"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Homeschool: How to prepare for CLEP tests – Psychology and Sociology

Note: This post is one in a series on how we prepared our homeschooled children to take various College Level Examination Program tests. The introductory post for this series explains why we take these tests, what parts of the preparation worked for us, and what parts of the preparation did not work.

The CLEP tests: Psychology and Sociology

Primary study materials:

Secondary study materials:

  • None

Tertiary influences:

  • Understanding the Times – Kelly, Christian, and I read the main text of this study program on worldviews aloud together. Here is some of what Sonlight’s page says about it:

“Examine each of the four dominant Western worldviews (Secular/Cosmic Humanism, Marxism/Leninism, Islam, and Biblical Christianity). Learn how each of these four worldviews uniquely interprets reality in ten different areas: theology, philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, and history.”

Discussion:

Our reason for taking the Psychology and Sociology CLEP tests is less for the credit the kids will receive when they go to college than for the hard secular humanist worldview from which they are taught in most state and non-Christian universities. At the time of this writing, Kelly has only taken the Psychology test. It was not a particularly difficult test. The only material she used to prepare for the test was the REA Clep Introductory Psychology book and CD. This is the first test for which Kelly did most of her studying through the preparation and review of flashcards. She read the book all the way through two times, then wrote out flash cards with special emphasis on historical figures, systems of psychology, etc. She took the first practice test to identify areas of weakness. She reviewed those areas of weakness in both the flashcards and the study book, then took the second test to identify additional areas of weakness. She repeated the process with each of the tests a second time. She spent the week before the test just reviewing the flashcards and reading through the study book in its entirety one more time.

The material in this test assumes a strong secular humanist worldview. For people who hold such a worldview, that is not a problem. We are very glad we spent the time to study and have detailed discussions of the different worldviews described in Understanding the Times. That helped Kelly to identify the elements of the Introductory Psychology materials that are inconsistent with our worldview. The same holds true for the Introductory Sociology materials. We talked about how the purpose of the test is to measure a student’s understanding of Psychology and Sociology from a secular humanist worldview. We talked about why the “correct” answers for some of the questions on the tests are actually incorrect when considered from a Christian worldview. Nevertheless, they must be answered the way a secular humanist would answer them because that is what the test is designed to measure.

Results:

Kelly took the Psychology test when she was 14. She received a scaled score that, according to the REA book, would give her an A if the course were graded for a college semester long course on Introductory Psychology. She took the Sociology test when she was 15 with the same A result.

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Homeschool: Competing interests

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Trouble and opportunity at college

6 Comments

  1. Ruthie

    I am glad that you are able to prepare for these by just studying the CLEP book.

    Did you only read through the book Understanding the Times, or did you also purchase the student workbook and DVD’s?

    Congrats Kelly on another test out of the way!

  2. Dad

    Ruthie, we bought the student workbooks and the DVD, but when it came down to the time to actually going through the material, we were a little short on time, so I read to the kids while they knitted/worked on amigurumi projects. I am sure it would have been great to go through the DVD’s and workbooks (we still might do that), but the way we did it turned into one of those really great things that I have only seen happen in the homeschool context. Not only did we read the material, but we often stopped reading and discussed the worldview at hand. I realized that we had done it in a way that really “worked” when both Kelly and Christian started identifying stuff on the radio, in magazines, comments they heard from friends and family, films, etc. as stuff that came from a specific worldview we learned about reading Understanding the Times. I think the fact that we discussed it in a real world context with examples from everyday life as we were reading it made it more real and useful to the kids. That is probably more information than you wanted, but you hit on a subject that is dear to my heart. I think knowledge is a lot better if you can relate it to your day to day life. Understanding the Times and our non-standard way of studying it gave us a unique opportunity to accomplish that.

    P.S. Have you guys done any CLEP tests yet?

  3. Ruthie

    Absolutely wonderful! I have read to the children many, many novels over the years, but I have never read a book such as this or a technical type book. I think that this would be a great read-aloud. We have read the same book separately and then come together to discuss, but I think this would be an interesting way to introduce new and unfamiliar information…discuss as you go format. I really want to take Emma and Mattisse through this…expecially because Emma will be taking all classes at college next year. Plus it is a great excuse to spend time together.

    Ruthie

    No, no CLEP tests as of yet. I am still not quite sure how to go about getting the credit to transfer once they get to a 4 year university….how do you make sure they will count? I had heard that even if the community college accepts them, California State Universities and University of California system may not accept them or let those units transfer. We are going to the college soon for a counceling session where I hope to get some of those questions answered.

    Ruthie

  4. Dad

    Ruthie, from what I can tell, it is done on a school by school basis. Here in North Carolina, Duke and Davidson don’t accept any tests, state universities accept varying amounts from just a few for one or two to all of them for some of them. The private Christian school closest to us where we will probably send Kelly if we are still here accepts virtually everything. I think you are taking the right approach in talking to the counselor at the college.

  5. Good series on CLEP – I’m recommending it/linking to it from my site. Keep up the good work!

  6. Dad

    Thanks Mark. I appreciate the link. I am hoping to extend it quite a bit as we get more experience. Any suggestions will be gratefully accepted.

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