Credits Before College



|In the Spirit of Sharing: |

|Two of my kids applied over 80 CLEP and DSST credits to their degrees, so they have taken many exams.  Below is the order they took them in and a |

|list of the primary resource they used.  My son focused on the History exams and my daughter’s focus was on the Business and Psychology exams. I’ve |

|combined their lists to give some sense of which exams they studied for first and how they build on each other.  Remember, this is only a guide … not|

|the best or only way.  There is excellent curriculum (such as Apologia) but I preferred choosing things that are in line with my students’ learning |

|styles. |

|All of their tests included taking practice exams and reviewing the wrong answers.  See Tricia’s site for more details on her methodology.  |

|                                                     ~Cheri           |

|NOTE: The Free Peterson’s PDFs  I refer to is no longer available online … I have uploaded the documents to access: |

|Peterson’s Clep Success |

|Peterson’s Free PDF |

|Peterson’s Official Guide to DSST |

|Test |Resources |

| |Learning Express e-books.  Available through your library if they subscribe to the Learning Express |

| |site.  Excellent free pdf files for a variety of homeschooling subjects. |

|Introduction to Computing |8-week Study Group Tricia’s Lesson Plans   When using any text, always check the publisher’s website|

|DSST |for a companion site like this one. |

| |NOTE: I’ve recently put together a syllabus for this course for another group I facilitated.  You |

| |can find that document HERE and scroll to Intro to Computer syllabus |

|Introduction to World Religions | |

|DSST |NEW!  I have taught this class twice and highly recommend it for all.  Resources we used. |

|College Composition |Sign up to receive the SAT Question of the Day starting in 7th grade. |

|CLEP |We did a year course with WriteShop I and finished with  The Least You should Know about English  |

| |(form A, B, or C are the same, just different practice questions) with essay practice from The |

| |Learning Express ACT questions offered free online through our library |

| |These writing prompts from Learning Express are also helpful |

|Western Civilization I and II |We enjoyed the World History curriculum from Ray Notgrass.  Most of the book is dedicated to the |

|CLEP |years covered in the Western Civ I exam.  To study for Western Civ II, we used Spielvogel’s Human |

| |Odyssey.  Other students have used this text for both exams and enjoyed it. |

| |Over lunch, we also watched videos by the Teaching Company that were very engaging. |

|Ethics in America |The philosophers covered in Western Civ I lay the foundation for this course.  Add study from the |

|DSST |free pdf download from Peterson’s along with Instantcert and Peterson practice exams |

|Analyzing  & Int Lit (w/o essay) |As big readers, I added Progeny Press’ Poetry Unit and a study of literary terms (loads of free |

|CLEP |sites like Sparknotes) and called it good. |

| History of the US I |We deviated from the standard homeschool curriculum for this one.  The free downloadable text we |

|CLEP |used is from the State of Florida.  It is no longer being published, but is available on the ERIC |

| |database.  We also used their text for American Government and did these two subject side-by-side |

| |since there is so much overlap.  From the teacher guide, I chose projects that helped enforce CLEP |

| |must-knows like memorizing the amendments. |

| |We are also big fans of Netflix so I coordinated historical fiction films and books into the |

| |syllabus. |

|American Government |See note for History of the US I |

|CLEP | |

|Civil War and the Reconstruction |If interested in history, take this exam during study of  US I,  Read A Short History of the Civil |

|DSST |War and Watch: Ken Burns Civil War Series.  If time, watch Gods and Generals, and Gettysburg |

|Social Science and History |For history buffs who have taken Western Civ and a few other history courses (my son) he just |

|CLEP |studied the REA and completed practice exams. |

|Humanities |Same as note above.  Others suggest the text: The Humanities through the Arts (6th ed) by David |

|CLEP |Martin and Lee Jacobus along with the REA guide and practice tests.  There is a fair amount of |

| |American Lit and English Lit on this exam, so consider studying for those CLEPs first. |

|Microeconomics |Micro and Macro econ were the foundation courses to a host of business cleps.  We used the free |

|CLEP |curriculum available through Junior Achievement after establishing our homeschool coop as a “school”|

| |and me as the volunteer. We then followed up with the REA and Sparknotes to review specific or |

| |difficult concepts.  |

|Intro to Business |The free pdf download from Peterson’s was about all we used in a list of exams.  There are numerous |

|DSST |websites that are helpful if you need more studying. |

|Principles of Marketing |Two-4 week study after Economics because there are several economics terms that overlap.  We used |

