Need Help A & I Lit CLEP Questions

[Synicaal]

Hello All,

I am only going to have about 1 day ahead of this exam to give it some studying. I have a very hard Intermediate Accounting II midterm coming up on Sunday (3/5) that has a lot of my current attention. I am taking this CLEP exam on 3/4 at 8am so after work Friday is all I really have time to give this CLEP exam. Now I have heard this is a rather easy exam but I have a few concerns/questions.

Am I going to run into time issues like on the College Comp Modular CLEP. (I had to speed read/guess on the last 10 or so questions because of time - still passed it though)
Are all 80 or so questions long paragraphs of reading or does it change it up here and there?

For the people who have taken it or know a lot about the exam if you only had 4 or so hours to study for it what would you focus on? Lit Devices? Just trying to put together a study plan to hopefully grab an extra 5-10 points I wouldn't have gotten. I am hoping my level of reading is already good enough to pass it but I am looking for some extra points where I can. If I pass this CLEP I will only have 1 CLEP left to go so my fingers are crossed with this one.

[cookderosa]

yes, you are going to run into a time crunch. This is an endurance exam, expect that somewhere during the exam you're going to feel pretty spent- but catch your breath and focus and get back at it. It's all hard reading for a solid hour and a half.

(If you're getting down to the last 10 min or so- just go straight "A" or "B" or whatever all the way through, and then go back and answer properly. Ones you come to you'll overwrite with the right answer, ones you don't will at least be filled in)

Lit terms- if you google "lit terms" you're going to get sites and pages of thousands of words to learn. I think that's the wrong approach. Instead, as you read the list, pay attention to the words you've heard before and refresh your memory of those. A&I uses tons of common ones (foreshadow) and a couple random ones. It's the principle of diminishing returns. There's no way for you to learn ALL the terms in an hour or two, but you should memorize the ones you already kinda-know, you'll get those 5-10 points with certainty.

[Synicaal]

yes, you are going to run into a time crunch. This is an endurance exam, expect that somewhere during the exam you're going to feel pretty spent- but catch your breath and focus and get back at it. It's all hard reading for a solid hour and a half.

(If you're getting down to the last 10 min or so- just go straight "A" or "B" or whatever all the way through, and then go back and answer properly. Ones you come to you'll overwrite with the right answer, ones you don't will at least be filled in)

Lit terms- if you google "lit terms" you're going to get sites and pages of thousands of words to learn. I think that's the wrong approach. Instead, as you read the list, pay attention to the words you've heard before and refresh your memory of those. A&I uses tons of common ones (foreshadow) and a couple random ones. It's the principle of diminishing returns. There's no way for you to learn ALL the terms in an hour or two, but you should memorize the ones you already kinda-know, you'll get those 5-10 points with certainty.

Thanks, at least knowing this going in I won't get to caught up on it. I really wasn't expecting the College Comp Modular to be like it was according to the practice exams and feedback but I had almost 50% large essays I had to read and reorganize and I hated that. Thanks I will brush up on the most common 15 or so and go from there.

[lgstudy]

I would get your hands on the practice test in the Official CLEP Study Guide...honestly, that's all I used before I took the test. I signed up for the test a week out, didn't really study, took the practice test the day before to get an idea of what the questions were like, then took the test and passed just fine. Brushing up on literary terms would probably be a good idea though...not too big of deal as long as you are familiar with the common ones.
The test is basically just reading comprehension. It's formatted where there is a passage to read and then a few questions about it. Personally, I though there was plenty of time for the test (I do tend to read fairly quickly though), but I would suggest not actually reading through the entire passage in great detail first. Just skim over it and then look at the questions to see what you need to know. It'll save you time, since a lot of the questions are about certain words or sentences that you can look back at to answer. There are a few "What is this poem about" type questions, but even those you can pick up on without reading through the entire passage in great detail.
Good luck!

[Synicaal]

I would get your hands on the practice test in the Official CLEP Study Guide...honestly, that's all I used before I took the test. I signed up for the test a week out, didn't really study, took the practice test the day before to get an idea of what the questions were like, then took the test and passed just fine. Brushing up on literary terms would probably be a good idea though...not too big of deal as long as you are familiar with the common ones.
The test is basically just reading comprehension. It's formatted where there is a passage to read and then a few questions about it. Personally, I though there was plenty of time for the test (I do tend to read fairly quickly though), but I would suggest not actually reading through the entire passage in great detail first. Just skim over it and then look at the questions to see what you need to know. It'll save you time, since a lot of the questions are about certain words or sentences that you can look back at to answer. There are a few "What is this poem about" type questions, but even those you can pick up on without reading through the entire passage in great detail.
Good luck!

Thanks, to clarify are you saying it may ask multiple questions on the same passage. That would probably help out on timing. I will probably spend and hour or two brushing up on the most common used 10-15 lit terms/devices as I know a few very good others rusty and some probably very little about.

[lgstudy]

Thanks, to clarify are you saying it may ask multiple questions on the same passage. That would probably help out on timing. I will probably spend and hour or two brushing up on the most common used 10-15 lit terms/devices as I know a few very good others rusty and some probably very little about.

Yeah, for each passage there are multiple questions about it. So, there's about 80 or so questions on the test, but there are only 10-20 passages that you have to read - about 5+ questions about each passage. Each question will have the passage along side of it, so you wouldn't have to worry about trying to go back to reread it and then returning to your question to answer. Like I said before, I would really recommend getting the Practice CLEP from the Official CLEP Study Guide if you can. It'll give you a good idea of what the real test will be like and it made me feel a whole lot more comfortable knowing what I was going into.

Side Note: I was warned before I took the test that they occasionally (though rarely) throw in a passage written in Middle English. I got one one my exam and initially TOTALLY freaked out, but there was no one else in the testing room with me, so I just read the passage out loud and it was basically just written phonetically, so I could (mostly) understand it when I heard it out loud. You most likely will not get one of these (thankfully), but if, for some reason, you do happen to, read it out loud if you can, or at least aloud in your head. You can hear it more than you can read it.

[Synicaal]

Yuck, I usually have about 10-12 people in the room with me. I will ask before I start if I get one of those if I can read it out loud lol. I just looked at a sample and your tip does help. Reading it out loud even in my head made it at least understandable.

[lgstudy]

You probably won't have to actually worry about it for the actual test, but it would be better to be ready for it then to be totally caught off guard! I usually only have 2 or maybe 3 people in the room with me, but that day, the only other person that was there finished when I was only half-way done. It's kind of fun to test all by yourself.

[Synicaal]

You probably won't have to actually worry about it for the actual test, but it would be better to be ready for it then to be totally caught off guard! I usually only have 2 or maybe 3 people in the room with me, but that day, the only other person that was there finished when I was only half-way done. It's kind of fun to test all by yourself.

Never happens for me only time I was the only one left was when I did college comp modular with essays (was doing it for CC before switching to TESU). I was there for the essay part myself. They gave me **three hours** to write 1 essay. I thought I crushed it but still got no credit at my CC for English I or II

[lgstudy]

How'd the test go?