Ethical caution

[cookderosa]

My take on it is there is no proprietary information on the content of the tests. All of the tested material is public information and should be available to the person taking the test. You are being tested on you knowledge and comprehension of a specific body of information. In the case of the CLEP it is meant to be representative of an average college course. There is no "secret" knowledge, otherwise how would the test be fair and representative on an average college course? It would be like a college professor giving a test on something he didn't cover in the course.

The test givers have a very wide and deep body of knowledge to draw questions from. For a test taker to to report, for a US History example, "know that Margaret Sanger was a proponent of birth control", will definitely answer one or two questions on the US history II exam. This same information is available on Kaplan's, Princeton Review, Don't Know Much About History. Instantcert, USHistory.net, and probably every textbook on the subject. The student/test taker must still know and remember this information at the time of the test and there is no guarantee that he will be tested on it.

Unless a test taker has specific knowledge of the questions he will receive he simply must know the material to be tested.

My experience in professional certifications has been the same. Specific body of knowledge - Know it - Pass the test.

I don't see any ethical conflicts with a person on the IC boards saying "know this" any more that Peterson's or the College Board offering practice tests. The burden is still on the test taker to know the material when they sit in front of the computer at the test center.

Well that's my view. Now I am back to studying.

I think your comments are excellent. I agree 100%.