English Composition

[busymom]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question for those who have taken Clep English Comp, I have scored a 51 then 63 on the Peterson's as well as about 63 or so on the Clep practice exam, am I ready?? The 51 scares me! I have yet to take any Clep or DSST exams yet, I just keep procrastinating. I am also plan on taking Analyzing and Interpreting Lit. which I feel a little better about based on the feedback here.

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Denise

Currently University of Phoenix BSBM student.
All UL courses done, just need 40 LL units.

[siersema]

Originally Posted by busymom

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick question for those who have taken Clep English Comp, I have scored a 51 then 63 on the Peterson's as well as about 63 or so on the Clep practice exam, am I ready?? The 51 scares me! I have yet to take any Clep or DSST exams yet, I just keep procrastinating. I am also plan on taking Analyzing and Interpreting Lit. which I feel a little better about based on the feedback here.

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Denise

Currently University of Phoenix BSBM student.
All UL courses done, just need 40 LL units.

The CLEP practice exam is going to be the best way to judge yourself. I'd say go through it once more, find out which areas you didn't do as well on, figure out why you missed what you did, and then good take it!

Also, out of curiousity, are you taking the exam with or without essay? I did without myself.

[busymom]

Thanks for the feedback! I will be taking without essay as I tend to suffer from serious writers block.

Denise

[sgloer]

Hey Denise--

First of all, I have heard that you should take the version with essay--I've heard that there are some tricky questions on the non-essay version to make up for the lack of essay. I was also told that it's pretty hard to fail the essay portion of the exam as long as you can pick a topic and argue it somewhat coherently.

Secondly, we are coming out with English Comp materials (hopefully within the next two weeks!), so if you have other CLEP exams to take, you may want to consider postponing English for a bit.

Otherwise, if you have no time to wait, then check out our GED Grammar section--it doesn't go as in-depth as you need, but there's definitely some relevant material there.

[snazzlefrag]

Originally Posted by busymom

Thanks for the feedback! I will be taking without essay as I tend to suffer from serious writers block.

Denise

Busymom,

I will readily admit that when I took the version with essay, I had a total brain fart as soon as I saw the essay question. I sat there for about twenty minutes trying to think of ANYTHING to say. In the end I had about ten minutes to literally ramble about "nothing in particular". I made sure I spelled everything correctly; that my sentences were well structured; and that I had a beginning paragraph, two middle paragraphs, and a conclusion.

I swear to God that the CONTENT of my essay was absolute CRAP! But formulating my essay properly ensured that I STILL passed.

Of course I also made sure that I did very well on the first section.

But my point is, it's not necessarily the brilliance of your argument that counts on this exam. It's more about being able to structure your essay properly and avoid any spelling or grammatical errors.

I am a very good writer, and English has always been my forte. So I was devastated by my brain blanking out during the exam. I felt certain that I had failed the exam. But sure enough, three weeks later I found out I had passed. My score was sub-par compared to the rest of my exam results! But it was still a pass!

Don't be afraid of the essay! You may find yourself scoring higher with the essay version than you would on the "tricky" non-essay version.

Just something for you to think about,
Snazzlefrag