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Degree Plan – BS Math Major at Excelsior
#17
Chemistry CLEP part 1 of 2

I had only a few minutes of Chemistry in high school, so I started studying with no prior experience, but I did know that I was interested in the subject.

I studied for this exam for 3 months. I think if I had started with the right materials, I could have studied for only 2 months. I earned an astonishingly high score of 67, which I think means that I got as much as 80% of the questions correct.

My impression after studying and taking the practice tests is that this is a very learnable topic as long as you have the right study materials.

Amazon.com: Schaum's Outline of College Chemistry: Jerome L Rosenberg, Lawrence Epstein: Books - I decided to use the 8th ed instead of the 9th because it received a good review from a CLEP tester and said it was for independent study. I was hoping it would be the only book I would need for this exam. I found out, though, that the Schaum's book is not all-inclusive. There are a lot of basic foundational concepts, like how the periodic table is set up, that need to be found elsewhere. I ended up learning a lot of the material backwards. I spent a lot more time lost and frustrated than I would have liked while trying to solve problems. As I took practice tests at the end of my studies, I was getting the impression that the actual test would not be as problem-oriented as I expected. This means I probably wasted a lot of time trying to do the deeper problems and could have just read the book to learn more about some of the concepts, after getting the foundational information in the other sources. That being said, I still could have used more practice solving basic Chemistry problems (not nearly the depth of Schaum’s, which is a good resource for problem-based courses).

Chemistry - CliffsNotes - These are excellent. Learn every word. They really did a good job of simplifying and making understandable some complicated topics. The only thing I did not like was that the sample problems to work through on my own did not have any answers given. (I suspect there is a book version of this, which probably does have answers.) I also used their glossary and “cheat sheet”.

online videos - Resource: The World of Chemistry - I took some notes on videos #3-24 out of 26 total. I liked being able to see chemistry experiments and other examples were helpful. There is also a lot that is just a general overview of the topic. As an alternative, I’d recommend finding a website that shows an overview of lab equipment and what each item is used for. I’d also look for some basic chemistry experiments to watch.

Interactives . The Periodic Table . Intro - I really enjoyed using this excellent website on the Periodic Table. I spent an hour reading the whole site. Be sure to keep the information about characteristics of the different periodic groups to memorize.

After studying all of this, I added 2 more books - Chemistry Concepts and Problems and REA CLEP.

Amazon.com: Chemistry: Concepts and Problems: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides): Clifford C. Houk, Richard Post: Books - This is great! I would recommend starting with this book; it starts with the very basic information and builds from there. Next read the periodic table website. Then work through CliffNotes; then add REA. After that, look at the Official Study Guide and see what topics have not been covered yet, and find some resources for those.

Amazon.com: CLEP Chemistry (REA) The Best Test Prep for (REA Test Preps): Kevin R. Reel: Books (+ download of Errata mentioned in customer feedback at Amazon) This book is a concise list of notes on the topics that need to be studied for the exam. I needed to learn the material through other sources and then use this as a refresher. It is nice to have the guidance of what areas are most important to understand. It also has 2 practice tests.

Practice test #1 - 45 Correct out of 75 questions, 60%, 56 scaled score

Practice test #2 - 50 Correct out of 75 questions, 66%, 60 scaled score

I think Peterson’s online has CLEP and AP practice exams for this. I only used the CLEP exams.

Practice test #1 - 66 Correct out of 80 questions, 82%

Practice test #2 - 61 Correct out of 80 questions, 76%

Practice test #3 - 66 Correct out of 80 questions, 82%

CLEP Official Study Guide - Practice test - 42 out of 60 questions, 70% (with 10 minutes of extra time)

I also had a friend’s notes, quizzes, and textbook for General College Chemistry I and II and high school chemistry. Mostly I read through some of the notes and all of the quizzes and looked a few things up in the textbook.

Plus, this list of online resources (all looked good, but I did not get to use them):

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...#post57499

Chemistry Study Guides - SparkNotes (I noticed they give answers to the practice questions.)

SparkNotes: SAT Chemistry

A fellow studier also recommended ALEKS -- Assessment and Learning, K-12, Higher Education, Automated Tutor, Math to me. I believe they offer a free trial.

I did not get a chance to look at anything that said AP. I did find a CliffNotes AP practice test, which I did not get to try, at this link:

5 Chemistry Practice Exams:Title Information - CliffsNotes (click PDF on the left)

Chemistry, 4th Edition :Title Information - CliffsNotes (chapter with sample questions – click PDF on left) (I noticed this has a good explanation of quantum numbers.)

Chemistry CLEP Free Study Guide! - Just before I was finished studying, I was told about this website. It would have been a good starting point for me, when I needed to look a few topics up on the web for clarification.

Khan Academy may be another possibility for the basics, but I did not know about these videos at the time I was studying.

see next post for part 2 of 2
AS in 2010 and BS in 2013 at Excelsior College - Transcripts and Costs
MS Biostatistics in 2019 at Texas A&M University - Graduate School

Sharing Credit-by-Exam*
Resources Used - 20+ Exams Passed & General GRE
Practice Tests - Available for CLEP and DSST

* Link posted with permission from forum admin; thank you!


Messages In This Thread
Degree Plan – BS Math Major at Excelsior - by NAP - 09-25-2009, 02:05 PM
Degree Plan - BS Math Major at Excelsior - by NAP - 03-14-2013, 03:02 PM

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