Monthly Archives: November 2011
Psychology 101
Don’t Leave Home Without It:
- Study Skills (your learning style and how to own your time management and study habits)
- Financial Basics (how saving and spending can affect opportunities)
- Critical Thinking (Logic — what factors affect our decision-making-process)
When asked what courses I recommend students take to be prepared to CLEP, I like to re-phrase the question to: What courses do I recommend ALL students take before they leave home? We want our students prepared for success regardless if they are earning college credits in high school. I would start sprinkling in these ideas before middle school, and in 7th grade and up, include a semester course on each. However, if they possess strong study skills, understand the true costs of college and understand the motives and effects of their decision-making, not only will they be more goal-driven in college, but they will better understand the opportunities that open up if they work hard and include CLEP/DSST exams in their middle and high school years.
So you’ve got these covered (or plan to). Then what? Naturally, we teach our kids in History, Algebra and English. But many of us don’t think about including Psychology in our student’s line up. Besides being a fun and engaging course, students learn about people, theories, experiments and ideas that have become common-place in our culture. When I taught this course in a homeschool co-op two years ago, I scoured the review boards for a text that was engaging, appropriate for grades 7-12, visual, yet straight-forward and conservative. My choice was Understanding Psychology by Kasschau (purchased for one cent and there is a free companion website). Followed up with InstantCert cards, the majority in the class (twenty 7-12th graders) took and passed the Psychology CLEP exam.
- One of the reasons I chose to teach this subject (my own kids were in the class) was because of the secularism and twists to the subject matter that one often finds in a college intro-psych course. Yes, you can e-mail your local college and ask for a syllabus!
- A second reason was that Psychology is a common course option for all liberal arts degrees so CLEP now or take at college later. For those working on meeting the MN Transfer Curriculum Goal areas, Psychology often fulfills two goal areas.
An added bonus to having your students study Psychology in high school is the enormous opportunity to easily build on the first three credits earned. Psychology is a foundational course that several other CLEP Exams build on, or overlap. After taking the Psychology CLEP, you will find it is easy to add 2-8 weeks of additional study and also earn credits for the Human Growth and Development CLEP, Educational Psychology CLEP and even the Sociology CLEP. My 10th grader completed all of these in one year (12 credits) and my 8th grader took and passed three of these courses (9 credits).
If your student is a visual learner, there is a great new FREE resource from education-portal.com Match these videos to the Table of Contents in the REA Psychology CLEP book and you will have a solid Psychology course (and 3-12 credits)!
If YOU have a favorite Psychology CLEP option, feel free to leave a comment!
What’s your Motivational DNA?
So YOU’ve decided your student should include earning college credits in their high school studies … now to let him or her in on your plan. It really does work best if you both are on the same page. As parents, we see the big picture and are motivated by things that, frankly, are not yet part of our teen’s world … things like debt, a long-term plan and time for opportunities that lead to employment.
Here is a online test that will give both you and your student some insight into what motivates them: http://www.getmotivatedbook.com/Test.aspx
It really helps to talk the same language, or at least understand what motivates your student. During a recent consultation appointment, I suggested to a parent who would like her daughter to CLEP some classes she is taking is high school but is willing and able to fund her entire daughter’s college education, that she strike a deal — a financial incentive.
At the college her daughter is choosing each 3-credit class will cost $900 (just tuition — not including books or time living on campus). Here’s the deal: For every high school course that her daughter earns credit with a CLEP exam, mom will put half of what she would have spent on those same credits had the daughter waited to take them in college and put that money into a Savings Account for her daughter. It’s a win-win!
Sometimes it does take getting creative to speak our kids’ motivational language. For my family, I spoke their language with Chinese Buffets after every exam, chocolate chip cookies when they dug into flashcards, coordinating study groups with other clepping-friends, but I also spoke with $$ and cents. Our deal with our kids was that their dad and I would foot all educational bills while they were still in high school. After high school graduation, any credits they had left to earn was on their dime. Harsh? Maybe, but it is our financial reality and to not share that with them when they have a choice about how much debt they want to own would have been unfair to them.
So what’s your student’s Motivational DNA?
SAT Question of the Day
One question a day … that is all it takes. After just a few weeks you will notice patterns in how questions are worded, vocabulary terms you will pick up on, identify tactics to eliminate answers and make better educated guesses. All delivered to your e-mail account! Sign up for College Board’s SAT Question of the Day at:
https://ecl.collegeboard.com/account/AccountProfile.jsp
BONUS: College Board is the same organization that offers CLEP exams. By practicing SAT questions, you will get familiar with wording on CLEP exams as well!
View sample question at: http://apps.collegeboard.com/qotd/question.do
