Hi,

I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Brenda and I am currently a full-time Licensed Practical Nurse in a small town in northern Wisconsin. I am working on getting my Bachelor's of Science in nursing through Indiana State University. So far I have taken the following Excelsior Exams:

Anatomy and Physiology 6 credits
Microbiology 3 credits
Pathophysiology 3 credits (upper level)
English Composition 6 credits

Excelsior's english comp with essay is a nightmare. It is a computerized timed test. You have 3 hours to write 3 papers. I have spoken to the college regarding this test. If anyone plans on taking this,let me know and I will talk to you about this one. ISU would only accept Excelsior's class for Eng. Comp.

I will take my first CLEP on Thursday. After taking the above Excelsior tests I feel well prepared to take a CLEP exam. Instacert is great. I plan on using CLEP, DSST's and Excelsior exams for my entire first 2 years of school and then some. Intro to Sociology will be my first exam and I feel well prepared. I also used an Intro to Sociology textbook that my 20 year old college son had. It was a $25 textbook from Best Value textbook compnay and had great info in it. Easy reading.

I feel blessed to have stumbled upon Instacert!

Good Luck to all,
Brenda

I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Michael and I'm 41. I'm an Office Administrator in a downtown LA law firm and a life-long musician. I started college right after high school and had two mostly unsuccessful semesters at two different community colleges in upstate NY before moving to Los Angeles. I graduated with honors from Musicians Institute in Hollywood which is not worth anything towards a traditional degree. I have about 29 credits from that effort, and, fortunately, took care of my Math and English requirements back then.

I'm going to take the CLEP Info Systems and Computer Apps and DSST Intro to Computers on Monday. I should be studying now but I received so much useful info from this forum that I thought I'd jump in so people could see what I was doing and chime in with any advice that might be helpful. To prepare for these tests, I've:

• Taken the CLEP practice test

• Studied the Long & Long Computers textbook

• Taken the three Peterson practice tests

• Studied InstantCert (of course!)

Hey all:

Starting to study MIS as we speak, and although I know I need to be be thorough, this one doesn't sound too difficult. Hoping to study it today, and a couple of hours Monday, then study FofE Monday and Tuesday morning, then take 'em both Tuesday afternoon to finish this thing!!!

Foundations of Education is next, and there haven't been many threads on this one, so I thought I'd ask about it. I've had several Psychologies, so I'm familiar with Freud, Skinner, Erikson, and probably a lot of the terminology, but if anybody has taken this exam lately, any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks,
David

Does anyone know if there are offical pracrice exams for this? I checked the web-site and couldn't find anything. Thanks.

Wheeewww.... What an enormous sigh of relief! I managed to squeak by in D & A Abuse, with a 53 - I needed a 49 to pass...

I have to mark that one down as a hard DSST! I mean, I've got drug names, neurotransmitters, brand names, classifications, symptoms from small doses and large doses, withdrawal symptoms, what the difference is in beer, brandy, spirits, whiskey and champagne, and such just rolling around in my head rather chaotically now!!! Whew I'm glad it's over - I'd say you need a little something more than just IC to pass this one with more ease than I did - if nothing else you just need another format to view all the drugs etc in. Snazzlefrag has posted some great links in past threads about this beast, so definetly check them out, they were a big help to me. Don't take this exam lightly, but don't be afraid of it either - I did pass the thing with only about 18-20 hours of study over two and half days...

Intro to Computing was some better, but still bit me pretty good because I think I was taking it for granted, somewhat. I studied the Info Sys & Comp. Apps IC cards for the ISCA exam, and passed it three days ago. So, I thought with the computer knowledge I already have, and that bit of studing I would ace Intro, but alas I only made a 55, and needed a 45. Certainly a fine enough score, the exam just surprised me a bit - there was a lot on there about programming, logic and other computations that I just had no clue about. But then again, I only read the ISCA IC cards once, taking light notes, so IC may have been plenty of a study guide, I'm just taking these exams as fast as I can possibly cram them down my own throat:

I started with 48 traditional hours this past August, and to date, right at 6 months later, I now own 66 more semester hours, all through testing, for a grand total of 114 SH's - two exams shy of a BA in Liberal Studies!!!!!!!!! And to show you how fast you can go if you really can grind it out, and just spend days and weeks in a row on this stuff: I took 6 exams between August and Christmas while I was working a part time job, etc. - just 18 semester hours. But since the week after Christmas to date I've been off work, and I've taken 12 exams - for a big total of 42 SH's in 6 weeks!!! That's 7 SH's a week, better than two college classes every 7 days! I don't put that out there to boast folks, just to prove that if an ole country boy like me, who spent the last two years out of college milking a cow and cutting hay can do this, anybody can!

Anyway, IC remains the most fantastic study guide ever, just don't take D & A Abuse for granted, or Intro to Computers either for that matter.

Good luck folks, I'm seeing the light coming in fast at the end of that tunnel, and you'll get there soon too, just hang in there.

David

I am studying for ECE World Conflicts and finding it pretty difficult.There are too many minute details and too many situations that need to be known.
If anyone has taken this exam,please give me some tips.
I know that there is an excellent thread by urbannaja about this exam and i am using the advice posted there but i was wondering if anyone took this exam after that..that is in the last few months.
Thanks a lot,
Adoncia

I finally finished my last test! I've been procrastinating since July lol I passed English Comp CLEP (no essay) with a 63 after no study. Really can't add much to the already very helpful posts on the test, I'll just say that it was fairly tricky and I wanted to argue about a good 10-15 answers (multiple choices should have been correct)..and time was very important...they only gave 90 mins for 88 questions, none of which were true multiple choice (all were reading comprehension-type).

Anyways, good luck everyone, IC is awesome =)

I tried to go to the site and it looks like it is no longer funded. You have to pay for the practice tests now. Say it isn't so????????

I need to know from fellow members who have succesfully taken the Excelsior Ethics exam and passed. Do the IC flashcards cover enough material that will lead to success on the exam. I am using IC and Harper Collins Outline of College Ethics. Any feedback would be appreciated.

This exam was very difficult.Many questions were twisted and required deeper knowledge.I had to guess on at least one fourth of the exam..maybe more.
There were quite a few questions that were not covered on Instantcert but IC coupled with Wikipedia should be enough to pass.I also read the book Faces of a Nation recommended by Shotujoku (thanks )in another thread.The book is excellent and very interesting.
I got 53 which is B at Excelsior.I came back and saw it's just one point short of an A and feeling bad about it.I was mentally exhausted by the end of the exam and did not review my questions.I am feeling bad about this because firstly i worked very hard on this exam and second maybe changing some answers after a second review would have given me one extra point.When my exam goes badly i worry that changing an answer could change a pass to fail and i do believe that the first guess is the best one.
Anyways,my GPA is 2.88 now and a B will make it maybe 2.9? I have only 3 more exams to complete my degree and 2 of them being college writing and the dreaded Statistics...i don't think these 3 exams will help me get to my target of 3.00 GPA.
It means i will need to take more exams to increase it:mad:
to add to this my next exam is on 6th Feb(World conflicts)..hence very little time to prepare so i am not even hoping for an A in that one.The Pearsonvue center here is full all the time with the next date being 20th Feb.
Sorry for Ranting so much...but feeling a little better already:o
Adoncia