Customer Reviews

CLEP Humanities w/CD-ROM (CLEP Test Preparation)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a returning student 18 years out of the game, I wanted to get off to a big start in a subject area where I already felt pretty comfortable. I picked the CLEP Humanities because it would get me 6 hours of credit for knowledge I already possessed. After getting 61/70 correct on the College Board's "official" practice exam, I scheduled a testing date.

Then I got cold feet, decided a little preparation couldn't hurt, and ordered this book. The good reviews here were encouraging, and the "Testware" software put REA above the rest for me.

The good: The book contains concise yet comprehensive reviews of all the major subject areas covered on the test. (I thought I was pretty savvy, but I still learned a lot.) Each chapter ends with a drill on the subject matter -- including material that wasn't covered. If you learn all the material presented, you're sure to pass the test. There are three complete practice tests, all of which turned out to be much harder than the actual exam. I found the heightened difficulty level to be a plus: Better to not get too cocky and to be a little better prepared than necessary than to not be prepared enough. (If you're *that* close to the pass/fail line, maybe you need to just take the courses.)

The back of the book contains nice glossaries of (1) important literary figures by period and (2) literary terms. There's also a conventional subject index.

The not so good: Testware is a good idea executed badly. I used it to take the first practice test and it scored me with 55 correct answers out of 140. This was a little discouraging, as I thought I'd done better. As I reviewed the correct answers and explanations, I soon found 2 questions I was sure I had given the correct answers to that Testware said I answered incorrectly. Then I *knew* there was a glitch when a question I had answered incorrectly was scored as correct.

This was all within the first 27 questions, so I stopped right there and re-did the first test, duplicating my answers from before. This time, I created an Excel spreadsheet, entering first my answers and then the correct answers from the key. My actual number of correct answers on test 1 was 78, not 55 -- more in line with how I felt I had done. I didn't use Testware to take the second practice test, but stuck to my spreadsheet method for it and test 3 (which is only offered in the book, anyway).

I was disappointed that the book didn't have much in the way of timelines, and much key information was "buried" in the text such that I felt the continuous urge to highlight in the book, which I didn't want to do because I intended to sell it when I was finished. Glossaries on artists, artistic movements, musical terms, and architects would have been nice but were absent.

Bottom line: REA's CLEP Humanities book makes an excellent component to your test preparation. The software might be helpful in acclimating yourself to computerized testing if, like me, you've never done it before. Just don't rely on the software to score you correctly. For added security, I recommend using a second preparatory book. Toward the end of my studying, I picked up a 2005 copy of Kaplan's CLEP general exam book, which filled in some gaps for me. It also contains practice tests, and, unlike REA's book, also includes book recommendations for independent study. (But it's not as thorough for review purposes.)

I just took the test today. I scored 78/80. I would likely have passed without studying at all, but it was worth the extra time and money to go in feeling uber-prepared, and to earn a score that will translate to a grade of A.

This review volume was quite useful. I looked at everything Amazon was offering (from the collections with about 50 pgs. specific to the CLEP to full Humanities volumes like this), the reviews LAPL had in circulation, and some used book stores' offerings. I settled on this book and another called Mastering the CLEP (both written recently and I assumed would give me the most update scenarios for questions and review examinations).

Overall, I was impressed with REA's volume. However, a word of caution. The Humanities test is CHALLENGING. REA's book can seem like a maze of unfamiliar, and highly detailed, or even irrelevant ideas, people, places, dates, and movements if you are not well versed TO BEGIN WITH in the Humanities. The review book itself was simply a sweeping overview of the major sections of the possible test questions: Literature, Music, Art, Philosophy & Anthropology type subjects. It covered things in more broad catagories (Enlightenment, Industrial Revolutionary thought), but also was extrememly specific with the people and places which were relevant to the test.

Ultimately, I could not have passed the test without THIS review book, if that tells you anything. I needed a 50 for credit and received a 63, much due to the helpful review specifics I found in here. I read the entire book in a single day, reviewed the notes I took the morning of, went over the timeline of people and things in the index and took the test. This is NOT normal however. I studied Milton, Shakespeare, Philosophy, and music in undergraduate. My professors were excellent and personal and I read incessantly. It is hard on purpose (you are receving a semester of credit for taking a 140 question test...)

I would highly recommend the REA review book. It was at times too detailed (music section, ballet entries [ie. names of the position of the feet], etc.), but even though that slowed the reading down, it helped jog the memory and stimulate thinking for the test day questions.

REA has done again on December 21, 2005 when they came out with this stand alone CLEP Humanties study guide! Unlike most reviewers I have taken this CLEP test several times. But don't be scared off by this fact-when I first took the CLEP Humanities test it was for a law school and at the time there was no computer or REA study guide at the time and I did awful-I got a 380 which at the time was really bad. Of course back then the non-CBT test went a lot slower and you had a quarter point subtracted from your final score for every wrong answer so you spent a lot more of your test time agonizing as there was no possible reward for guessing with out at least looking the question over thourougly. To pass the Humanities CLEP test you will need to take the sample test every day for at least a month until you have memorized the material but in order to push yourself over the top you will at the very least need to purchase College Boards official study guide for the CLEP exams and with pencil and paper test yourself with the 50 or so questions in the humanities sample exam until you have memorized the material in that book as well. You will need both books to pass this CLEP exam-that is unless of course you have a magnificent knowledge of humanities from previous college coursework. If you have never taken a CLEP test before I strongly recommend that you take a much easier CLEP test first such as Principles of Marketing.

