Suffering through College Comp - losing momentum

[cookderosa]

Hi y'all.

I've been a member of this forum and an IC user for a few years. My kids and I have racked up a bunch of credits and my dd is almost finished with her History degree from TESC.

But......

Ds has been having a hard time with English Comp/College Comp. He failed the old CLEP English comp because of the essay (46). :ack: Then he failed straighterline English Comp. Now he's been studying for a few months to prep for College Comp. Do any of you CLEP masters have any advise for us? Is there a real secret for success for the non-english-loving student?

Help.

He is so close to the end of his associates.

At the risk of giving unpopular advice, has he considered taking a butt-in-seat English 101 & 102 at the community college? I think there are about 3 things you REALLY need to know in this world: reading, writing, and arithmetic. If he's struggling with writing, what's so wrong with just getting help? I can teach him how to write a good 5 paragraph essay, but what really helps with writing is...writing. Not passing, but being skilled.

I've said it a lot, but I think testing out does have a weak spot- the lack of written practice/exposure/and critique of your written words. Some of us (as adults) may have had years of practice writing for whatever reason- in my case my job demands a lot of written communication, so it wasn't really a big deal for me. I think, on the other hand, a young person may miss this. My sons are homeschooled and STILL don't write as much as they should. Really the only good answer to developing good writing skills is writing. (assuming a good foundation in reading) Just my two cents.