Passed CLEP Natural Sciences!

[Scholar Interrupted]

This afternoon, at SMU -- scored 63. After I finished, the proctor said that, in 4 years of administering the Nat Sci test, she's had only a handful of people pass it. As a literature/history nerd with zero math skills and not much more in science, I'm really pleased. No more math or science standing between me and a BA!

Before I forget, here are a few of the topics covered:

• Chemical bonding, formulas and equations -- lots of it, mostly simple stuff
  
• Structure of atoms, and their masses and weights and isotopes -- know how to calculate based on various types of expressions
  
• Laws of motion -- Newton, Galileo
  
• Types of waves (light, sound, etc.)
  
• Conduction
  
• Classification of animals and plants
  
• Food chain
  
• What rocks are found where
  
• Genetics -- pedigrees and calculating probabilities
  
• Solar system and stars -- basics of what's going on with them
  
• Topographical maps
  
• Common diseases -- what they are, how they're spread
  
• Cell biology and mitosis
  
• Basic human anatomy and organ systems
  
• DNA, RNA, and proteins
  
• Earth's atmosphere
  

As expected, some of the questions are just common sense. A few others seemed tailor-made for a language nerd: I could "divine" the answer by analyzing the words in the answer choices and thinking how they might relate to the question.

But without extensive study -- approximately 50 hours -- I would never have passed this thing. Here's what I used:

• Life on Earth by Audesirk, Audesirk, & Byers (But read very selectively; it goes into way too much detail on most subjects. Keep the College Board's test outline firmly in mind)
  
• Standard Deviants Biology: Highly recommended for the cell, chemical bonding, DNA/RNA/proteins. But barely touches on genetics, which I could have used more of.
  
• Standard Deviants Chemistry I: Not as helpful as Biology, but still worth the money. Good for chemical equations and bonding
  
• REA 2008: Very well done, with drills at the end of each chapter that turned out to closely follow the test.
  
• Kaplan 2005: I used the practice tests from this, but found the reviews not well written enough to be helpful. They left me scratching my head.
  
• Wikipedia: Great for looking up most any topic, although the science articles are mostly written with the specialist in mind. Thank heaven for cross references.
  

For 6 science credits, I recommend Nat Sci over Biology unless you've learned a lot of biology in your job. I compared the two, and Biology goes way too deep. The thing about Nat Sci is that, if you were paying attention in those Biology, Chemistry, and Physics classes you took in high school, you already have a nice platform on which to build for Nat Sci. But you won't have even 10% of the biology knowledge you would need to pass the Biology CLEP.

I hope this helps someone who needs 6 science credits. I want to give back, for all the benefit I've gained here!

[bsjohnson]

Congrats on the pass! You earned those six credits! I'm sure your post will help somebody else taking this test.

[sheeenz]

Congratulations!

[ShotoJuku]

[COLOR="Navy"]Great Job and Congrats!

Why not post your dynamic feedback into the specific exam feedback section too?!![/COLOR]

[studyingcindy]

Congrats to both of you!!!

[Drummerboy]

Excellent job!

[Scholar Interrupted]

Thanks! I looked for specific exam section and couldn't find it. I guess my brain was just fried yesterday, so I'll try again to find it.

Thanks all for the kind words.

Goldpaws: Congratulations, and good luck on Biology! I decided that one was way too hard for me.

[COLOR="Navy"]Great Job and Congrats!

Why not post your dynamic feedback into the specific exam feedback section too?!![/COLOR]

[goldpaws]

Okey dokey. I've determined that the Biology was harder than Natural Sciences. I passed both. The Biology gets really into those "name" details, like the difference between glucose, glycogen, etc. Thankfully it had quite a few Punnett Square questions that I breezed on by through. I did not see many, if any, gimmie questions on the Biology CLEP. I used the REA guide but I have found that the Bio CLEp is a lot harder than all of the REA guide practice tests. So, if someone is getting borderline scores in the REA book, you need to really keep at it. The Natural Science was, in comparison, a piece of cake. A little bit of physics, a little bit of chemistry, a little bit of biology, a little bit of astrology, and a little bit of geology. Good thing my father works in the science field! I have rocks all around my house...and elements...yeah the radioactive ones are in a corner...and i think the sulfur is mislabeled. ...lol...

[GettinMyBA]

YIKES! What a scary looking description!! Congrats to you guys... I'd NEVER try this one!!!
hilarious

[killerkitty]

Good lord that test looks brutal.

You KILLED it. Awesome job!