Very good book that helped me pass. I do recommend looking at as many humanities practice exams as you can, getting other study guides, and study the important highlighter stuff online and in books. But this book really gives you an idea of what questions might pop up. This book goes into a lot of detail. Some of the questions may seem rough, just keep on taking the practice tests and a lot of the information will seep into your sub-conscious. Also study online, wikipedia is awesome for any information. I also got a few clep study guides from the library. "Cracking the clep" is another good book because it tells you what books to study from art, music, poetry, and how to understand this stuff. The Peterson's book "Clep Success"(got from the library) has some questions that will come up on the test, and I went to barnes and nobles and checked out the official collegeboard clep tests, just sat in the store and learned there for a while, didn't buy it cause i'm cheap. Basically, take as many practice tests as you can and study all the books outlined in "Cracking the clep". And you'll pass. I got a 61 and I didn't really have any prior knowledge to a lot of this material. Study, study, study, and you'll pass. And don't get discouraged.

CLEP is one of the best ideas ever and I have enjoyed the freedom that the tests provide. At present I have taken 14 CLEP exams, never scored lower than a 68, made one 80, and average around 74 (the best you can do is 80, the worst is 20). I don't say that to impress you, only to tell you that I have quite a bit of experience in studying for CLEP exams. I usually find the REA test preps very helpful and until this one I hadn't found one that I didn't like. However, I found this one to be fairly useless in preparing for the humanities exam.

The book contains sections on literature, art (including architecture and sculpture), drama, dance, music, and film. Unfortunately, none of these are exhaustive and no pictures are present which makes the art section practically useless except as a bibliography of names to know. The literature section focused only on reading comprehension and literary terms, no mention being made of major works, authors, or movements, all of which are important as part of the test. Basically the entire book (with the exception of the literature section), serves simply as a list of names to know. It is up to you to find out more about them. The only valuable part about this book is the tests it contains (which are, I think, much harder than the real thing). While they tend to be much more nit picky than the actual CLEP questions, they will give you a feel for what to focus on and what kinds of questions you may be asked. The book may be worth purchasing for that reason alone, although you would spend your money better by buying the Official CLEP Study Guide (invaluable if you plan on taking any CLEP tests).

So how do you study for this exam? I went to a used book store near a local college and bought a textbook for intro to humanities. I skimmed it, highlighting key names, works, authors, etc. It provided pictures of art work and some brief descriptions of literary works as well. [...] After getting a good grasp of these details, I took the CLEP practice test in the official book and then took the actual test. While it is not the "quick" way, it took me four weeks and got me a 78 on a six credit hour test.

This was my first CLEP exam and I was a little intimidated. I borrowed a bunch of study guides from the library, including this one. This book soon became fundamental in my studies. Unlike the "CLEP Official Study Guide", it has FULL practice exams and explanations. A plus because I used the wrong answers to know were I needed to focus my studies. "Kaplan CLEP" is also a good guide for tests. Between the two guides there are plenty of practice exams.

It is a very challenging test due to the multiple subject matters. Further studying is crucial. I made timelines for each of the following: literature, visual art, architecture, philosophy and music. Then I cross referenced them with each other and became acquainted with the artist/philosopher and the associated movements in each period. If I didn't know something, I looked it up on [...] or [...]. I studied for a month and got a 71 out of the 80 maximum points.

I actually disagree with all of the other reviews -- this book was completely out of line. The REA made me think I would fail while the test was down right easy. The fact of the matter is that the Humanities CLEP does require a wide knowledge base with a basic understanding of art, musical periods, and literature. But the emphasis is on BASIC. For instance, the REA book went into DEPTH about how music is structured, the tone, beats, etc. The test, on the other hand, asked about composers, or opera singers (don't freak out, you could eliminate all the wrong answers by knowing poets, actresses, and novelists) but nothing on how music was structured. Also, the REA was unbalanced: certain sections were longer than others and the section on philosophy was basically just a list of philosophers and barely enough on what they actually said, or who they were connected with. Just don't worth your money or time.

I studied with this book for 2-3 weeks before the test and got a 71 out of 80. However, I was already pretty well versed in the arts. I would suggest visiting a large museum before taking the test for help with art recognition. I would also recommend memorizing the major works of the authors in the appendix. If you are not well read, the test is ver difficult. I read the sparknotes for all of the major works I had not already read before the test as well. Make flashcards.

I used this book, along with the Comex humanities book and the website run by Peterson's. Let me start by saying that this was my third CLEP, having already taken Biology and Western Civ II. I scored a 58 on the other two tests. With that being said, I used this book to study and got a 61. 50 is passing for the CLEP. I knew very little about the Humanities, and I give these materials full credit for getting me through the exam.

Using these books got me out of 3 classes, two of which involved a lot of writing. CLEP is worth it! On to the review:

Good things: This book is comprehensive. I read it, paying special attention to the words in bold. I knew nothing about Humanities, and I was worried about this test. I took the tests, and the ones on the website, and sure enough, my scores were the same as the practice tests.

Bad Things: There were no pictures in the text of the book, just in the paper practice tests. This was worrisome for me, as the CLEP for humanities shows you pictures of art and architecture, which you are required to identify. This book could use pictures. The other thing is that the cover of the book states that there are 3 full length practice exams, but the disk only has two. There are there text tests in the book, though.

I purchased this book a while ago, and I have to say the money was well worth it. The content is fairly organized and easy to follow. As with any CLEP, it is always best to use several resources. Personally, I have been using InstantCert.com for months, and have been really happy with it so far. I've passed 5 CLEPs, and it has been my primary source for study information. It's definitely worth checking out. They even have a money back guarantee in case you aren't satisfied with it!
As soon as you're registered, I would also highly recommend to use the forums for exam-specific feedback. Oh yeah, and you can use the coupon code "66026" to get $5 off your first month's access fee. Good luck to all my fellow CLEPsters out there!