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 test: Freshman College Composition without the optional essay.

Primary study materials:

Secondary study materials:

Tertiary influences:

Discussion:

I think the kids performance on this test was more a reflection of their learning over the whole course of their home and school experience than any targeted study they performed to prepare for it. We were fairly systematic in the way we taught grammar, composition, and vocabulary during primary school. As part of those studies, the kids performed many formal and informal writing exercises. That meant that the preparation for this test was more a matter of a review than new learning. Notice that virtually all the secondary and tertiary materials listed above are common elements of many homeschool programs. These are the specific materials Kelly and Christian completed before starting test preparation with the REA book, but I am confident that Abeka, Bob Jones, Calvert, and many other programs would provide more than a sufficient base from which to excel on this test, too.

The REA book was a great tool to help coordinate the test preparation. REA recommends that students first take a practice test to understand where they need to concentrate their studies. Both of the kids passed their first test with scores high enough to get college credit, but with a less than comfortable margin for error. As this was the first test for each of them, we gave them a specific procedure to follow in their first pass through the book. That procedure was the following:

  • Step 1 – Read two to four pages of the book (depending on their other homeschool workload) and hand write notes on each item that might appear on a test.
  • Step 2 – Type the notes from the previous day into the computer.
  • Step 3 – Study the notes that were typed the previous day.

After they worked their way through the book, they took a second practice test. The second test identified weak areas that they then reviewed for a week using their notes. They repeated that procedure with the third test and for a repeat ofall three practice tests. After that they took the test.

Results:

Both the kids took this test when they were thirteen years old. Kelly was in the eighth grade when she took it and had a scaled score that, according to the REA book, would give her an A if the course were graded. Christian was in the seventh grade when he took the test and also received an A score according to the scaled score in the REA book.

What we would do differently:

After studying for several tests, Kelly has begun to use 3×5 cards both to take notes and to create flash cards. She got good results on her recent CLEP Introduction to Psychology test using this method. The REA US History I CLEP study book had a glossary at the back. She believes if she could have included the glossary definitions in her flash cards, she might have improved here score. Because many of the other REA books do not feature a glossary she builds her base set of flash cards by using the boldface words, historical figures, dates, and definitions she can find in the REA book. She is scheduled to take the US History II test next month and the Sociology test the month after that, so we will report both her thoughts on how this method helped her study and the effect it had on her scores.