Customer Reviews

CLEP Success 2006, 8th ed (Peterson's CLEP Success (W/CD))

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I passed the English Composition CLEP today using this book. It was not the only resource I used, however. I rated it four stars, but would rather give it 3.5, because there are so many practice tests included that you can drill yourself quite a bit. With two pre-tests (one for each part of the exam) a subject review, and two more post-tests, your progress is easy to track. The accompanying CD has differing tests from what are given in the book also.

The answer key doesn't always do a good job of explaining why a certain answer is best, especially on the CD (where there are no explanations, just a correct/incorrect statement - VERY frustrating). There were a couple of answer mistakes also, and before you think I'm exaggerating or beginning to sound bitter, some of the answers did not apply to their questions in any way whatsoever. It was as if the wrong set of answers were put with the wrong set of questions. While minor, these kinds of mistakes make a person start to doubt the rest of the book. The review in the middle is useful, however.

English Composition is the only subject I've tested in using this core requirement study guide. I will update this review when and if I pass other CLEP exams using it. I've taken the History II and the Analyzing Literature CLEPS also, and this test was the most difficult (even though English was one of my better subjects in school). It's been 20 years since I was in a classroom, and with a week and a half of study, I passed. That should say something for the content of this book. Although, Purdue University has wonderful language writing resources on the internet, which I also used.

I recommend this book in preparing for the English Comp CLEP, but I also recommend Strunk's "Elements of Style", as almost everything in that book applied to the grammar on the test. (It's also an excellent reference book for future classes.) This isn't the 5 star study guide I expected when I ordered it, but I'm glad I purchased it.

**Updated 8/25/05**

Since originally writing this review, I have taken the Social Sciences & History CLEP based on the materials provided within it. I passed this CLEP also with room to spare, and was happy with the overall review information. I think the exam was more economics-oriented than this book's practice tests demonstrated, but it was helpful in passing, and gives a nice body of info to review from. I also enrolled for 2 weeks at InstaCert, and while this helped in some respects, most of the test was economic/historic in nature...which is already contained in this review guide.

I purchased this book first for CLEP exam prep. First, I was intimidated to know how much I've forgotten. Then I purchased Comex and Cracking the CLEP books after reading some of the reviews, and those books were really great. Compare to this Peterson's book, actual exam was much easier, only a few questions were on-per with questions in this book. It's been a while since I studied math, but I got the score I needed. I recommend to use Comex book and Cracking the CLEP first then use this book's review part as suppliment.

I am a former English teacher; now I am an editor with the US Army. My boss, also a former English teacher, is a senior editor.

One of our young Sergeants is using Peterson's 8th edition to prepare for the CLEP test. This morning, both my boss and I have been helping this soldier understand why some of her answers to the book's English sample test were incorrect. We editors have discovered that the book identified at least two wrong answers as "correct." So far, we have found one incorrect answer per page. There are eight questions per page. I believe that means that 12.5 percent of the questions have the wrong answer listed as the correct answer.

Are the folks at Peterson's careless about the accuracy of their books because they assume that only unquestioning students and non-English speakers use them? Are they too cheap to hire experienced English teachers to write their questions?

And what is going to happen when the Sergeant gets to the math section, where I wouldn't know if the book was giving wrong or right answers?

Shame, shame, Peterson's.

MC

The university I am attending actually recommended this book as a study guide for the CLEP exams. I thouroughly studied the natural science section. I learned a lot, but to my surprise when I took the test, a lot of the material on the exam was not covered in this book. Needless to say, I did not pass. Maybe the other sections are closer to what is covered on the exams.