is confused as I would hate to think this was a total waste. And I hate writing essays... :o

[bat21]

I did not know EC would take the Freshman Comp? But you are using it as a elective with them, SO THEREFORE WHY IN "THE WIDE WORLD SPORTS" WOULD THEY WANT or REQUIRE AN ESSAY?

I took English Comp WITHOUT THE ESSAY and they accepted mine as an elective?

You may want to double check with Advisement Team on that one.

[ali4nia]

yes that was my post, I m going to put a copy of that below for you but if you really need to take the essay part its not too late, you dont need to take it again in 6 month, just do the proctor thing to order the essay as I said below even if you already have your score on the computer based test.




I m going to teach all of you today some thing about freshman composition with essay, I asked like 10 times about this test and nobody NOBODY in this forum could answer my questions, you can just search for my previous posts and see they have been left without answer but now I went through the whole thing by my own so here you go:

basically freshman composition with essay does not exist as a unique exam,the college board test description on their website is not clear and doesnot explain the whole process at all !! when you want to pass this test, in the drop down menu to chose the test on the Clep registretion screen (right after where you put your info and credit card number etc) you will notice that there is only ''freshman college composition'' as opposed to english composition with essay and english compostion without essay, what you need to do is to call clep with your proctor (test center guy or girl) the proctor has to first give his information( name, test center number etc..) then they will put you on the phone and ask you your credit card information and charge you 10 bucks, (charged by ETS not college board) after a week or two your proctor will receive 2 essay topics that you need to complet and the proctor has to send it to your school, meanwhile you can take the computer based multiple choice test whenever you want, the same day when you receive those essays or before but again on all the score paper and transcript you will see the mention freshman college composition period lol doesnt say with or without essay! and basically Its going to cost you 70$ college board and 10$ ETS + proctor fee and 1 week or 2 of your time waiting for the essays, so you got it I think after all these time, someone could answer my questions about this shady test and this wonderful person was myself

[gcalvin]

CouchPotato, what was the nature of this reply from Excelsior saying that an essay was required for CLEP Freshman College Composition? Was it an e-mail from an advisor? If so, I believe it's simply an error. The Student Guide and Assessment Catalog clearly states that CLEP Freshman College Composition is worth six lower-level credits in Humanities, says nothing about an essay, and says in a footnote that it does NOT fulfill the Written English Requirement.

Are you enrolled at Excelsior? If so, you should see your updated Status Report and Evaluation Summary. If you're not yet enrolled, then anything anybody from the college says is unofficial anyway. Don't bother with the essay. If you really find out at some point that you didn't get the six credits, it's much easier to just take another CLEP (like Analyzing and Interpreting Literature) rather than jumping through hoops on this one.

Hope that helps,

-Gary-

[bat21]

EC gave me 6 units in Humanities for my English Clep W/O Essay

Somebody must have their wires crossed, I would not sweat it, call up and perhaps explain it better, or have them substantiate it, and have explain why.

[CouchPotato]

The first response was from an Advisor at Excelsior, HOWEVER I nervously sent an email today questioning the essay portion and got the following response:

We already added the three credits to your Status Report for the CLEP: Freshman College Composition and sent you an updated Evaluation Summary today. You should be able to view it on your MyEC account later today. If you have any questions, please let me know.

woohoo! So you don't need to take the essay portion for Excelsior.


This is my first response when I told them about what exams I was planning on taking. This is from an Advisor at Excelsior regarding CLEP Freshman Composition and why you only get 3 credits instead of 6.

If you take the CLEP: Freshman College Composition exam, we are only going to award you three credits, not six credits because there is a six credit limit on the number of credits you can have in English Composition. The other three credits will come from the Excelsior College exam: College Writing.

3 credits is fine, the exam isn't that hard, and no essay or writing of any kind.

hilarious