CLEP-College-Composition-Modular-Exam_Study-Guidance.pdf -...

CLEP COLLEGE COMPOSITION MODULAR
EXAM: STUDY GUIDE
Key Exam Details
The CLEP® exams allow you to demonstrate your knowledge of college-level material and earn
college credits without attending classes — you can use the knowledge you acquired through
military experience, work, or studying on your own at home.
The CLEP® College Composition Modular exam will test your writing skills, but also your
research and citation skills. The exam is comprised of 90 multiple-choice questions (90 minutes)
and two written essays (70 minutes). The multiple-choice part of the exam will test your
knowledge of Standard Written English, including composition and principles of rhetoric. After
completing the multiple-choice exam section, if chosen, test takers will complete two essay
writing assignments on provided topics.
The topics covered in the multiple-choice section of the exam are broken down as follows:
• Revision strategies: 40%. This covers sentence structure and common errors; audience
awareness; point of view, tone, and purpose; transitions; introductory paragraph
structure; effects of rhetoric; and language application.
• Rhetorical analysis: 25%. This covers skills including analysis of tone; understanding of
writing strategies, language application, identification of your audience, and rhetorical
features; and organization.
• Using source materials: 25%. This covers your knowledge of basic research and citing
techniques, and your ability to incorporate source documentation (i.e., MLA, APA, or
Chicago styles).
• Standard Written English: 10%. This covers your familiarity with the conventions of
Standard Written English, from grammar to idioms.

Exam Details
Questions: 90 multiple-choice questions + 2 written essays
Time Limit: 160 Minutes
Credits: 3*
*As recommended by the American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT); check with your instit ution.
Revision Strategies
Questions covering Revision Strategies will make up 40% of all test questions.
When drafting an e ssay, it is the writer’s duty to review her or his work to ensure that it is well
organized, well structured, appropriate for its intended audience, detailed, coherent, varied,
and consistent. If the essay falls short in any of these areas, it must be revised for maximum
effectiveness. The most sizable percentage of questions on the CLEP College Composition Exam
will test your ability to revise writing effectively.
Sentence Structure and Common Errors
Sentences are the essential building blocks of any piece of writing, and just as a builder could
not construct a stable physical structure out of cracked and crumbling bricks, a writer cannot
shape a strong piece of writing without well-structured, error-free sentences.
At their most basic, all complete sentences must include a subject and a verb. For example:
The snow fell.