Civil War & Reconstruction DANTES

This was my first DANTES test. I got a 73, which is an A at Excelsior! 

I wasn’t planning to take this exam, but after taking both US History CLEPs, I thought what I had learned for those would be helpful in continuing on to study for the Civil War exam. Also, having several ancestors involved has made this time period interesting to me. I learned a lot and studied for 4 weeks. 

I used:

Idiots Guide
SparkNotes Civil War
SparkNotes Reconstruction – This had several topics that were not covered elsewhere.
Ken Burns DVDs and website - The Civil War . The War | PBS
IC – I should have spent more time on these.
American Civil War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quizzes to Test Yourself - This is similar to the AP Quizzes, but there are many more questions. It will help with the basics, but is not as deep as the exam.
ClassZone - Creating America: Beginnings through Reconstruction
Civil War Battles Quizzes and Civil War Battles Trivia -- FunTrivia There are a lot of Civil War trivia pages here. This one is for battles. These are fun, but it is too easy to get off track, like what is the name of Grant’s horse? (One was named Cincinnati.)
Official DSST Fact Sheet (DSST - GetCollegeCredit.com) has 12 sample questions. A couple of the questions were on my exam. There were more battles on my test than what was listed on the fact sheet; they were covered as important battles in the study materials.

Review materials from US History CLEPs:
REA has excellent coverage of material in about 30 pages. 
Barrons EZ 101
Historyteacher.net – AP Quizzes are good for this but there is no coverage of the battles. 
Resource: A Biography of America videos 

I wish I had spent more time looking for some practice exams at textbook websites.

This exam was not as fact based as I hoped. It helped me to learn the dates so that I had a better idea of the order of events and how they related to each other, but knowing dates was not on my test. I also thought I might need to know the number of casualties and troops at each battle, but that wasn’t on the test either. It just had the total numbers for the whole war.

I did need to know the second level of generals that made a difference in the battles, not just the main generals. I had trouble with a couple of questions about describing the general’s attitudes/actions.

Be sure to understand the politics leading to the war, during the war, and during Reconstruction. The Reconstruction SparkNotes was very good, but I still didn’t have enough depth on the consequences of the different reconstruction plans. (What I knew did not match the answers.) Maybe Wikipedia has more.

World Population ECE

Passed this one with an A. Overall, I think this is a very doable exam with adequate prep. I didn't prep as much as I should have, so the test seemed more difficult than I had anticipated. I was pressed for time, so I opted to purchase the set of practice exams and use them as my primary study tool. They are as good as gold, and I passed thanks to them, with a little help from IC and the feedback here. I studied for two days; I went through the first and second sections of IC once, then took the practice exams with the following scores: 51 & 71 out of 100. Reviewing the practice exams were the most helpful because the explanations of the multiple-choice options are very detailed. Also, many of the same questions showed up on the actual exam, although they were worded differently.

Going into this exam, I was not sure how gauge the grading criteria. The ECE technical sheet states that the cut score is 81, which was hard for me to comprehend in comparison with CLEP and DSST. Others in this thread have mentioned that it is a good idea to identify which sections (either through the IC flashcards or practice exams) need more study. If I had a better knowledge of case studies, migration & urbanization, and mortality, I would have felt more comfortable. Overall, I probably averaged close to 80%, which would mean roughly 104/130 questions, although 10 of those were unscored pretest questions. 

A few questions I remember: 

What was responsible for famine in China? (Great Leap Forward)

What is a population's footprint/ecoprint? (deforested areas)

Which natural resources are responsible for regulating the carbon and hydrologic cycles? (forests)

Which statistic can be calculated by the census alone (crude birth rate- all other choices require vital stats)

Original goal of the census in the U. S.? (congressional reapportion)

What is the distribution pattern of migrants in the U. S.? (rural areas, urban areas, follow resident patterns, or evenly distributed)

What is the internal migratory pattern within the U. S.? (West & Midwest, Northeast & Midwest, South & West)

Why is 104-110 an acceptable estimated range for sex ratios?

Who is considered an asylee? 

Good luck!

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American Government CLEP

This was my fourth exam. I passed with a score of 72. I studied for 4 weeks.  I have earned 12 credits in just over 4 months with CLEP/DANTES exams!

I wasn’t planning to take this exam, but after taking both US History CLEPs, I thought what I had learned for those would be helpful in continuing on to study for the Civil War exam and this exam. It did make studying much easier, but it really only helped on a few actual questions.

