CLEP College Composition Modular study guide
CLEP College Composition Modular · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The College Composition Modular exam is a College Board CLEP exam composed entirely of multiple-choice questions and covers material usually taught in a one-semester college composition course. It is intended for students who already write at a first-year college level and want to earn credit by examination instead of taking the course; the exam is built as a standalone multiple-choice assessment, and most colleges award credit on the basis of this exam alone. It runs approximately 90 questions in 95 minutes and measures the fundamental principles of rhetoric and composition along with the ability to apply Standard Written English, plus familiarity with research and reference skills. Content is divided into four areas: Conventions of Standard Written English (10%), Revision Skills including sentence-level skills (40%), Ability to Use Source Materials (25%), and Rhetorical Analysis (25%), with the latter two tested largely through passage-based sets. The CLEP College Composition Modular study guide has 4 sections and about 1,163 words.
01Conventions of Standard Written English
Most convention questions fail candidates not because the rule is unknown but because the sentence is long. Strip a sentence to subject + verb + object, decide, then re-read it in full.
303 words, about 2 min02Revision Skills, Including Sentence-Level Skills
Revision questions give you a sentence or short passage plus four versions. Two are usually ungrammatical, one is grammatical but wordy or illogical, and one is best.
286 words, about 1 min03Ability to Use Source Materials
Source questions test whether you can choose, quote, and connect material without distorting it. Choosing : judge a source by authority (credentials, publisher, peer review), currency (does the field date quickly?), relevance (does it address your actual question?), and bias (who funded it, what is omitted?).
301 words, about 2 min04Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical analysis asks how a text works on a particular audience. Begin by naming purpose (what the writer wants readers to think, feel, or do), audience (what they already believe, what they resist), and occasion .
273 words, about 1 min