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Article Index
Build a Quality Home Library Cheaply
Socialization: What Exactly Are Homeschoolers Missing?
Use College-Level Exams To Get a Jump Start on College
Making Time For Things That Matter: 7 Principles for Family Centered Living
7 Principles Slides (PDF)
How to Study for College-Level Exams, Part 1
How to Study for College-Level Exams, Part 2
You Can Teach Your Child to Write! Part 1
You Can Teach Your Child to Write! Part 2
Writing Motivation: Using Contests to Motivate
Homeschool-Friendly Writing Contests
Homeschooling Through High School (slides - PowerPoint)
Homeschooling With Literature (Sonlight)
Education Quotations
Einstein Quotes
Newsletter Archive 2006
Newsletter Archive 2005 & Earlier
Announcement Archive
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Articles
How to Study for College-Level Exams, Part 1
You can score high on AP, CLEP, DSST, and other college-level exams!
"Few have been taught to any purpose who have not been their own teachers."
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
Note: I am addressing this column to both parent and student, because I believe that it's best- perhaps even necessary- if interest and motivation comes from the person who will be acquiring credit. Some of you may work on your own; others may want to make earning college credit a family affair as I did with my boys (trust me, it's fun!).
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In the last article, I promised to give you some ideas for studying at the college level. Whether or not you plan to take college-level exams, it's useful to know what makes college-level knowledge different from high-school level knowledge. You may discover that you know more than you realized!
College level knowledge differs from high-school knowledge just as a Rembrandt painting differs from a child's pencil sketch. A student who has learned American history, for example, at the high-school level can probably provide a rough chronology of major events and the people who participated in them. When he reaches a college level of knowledge, he will know not only the chronological outline, but also many of the details which paint an interesting and memorable picture. He will also understand the underlying causes of events, and be able to apply that understanding to analysis and interpretation of current events.
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Most homeschoolers have long since discovered that an interest-driven study will progress much farther and faster than the boring chapter-a-week textbook routine. If you have a passionate interest in any subject, academic or not, chances are you have acquired a lot of knowledge about that subject. If the subject is academic, you may be ready to take a CLEP without any further study! If it's baseball, bugs, or sewing, you may not be able to take a CLEP, but you can probably identify and use the ways in which you acquired the information needed to fully understand your subject. Let?s look at some ways you can broaden and deepen knowledge to college-level.
Immersion
When I became interested in quilting, I went to the library. I checked out books on the history of quilting, books on techniques of quilting by hand and by machine, books on textile art, books on color theory, and... well, you get the idea. If it was in any way related to the process of designing and constructing quilts, I read it. I also bought several quilting magazines and subscribed to the one which seemed to provide the most useful information and most beautiful photographs, began attending a local quilt guild, and joined an online discussion list on art quilting. What was the result of this immersion in my topic? Aside from the thorough enjoyment of the process, I very quickly arrived at the point where I could design and construct graphically pleasing quilts using the techniques which most appealed to me. Because I understood the principles of the subject, I was not confined to following other people's patterns or using outdated techniques. I had made the subject my own to the point where I would be comfortable teaching the skill to others.
For subjects you are comfortable with
How does this apply to academic subjects? Very easily! It works best if there is at least some natural interest in or talent for a subject. All the CLEPs I have taken have involved literature, writing, or history, as I have never been able to muster the willpower to study anything math-related on my own. So begin with a subject you enjoy, or have just studied at the high-school level, and take the sample test found in the CLEP Official Study Guide published by The College Board, the creator of the tests. (The book contains sample questions for each of the tests, as well as other helpful test preparation information.) The book states that you are ready to take the exam if you get half or more of the sample questions correct. I prefer a larger margin than that, but for a subject you don?t want to spend a lot of time with, it's worth a try. If you decide to study a little more before you take the test, you can use some of the ideas below.
For new or difficult subjects
The tools you'll need for studying will vary by subject (I'll offer subject-specific help in the next article), but used college textbooks are an excellent resource for outlining the scope and sequence of a subject. You can find used texts in many places, including local thrift shops and college bookstores, or you can check my website for links to online sources. Once you have your text or other comprehensive resource, start locating other books, periodicals, tapes, videos, and online resources to aid your study. We use the teen / adult-student-oriented TimeFrame timeline (this will be available as an e-book within the next couple of months) to record major people and events and fix them within the context of history. Once you've gathered resources, you're ready to immerse in your subject, just as I immersed in quilting.
Depending upon how interesting your topic is, and how much you know when you begin, you might spend anywhere from an intensive month or two to several years. For literature, which I consider a fascinating topic, I have kept literature anthologies in all our bathrooms for years. It's an easy way to become familiar with a subject in a few minutes a day over a long period of time. Other subjects can be approached the same integrated-with-life way. If you need to earn credit for a subject you don't find intrinsically interesting (although almost anything is interesting when approached with an open mind), you can use the same study techniques used by desperate freshmen on college campuses all over the world. I'll cover those techniques in the next issue when I continue on this topic.
© 2002-2010 Janice Campbell
This article first appeared in the January/February 2002 issue of HELM magazine.
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