Need help for freshman composition

[lwmcc]

Does your school require it with Essay, and when you took the English Comp tests, did you take them with Essay or without? The reason I ask is, I've taken both tests within the past 3 months (Freshman Comp w/out Essay, which wasn't accepted at the school I ended up choosing, hence the need to take English Comp w/ Essay.) From my experience, the multiple choice section of the Freshman Comp test is significantly harder/more in depth than the multiple choice section of the English Comp w/ Essay test, but having to come up with an effective essay for a totally random prompt and complete it within 45 minutes is a real bear if you're a 'first draft, second draft, final rewrite' essay writer.

If you took the English Comp w/ Essay test, then it may have been the Essay portion that pulled your score below passing, in which case your odds for the Freshman Comp w/out Essay are higher. The other difference is that with the English Comp w/ Essay, CLEP scores the essay, while with Freshman Comp w/ Essay, CLEP sends the essay to your school to be scored. This may or may not make a difference in the end, depending on your school's scoring rubric.

Anyway, if you have to take the 'with essay' portion, I would suggest practicing timed writing on random prompts. Two great little books that I've used as references for many years are Writers, Inc by Patrick Sebranek, Verne Meyer, and Dave Kemper, and The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White - these can probably be purchased inexpensively on Amazon, and would be valuable study sources for both the multiple choice and essay sections. Also, the following sites may help with studying for the multiple choice section:

MLA Style Crib Sheet - Fall 2007
MLA Formatting and Style Guide: Abbreviations in MLA - The OWL at Purdue

Good luck on the test! You can do it, just takes a bit more studying and practice.
- Lia