Do exams take away crucial knowledge needed....

[Publius]

This questions can be asked both ways. "Do you ever feel if taking the class takes away from what you should be learning?"

Anywho, IF studying for any exam, you truly feel that you aren't taking away from what you SHOULD be learning, that's no one's fault but your own. I mean, YOU are the one who knows how well you know a subject. You know if there's something you should know or if there is something you need to go deeper in. And YOU have the opportunity to fix that.

Aside from all that, you have to ask yourself whether whatever topic it is, really requires a significant use of your brain molecules. Do you really need to know this subject cover to cover or will just being familiar with it be sufficient? If one is going into Business and they hate Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy, and pretty much anything science related, then they'll still have to be familiar with SOME science, but not all of it. You "shouldn't" need to know as much. Where you "should" know something such as Managerial Communications or Finance much better.

So when you say "take away from what you should be learning". Ask yourself, who is saying whether and how much I should learn. If you're setting your own goals, you determine how far you go and only you can stop yourself. If it's a school or program, class or something else. Are you going to need it long term or short term? Is this just to check a box, or will you really be using this?

One of the wonderful beauties from studying for these exams is that it teaches you how to study on your own. No spoon feeding from some professor or mentor to get exactly what THEY want you to have. You study and learn without limitations. As far as "crucial knowledge", a CLEP/DSST/or other "final like" exam is going to cover that crucical information. A board of proffessors and experts are the one's who developed these exams. (Oh, and there's something to be said about the retention of a typical college student who takes 4-5 classes for several months on different subjects compared to non-traditional approach of 'Study this topic for a couple weeks, get it down, and move on to the next one'. I won't go any deeper into that though)

So no, I don't think taking an exam takes away from what I should be learning. From the courses I've taken and the tests I've took, I feel I actually learn more from the exams, academically speaking, but also, in addition, other characteristics that millions of people aren't getting in a classroom.