05-23-2009, 08:29 PM
I just passed the Calculus CLEP yesterday!
Here's the rundown on my experience, since not many others seem to have taken it:
While I learned from several sources, there were two books which were my primary sources of information. The first is "Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers" by Jan Gullberg, which I highly recommend, but you should also learn from other sources as well for this test. The second was one of my dad's old college textbooks that he kept, called "Calculus With Analytic Geometry, Second Edition" by Robert Ellis and Denny Gulick. Since it's from the early 80's, I don't know if you could find it, but a similar textbook would be very valuable. (It clearly explains each subject and has lots of practice and example problems.)
Doing as many practice problems as you can is essential. The hardest part of the test was the fact that it was timed...you've got to skip and mark the harder questions and come back to them.
There's a practice test here: CLEP Calculus Exam However, while you should learn how to do the problems on it, it's not a very good representation of what the test is like.
It goes without saying that you should know how to find derivatives and "antiderivative" type integrals. Knowing L'Hopital's rule was handy. You should be able to find definite integrals as well, and the area between two curves. There was a little bit of Summation, particularly Riemann sums for finding approximations of definite integrals, but it wasn't an emphasized part of the test...only a couple questions. Knowing how exponential functions (e to the x, or e to the x times a constant, for example) are derived and integrated came up a couple of times. Also, you should understand what my textbook calls "related rates"...that is, knowing the derivative of a variable, and having to find, the derivative of another variable which is, through another equation, dependent on the first...and similar type problems.
If you just borrow a calc 1 textbook from someone and work through some of the problems, you should be able to pass it, if you manage your time well on the test. It was certainly challenging but it's doable.
Hope I was able to help.
Here's the rundown on my experience, since not many others seem to have taken it:
While I learned from several sources, there were two books which were my primary sources of information. The first is "Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers" by Jan Gullberg, which I highly recommend, but you should also learn from other sources as well for this test. The second was one of my dad's old college textbooks that he kept, called "Calculus With Analytic Geometry, Second Edition" by Robert Ellis and Denny Gulick. Since it's from the early 80's, I don't know if you could find it, but a similar textbook would be very valuable. (It clearly explains each subject and has lots of practice and example problems.)
Doing as many practice problems as you can is essential. The hardest part of the test was the fact that it was timed...you've got to skip and mark the harder questions and come back to them.
There's a practice test here: CLEP Calculus Exam However, while you should learn how to do the problems on it, it's not a very good representation of what the test is like.
It goes without saying that you should know how to find derivatives and "antiderivative" type integrals. Knowing L'Hopital's rule was handy. You should be able to find definite integrals as well, and the area between two curves. There was a little bit of Summation, particularly Riemann sums for finding approximations of definite integrals, but it wasn't an emphasized part of the test...only a couple questions. Knowing how exponential functions (e to the x, or e to the x times a constant, for example) are derived and integrated came up a couple of times. Also, you should understand what my textbook calls "related rates"...that is, knowing the derivative of a variable, and having to find, the derivative of another variable which is, through another equation, dependent on the first...and similar type problems.
If you just borrow a calc 1 textbook from someone and work through some of the problems, you should be able to pass it, if you manage your time well on the test. It was certainly challenging but it's doable.
Hope I was able to help.
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