US History 1 CLEP

[hobber54]

Hi everybody

I took the US History 1 CLEP test a few hours ago after studying the material on InstantCert. I had a good feeling going into the test because I pretty much mastered the entire material on InstantCert and I also gained some additional knowledge from Wikipedia about the contexts etc. Btw, I'm from Switzerland so I didn't bring much knowledge about US history from my past school years.

I was really surprised and scared when I had to guess the first 5 questions because they were on topics and people that I'd never heard of. It continued like that and I had to guess about half of the questions if not more. Only thanks to the good understanding of the context I passed the test with 52 points, which is really not good.

Did anybody have similar experiences? I'm pretty disappointed in the InstantCert preparation and I'll have to figure out how I want to prepare for the US History 2 exam. It can't be that there were so many names and events in the CLEP that are never mentioned on InstantCert!

Christoph

[Storyteller]

Congratulations on passing the U.S. History Clep!
Instantcert is good, but you might want to supplement your study with the REA books, Peterson's tests, and take a swing by the website free-clep-prep.com; these are fabulous resources. Also, your IC membership gives you access to the Specific Feedback forum; that, too, is fabulous!!
Good luck on History II - I've taken and passed both - I studied hard on both and I'm American - These tests are not easy no matter what some people say.
Concerning your score - 52 - unless your school requires a higher score, 52 is passing and that's all you need to snag 3 college credits. You should be doing backflips on your accomplishment and you didn't have to sit in a boring 16-week class. WooHoo!

[ryoder]

From my experience InstantCert is insufficient to prepare one for the CLEP tests I took.
I always used the REA books and supplemented them with InstantCert and other sources. The thing about history is that you really need to read it as a story chronologically. I don't think that flashcards are a good way to do that.
I used REA and scored a 70 on this test after 2 weeks. I also watched some videos though and I am from the US and watch a lot of FoxNews so I know my constitution.

[columbia]

Hi,
Being a history buff I took both US History I & II. I agree with Ryoder that instant cert should not be relied on solely. The trouble with history is that there is so much of it and you need some kind of storyline in your head. I have some old flow charts (paper) that I used to give me a visual timeline to pin stuff to in areas that I was not familiar with.

Definitely check the 'exam specific forum' for info on 'specific exams' (go figure). Gear up for US History II, It has the reputation of being harder and I agree.

[pjwog]

Good thing I read these posts prior to taking the test. While the InstantCert flashcards were helpful they were not comprehensive enough in themselves to give me all the information I needed to pass the exam. I also used the practice tests at the Peterson's website - read the Exam Resources thread on the main forum page for a link - between these two and some common sense I passed with flying colors - just don't rely solely on the InstantCert flashcards for this test.

[Peach]

You described my experience exactly! I took, and passed the US History I CLEP yesterday with a score of 59. Like you, I felt very confident that I'd mastered the IC flashcards scoring 98-100 on each set several times in a row. I'd also read the official REA study guide cover to cover, and used Sparknotes, Wikipedia, and several other online resources in preparation for it. I was amazed at how many questions contained content that I'd never encountered in the study materials, and had to guess on more questions that I anticipated. In contrast, there was a lot of material covered in the study materials for which no questions were on the exam. Luckily I was done w/ the 120 questions and had about 25 minutes to spare allowing me to go back and review those that had stumped me. All in all, I'm just pleased to have passed.

Peach

[KJArsenal]

I just led a group of homeschool students through this exam. We, too, used the IC flashcards and felt they were valuable. However, all the students said the info provided by other IC users in the test specific forum was essential to their success. These are 8th grade students that haven't had a lot of history yet so the IC cards gave them a great base for understanding concepts but the info in the test specific forums was the key to their success on this test.

[0219willowslane]

I took the exam today and felt exactly like you. Instantcert was not the reason I passed and was not worth the money.

[kbk1061]

"Never ever ever ever ever use wikipiedia for anything college related, anybody can post on there its not reliable and you do not want to download mis-information to your brain believe me sometimes it can be difficult to erase."-Me