|CLEP |the REA marketing book.  These are also available |

| |•  |

| |•  Standard Deviants videos |

|College Mathematics |After any Algebra I course, this can be taken. |

|CLEP | |

|History of the US II |Same resources as US I.  Students usually say US I is easier than II -- more fact based and less |

|CLEP |"isms". |

|History of the Vietnam War |If interested in history, take this exam during study of US II.  My son wrote a research paper for |

|DSST |National History Day so didn’t need to do additional studying. |

|Intro to the Modern Middle East |Resources for this one were hard to find.  He used Idiots Guide to the Modern Middle East and |

|DSST |followed with Instantcert Flashcards. |

|Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |Read The Soviet Colossus and followed up reading about specific people in Wikipedia. |

|DSST | |

|Western Europe since 1945 |Read PostWar  -- a long read … he read the chapters that pertained to the years on the test and |

|DSST |followed with InstantCert |

|Environment and Humanity |12-week course Environmental Science  by Arms ISBN: 0030520193  This was my realization that |

|DSST |pictures speak a thousand words and the difference between a middle school text and high school or |

| |college is they just remove the pictures from the upper levels, shrink the font and add 200 |

| |unnecessary pages!  Followup with free Peterson's practice exams. |

|Macroeconomics |Same resources as Microecon. |

|CLEP | |

|Business Mathematics |4-6 week course, independent of other exams except that basic economics and financial concepts are |

|DSST |applied; Algebra I prerequisite. |

| |Business Math Demystified by  Allan G. Bluman (one chapter a day).  We also reviewed the free pdf |

| |download from Peterson’s.  |

|English Literature |A semester course using Switched on Schoolhouse British Lit CDs.  The name of this exam is English |

|CLEP |Lit, but they mean English in the British sense.  We followed up with Barron’s EZ-101 Study Keys for|

| |English Literature and relied on the Specific Feedback Forum available through |

| |  |

|Principles of Supervision |Principles of Supervision DSST & Principles of Management CLEP are very similar.  Study for both at |

|DSST |the same time; 4 weeks for both.  We took the DSST Supervision one first because DSSTs are a bit |

| |easier since there are only 4 multiple choice answers to choose from vs. 5 multiple choice with |

| |CLEP.    |

|Principles of Management |See note on Principles of Supervision  Free Petersons pdf file was enough, however, there is |

|CLEP |resources such as: REA Management book, and Standard Deviants videos |

|Human Resources Mgmt |  |

|DSST | |

|Organizational Behavior |  |

|DSST | |

|Introductory Sociology |I was teaching a 12-week Psych course so we studied for this concurrently since so many terms |

|CLEP |overlap.  Depending on the depth of knowledge from the student, this may be a simple 4-week study:  |

| |**Free cliffnotes site , Barron’s EZ 101 and InstantCert Flashcards |

|Technical Writing |Having finished traditional high school English courses, we did this as a semester course using The |

|DSST |Elements of Technical Writing and two free ebooks from  Learning Express One under |

| |"Writing Skills" ... Goof Proof Business Writing and the other is under “Workplace Skills: …Business|

| |Writing Clear and Simple. |

| |Note: the free pdfs withing the Learning Express site must now be accessed through a pubic library. |

| |Check your local library's online site and look for online resources. |

|Introductory Psychology |12 week course Understanding Psychology by Kasschau and the free companion website.  It was |

|CLEP |difficult finding a visually-friendly text that was appropriate for grades 7-12 (no marijuana |

| |brownie references … no kidding!)  Followed up with InstantCert cards.  This course was the |

| |foundation to the next two Psych Cleps: Human Growth and Ed Psych, as well as foundational to the |

| |Sociology CLEP. |

|Human Growth and Development |Just a few weeks after the Intro Psych course, just the REA and practice tests for this one.  There |

|CLEP |are Instantcert cards as well. |

|Educational Psychology |After HG&D, two more weeks, REA and practice exams and this one is good to go! |

|CLEP | |

|College Algebra |Test after completing Algebra II and review REA book.  Note: Consider ALEKS for Intermediate and |

|CLEP |College Algebra.  Since it is approved by ACE, many colleges grant credit for the course, |

| |eliminating the need for taking the CLEP. |

|Principles of Statistics |My son worked independently for a semester through a typical public school Stats book and then |

|DSST |tested (his dad is a math teacher) |

|Chemistry |We completed a year Chemistry course by Beginnings Publishing and intended to follow with the REA |

|CLEP |book for test prep.  However, both my students did not feel adequately prepared for this clep (we |

| |are not a science family … so by no means am I suggesting this curriculum is not adequate).  |

 

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download