Thank you all for recommending excellent study materials. I used:

CliffsQuickReview book
(New) REA study guide with 2 practice tests
InstantCert – I liked it for this test for review and because it had different words and meanings than other resources. The other study guides help me put things into context better.
Friend’s notes from high school class
Read the Constitution (see link below)

Reviewed REA for US History I which has excellent coverage of Articles of Confederation and Constitution in about 15 pages.
Peterson’s practice exams – I actually took these this time and didn’t just read through them. I thought they were helpful.
I also had the Official CLEP Guide to make sure I was learning the correct material.

I liked all of these websites, but I didn’t get to spend much time at them:

U.S. Senate: Reference Home > Constitution of the United States – with explanation

Quia - 27 Amendments – games

We the People | 5th Edition - lots of quizzes

Court Cases Menu

TheCapitol.Net > Glossary of Congressional and Legislative Terms

I was well prepared and didn’t find the questions to be tricky. I didn’t even have very many that I had to narrow down to 2 possibilities and then guess, but I did have a couple that I had no idea what the answer was. I took 7 practice tests and some of the questions were actually on the exam. I felt really good about this exam all the way through. I think it is harder to get a higher score with fewer questions (100 vs. 120 on US History). This exam was much closer to the fact-based exam I had been hoping for with all of the previous history exams which weren’t. Knowing definitions was very helpful. It is intro level and a broad test that is not too deep.

US History I: Early Colonizations to 1877 CLEP

My version of the exam did not have any real questions from early explorers. Most of InstantCert is not in the exam. The Petersons exam was harder than the real thing, but some questions were similar. I think studying the answers from Petersons would be beneficial. The exam wasn’t too difficult, but I felt like InstantCert covered too much information that I didn’t need.

After taking the exam I went through and circled my notes from InstantCert that were applicable. Looks like 'Sectional Tensions and the Civil War (1850-1877)', and 'Philosophy and Politics of the Time Period' were very applicable.

I only had 4 questions on material from 1490's-1650s. Several on events, Acts, and Laws of 1763.

Suggested Study material:

InstantCert

SparkNotes 101 book – reading the Essays at the end of each chapter gives you a perspective

Biography of America videos #1-6 at Resource: A Biography of America – not too many details, but it’s a nice overview and their only 25 minutes each

Petersons Practice exam – I only got 43 out of 120 right, but using it as a study guide would help

CLEP Official study guide looks harder than real test, but some questions are similar or reference same topics, could be helpful as study guide

*Note I did not really study the CLEP Official Study Guide or Peterson Practice Exam answers/explanations so you should score higher if you do.

NOTHING on Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Townshend, Tea Act, almost nothing on main historical names like John Adams, Abigail Adams, George Washington, Spanish explorers, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Rolfe, Cornwallis, or Declaration of Independence – my version anyway – they seemed to like slavery, women’s suffrage, Indians, and “side” famous people.

I would concentrate on Jefferson, Hamilton, Ben Franklin, and Andrew Jackson

As a co-worker said this seems more like a 'footnotes' exam. I really doubt a lot of what's on this exam is covered in a normal college history class. There's a lot of questions on obscure facts that you would only know if you read books on the specific material. I scored in the high 50s.

I studied from Barron's EZ-101 Study Key American History to 1877. Here are some topics from my study notes. Of course, it is not exhaustive.

U.S. History I

Spanish Explorers (Balboa, de Soto, De Leon, Cortez, Coronado)

French Explorers

English Explorers

Sir Walter Raleigh

John Rolfe and Tobbaco

Jamestown Settlement

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

New York, New Amsterdam

James, Duke of York

Carolinas

King Charles

Bacon's Rebellion

King George's War, 1739

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

French and Indian War

Treaty of Paris

King Phillip's War

Navigation Acts

Colonies with NO Established church (DE,PA, NJ, RI)

Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole)

Proclaimation of 1763

Sugar Act

Stamp Act

Declaratory Acts

Townshend Acts

Tea Act (gave East India Co. monopoly)

Currency Act

Boston Tea Party

Coersive (Intolerable) Acts

Samuel Adams

Sons of Liberty

Great Awakening

Christian Faith of founding fathers

Declaration of Independence

Articles of Confederation

U.S. Constitution

Shay's Rebellion

Whiskey Rebellion

Battle of Saratoga

Jay Treaty

Sedition Acts

Enlightenment

Trancendentalists

Thoreau

Emerson

Erie Canal (Hudson River to Lake Erie, 1st U.S. Canal)

Rush-Bagot Treaty

Embargo of 1807

Non Intercourse Acts

Macon Bill 2

XYZ Affair

Monroe Doctrine

Jeffersonians v. Hamiltonians

Democratic Republicans v. Federalists

Texas Independence

Mexican Cession

War of 1812

Treaty of Ghent (Ended War of 1812)

