With little to no background knowledge in what this broad exam covers, I scored a 63 with 15-20 hours of study. When I say broad I mean it: dance, poetry, literature, philosophy, operas, film, music, art and architecture. Five hours a day for three days of going through Instant Cards and completing practice tests got me a decent score though. If I could study less hours, knowing I’d get a guaranteed score of a 50, I’d do it. But I always overstudied and averaged a score around a 60. I failed many exams in grade school, but never a CLEP or DSST!
In hindsight, the best way to bank some credits and do a minimum amount of study for this exam would’ve been to have previously passed the English Literature and American Literature CLEPs, both worth 6 credits each. Do that if you can, you’ll save money and time. Even if the test is worth 6 credits instead of the usual 3, each exam still costs the same to take. And you can fit the credits into your free electives if you don’t need them anywhere else.
For this exam, I did browse through the REA guide at Barnes & Noble. It’s a thick book and a time sink, don’t do it. Just go through the IC cards. Instant Cert users have a 97% pass rate. There’s not an exam that I wouldn’t recommend using this resource. If you go through their “specific exam feedback” section in the forum, you’ll find around 20 pages of notes, some from as far back as 2007, of people telling you how they studied to pass, and many of them also list what they encountered on the exam.
So here’s my definite Humanities CLEP study guide to pass:
Go through the IC cards many times, not filling in the blanks but just reading through them. I find 5-6 times should be good. Then take one or all three of the Peterson’s exams when you think you’re done with the flashcards. When you check your answers you can wiki anything you got wrong or were unsure of. And lastly, go through the specific exam feedback section and wiki things you might not know that others may have listed, like Ingmar Bergman movies, characters and composers of operas, and Russian ballerinas.
Then you’ll be good!
Sometimes I like to watch YouTube videos whenever they’re recommended by other test takers. Helps to break up the monotony of drilling flashcards and nothing but reading with your study hours.
All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes