I recently read a parent’s comments that his son studied for a CLEP exam for 2 months but failed. Statements like that require deeper investigation, because studying for CLEP the Homeschooling for College Credit way should result in passing with flying colors. Let’s talk about how to study for CLEP the HS4CC way to be sure your teen leaves their exam with a passing score!
Remove Distractions
For many years, my sons could define “studying” as having one tab open, music playing on another tab, listening to a lecture on double speed, having their phone on their desk, and fielding interruptions from other brothers….all the while they believed they were studying! If they did it twice a week, they would tell me they “studied for a week,” but by my definition, they hadn’t studied at all!
A study space doesn’t have to be a large desk in a special room, but it does have to be somewhere quiet. The less clutter, the better (“clean workspace clean mind”) and the time spent should be respected. Turn off phone notifications or put your phone in another room, and close any browser tabs or apps that aren’t related to your study topic. Let others in your home know you’re studying so they don’t interrupt you. If background noise is a problem, try using noise-canceling headphones or soft instrumental music to help you focus.
Learning Before Test Prep
It’s silly to study for a CLEP exam before your teen has ever learned the information. I realize it’s “possible” but in the world of Homeschooling for College Credit, teaching to cram for a test instead of taking a class short-changes the student. I think we can all agree that watching a movie vs reading a book leave us with a different level of depth, now imagine just memorizing a page of facts about the movie. When you skip learning and memorize a CLEP prep guide, you’re doing just that. The HS4CC method is to mirror the approach used by millions of students every year who take Advanced Placement classes and exams. Advanced Placement (AP) is the other test brand published by College Board that is worth college credit. In an AP class, the student learns by doing homework, reading, writing, watching videos, etc., and then studies for the AP exam if they did well in the subject. It’s not an especially complex approach, yet this strategy is sometimes pushed aside for CLEP. Test prep, when it follows a homeschool course, is a short recap of the key themes, main ideas, essential vocabulary, and important events. Very little “new” information is acquired during test prep, and the process is quick and painless.
Testing Acumen
Since homeschooled students don’t usually take the same number of standardized exams that public school students take, it’s important that the allocate some time to build this muscle before taking the CLEP exam. I like to call this “testing acumen.” If you’ve ever met someone who seems naturally “good” at taking tests, it’s likely that they have good testing acumen. They are skilled at managing their time during the test, understanding question types, spotting patterns, staying calm under pressure, and eliminating wrong answers. Those skills can carry you over the finish line. These skills come from practice. With enough CLEP practice, homeschoolers can get better at taking tests without learning new information.
Memorizing Answers vs Memorizing Ideas
Let me give you a task. Learn the following three math facts:
1+8=2
2+9=4
8+1=3
The problems above are nonsense, but you already knew that because you know how to add. If I took a student who didn’t know how to add, and asked them to memorize the three math facts, they could certainly do it. But, memorizing those facts didn’t teach the student how to add, so when faced with a different problem, they will most certainly get it wrong. Given the example above, I could ask you if the above facts were true or false, and while you didn’t study whether they were true or false, each of you could easily identify that those three math facts are false.
Do not allow your students to memorize practice tests, take them multiple times, or use them in place of learning. Practice tests will give you a false sense of readiness when they are the source of your knowledge.
Using Practice Tests Correctly
Building on the previous example, practice tests are very useful to help you find gaps in your knowledge, not because the question will appear on the real exam (it won’t) but because it will alert you to something new you should study. The best practice tests have explanations with the answer key. (REA Guides do this!) When your student takes a practice test, this is an opportunity to learn the “why” of every question. The actual CLEP exam will have a test bank of thousands of questions, and can ask the same question in many ways, so please emphasize to your student that even if they did well on a practice test, they still should take many more practice tests and study carefully.
Let’s suppose you are trying to learn the 3 primary colors (red, blue, and yellow).
A typical student might memorize that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. While that’s a fact they should learn, CLEP will ask this question in a number of ways, some can be very sophisticated.
- What colors are created by mixing red and another primary color?
- Blue and Yellow
- Blue and Purple
- Orange and Purple
- Blue and Green
- Orange and Green
To understand how to study for a CLEP test, you must understand the concept well, not just to recall three primary colors. I can all but guarantee you that the question asked will not be so simple.
Use this practice question to study primary colors and color mixing:
- What is a primary color?
- What are the primary colors?
- What is meant by mixing?
- What colors result from mixing?
- How many primary colors are there?
- Are there other categories of colors besides primary?
- If green is not a primary color, does kind of color is it?
By understanding why a practice question was asked, you can (should) look at it from every direction. Only after you can easily and quickly navigate through all the bulleted examples above would I say you’ve “studied the question” well enough for the test.
In addition, for a practice test, it is best not to guess. Guessing could result in a correct answer when in reality, your student doesn’t know the answer! That’s a false sense of readiness. NOTE: During the real CLEP exam, your should answer EVERY question because there is no penalty for a wrong answer, but every blank answer will be marked wrong, so guessing improves your chances during the real exam.
Finally, if possible, take several practice tests before the real exam. It will help! CLEP will ask the same question many ways, so the more ways you approach the information, the better prepared you’ll be so you can pass every exam every time!