U.S. Treasury (Martin Van Buren hand-picked successor to Jackson who dissolved Federal Bank)

Second Great Awakening

Henry Clay's The American System (Protective tariff, Internal impvmts, bank)

Missouri Compromise

Missouri and Maine

Election of 1800

Election of 1840

Compromise of 1850

Kansas-Nebraska Bill

National Road of 1818

Auburn System

Gadsden Purchase

Wilmot Proviso

Personal Liberty laws

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850

Suffolk Resolves

Cotton Gin

King Cotton

John C. Calhoun

Nullification Crisis

Samuel Slater

Indian Removal, 1830, Andrew Jackson

5 Nations Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca

(5 MOOCS Nations is how I remembered them. Had a question asking to list the 5 Nations, Recalled "MOOCS")

-Treaty of Dancing Rabbitt Creek, Choctaws of Mississippi

- Treaty of New Echota, Cherokee Trail of Tears

Adam-Onis Treaty (Spanish Florida)

Nat Turner's Rebellion

John Brown and Killings

Harper's Ferry Raid

Robert E. Lee

Secession

Dred Scott Case

Black Codes

Dorthea Dix

Susan B. Anthony

Women's Sufferage

Seneca Falls Convention

Secret Six

William Lloyd Garrison (moral suasion, The Liberator)

Freedman's Bureau

Lincoln's 10% Plan

Johnson's Reconstruction

Radical (Rabid) Republicans

Jeffersonian Republicans v. Lincolnian Republicans

Court Cases to Note:

Marbury v. Madison

McCulloch v. Maryland

Gibbons v. Ogden

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Worchester v. Georgia (Cherokee rights)

Fletcher v. Peck

Dartmouth College v. Woodward

Prigg v. Pennsylvania

Introductory Business Law CLEP

Here are some specific details about the version of the exam I took.

If you can go down the following list and check off that you have covered each item, you will not fail this exam:

LAW VIEWS:

(not very much on the exam)

Analytical View

Command View

Critical View

Historical View

Law & Economics View

Legal Realism

Natural Law View

Sociological View

Traditional View

ETHICS:

(not very much on the exam)

Utilitarianism (Bentham/Mill)

Kantian Ethics (Duty)

Ethical Fundamentalism

Ethical Relativism

Maximising Profits Theory

Corporate Citizenship Theory

Moral Minimum Theory

Social Justice Theory (Rawl)

Stakeholder Interest Theory

CONTRACT LAW:

Elements of a Contract: Consideration, Capacity, Agreement, Legality

Types of Contract: Implied-in-fact, Implied-in-law (quasi), Express

Unilateral vs. Bilateral

Executory Contract vs. Executed Contract

Liquidated Damages

Forbearance

Novation

Rescission

Assigned Rights vs. Delegated Duties

Creditor Beneficiaries vs. Donee Beneficiaries

Exceptions to Consideration: Moral Obligation, Duty, Past Consideration, Illusory Promise

Mutual Mistake vs. Unilateral Mistake (definition and consequences)

Statute of Frauds (what it is and what it covers).

Discharge of a Contract: Void, Voidable, Unenforceable

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & THE U.S. COURT SYSTEM:

(not very much on the exam)

Commerce Clause

Bill of Rights (I had a question on the 1st and 2nd Amendments specifically)

Civil vs. Criminal (procedures/crimes/court system)

ANTITRUST LAW:

(not very much on the exam)

Sherman Act

Clayton Act

Patman-Robinson Act

Federal Trade Commission

Restraint on Trade

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Line Injuries

TORT LAW:

Intentional Tort vs. Negligent Tort

Slander vs. Libel

Assault versus Battery

Proximate Cause vs. Cause in Fact

Negligence Per Se

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Tort

Strict Liability

Warranty of Title

Copyright vs. trademark

EMPLOYMENT LAW:

(not very much on the exam)

Fiduciary relationships

Agency

Fair Labor Standards Act

Bakke v University of California

FMLA

EEOC

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)

Civil Rights Act - Title VII (What is covered and what isn't)

Disparate Treatment

Disparate Impact

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW:

(not very much on the exam)

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA/Superfund)

Clean Air Act

Clean Water Act

EPA

Endangered Species Act

MISCELLANEOUS:

(passing familiarity will suffice for everything not listed above)

- Study all of Instantcert

- Read chapters 1-24 of this site (only one page per chapter):

Lecture Notes — Ch. 1

There is no need to stress out over this exam. Familiarize yourself with the various terms mentioned above and then go and pass it.