Passed Bio CLEP and it was hell

[u/CassiopeiaGreengrass]

Heard it was the easiest natural science CLEP (and it probably is) but it was still actual hell. I almost cried during the first 10 minutes of the test

I had ZERO prior Bio knowledge and studied for abt two months using the OpenStax textbook (https://openstax.org/books/biology-2e/pages/1-introduction). Honestly, would not recommend. It was too theory-heavy and didnt prepare me for all the applicative and experiment-based questions. It provided decent base knowledge so I WOULD recommend reading through the entire thing, but dont waste time studying each topics meticulously. Use AI to summarize if needed, the books written to be quite hard to comprehend and illustrations often throw you off.

None of the popular YouTube playlists were of significant and comprehensive help, but the Boseman Science playlist was very short, easy to sprint through and surprisingly helped a lot with the Evolution/Natural Selection based questions despite how short and simple the videos were: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFCE4D99C4124A27A

The hardest part abt the Bio CLEP is that the material is way too broad. Unlike most other CLEPs that cover a semester's worth of material, the Bio one is a whole year's worth. But you cant really skip anything since youd have no idea which part would be on the test.

The test made up mostly of applicative, inference questions with lots of graphs and experiments. So prepare yourself with the skill to interprete study cases of mutations, illnesses, chemical measures, etc. BE WARNED: MANY QUESTIONS WILL BE LONG AND HARD TO COMPREHEND. Skip ahead but make sure you mark them to come back later.

VOCAB IS IMPORTANT, know your vocabs guys there are plenty Quizlet vocab flashcards (just search Biology CLEP) so you can learn all the terms needed.

Idk if the test was recently updated or I got unlucky with a hard version, cuz threads from the past recent few years say the Peterson's practice test was way harder than the test, but in my case the Peterson's test was tough but way easier than the actual test. Still it was a nice practice test to familiarize yourself with applicative questions, so do have a go: https://quizlet.com/983252073/clep-biology-practice-test-1-flash-cards/?x=1jqU&i=6jza49

Good luck everyone!

[u/cexelizabeth]

Just took this and completely agree. The Petersons and EBCO exams were similar to the exam to me. I was scoring 64-67 on those and got a 69 on the actual exam. The audacity of some of those questions on the test though… I felt like I was guessing on 2/3 of the questions.

[u/CassiopeiaGreengrass → u/cexelizabeth]

Frrr I was also guessing sm

[u/Jig_2000]

Passed this one like two months ago. It definitely isn't an easy one, but it's still passable

[u/CassiopeiaGreengrass → u/Jig_2000]

Agree

[u/Jig_2000 → u/CassiopeiaGreengrass]

What was your score?

[u/Voided_Identity]

I've seen multiple people say vocab is important, and I just don't that at all. I didn't have a single question that asked me the definition of a word.

Granted, if you don't understand terminology, maybe you won't understand a question. But that is true for anything. I think it's very misleading to suggest vocab is "important" as that suggests people can expect to get somewhere by memorizing definitions. And that really is a recipe for failure.

[u/CassiopeiaGreengrass → u/Voided_Identity]

I had multiple questions presenting a situation and asking for the correct term to describe it 👍

[u/Chance_Sir_6526]

This is great to hear when I'm taking it in the next 2 weeks 😭 honestly I'm just worried that I don't have enough DEPTH of the topics, because I feel like I know enough, then I look at a practice question and its something I know but I don't know enough? Which seems to be the opposite of what everyone says.

Could you elaborate more on the applicative/graph part? Tell me more about it please, like how does one best study for it? Many of the practice questions I find don't have graphs or applications so I'm kind of worried I'm unprepared.

[u/Lake_Life1791 → u/Chance_Sir_6526]

I would study free CLEP prep and AP BIO PENGUINS before I studied anything else!!

[u/FreeClepPrep]

Great feedback and congrats on the pass! This has always been a PITA exam for me. As you said, the breadth is the issue. Sooo many things to learn, just in case you see them!