• InstantCert (invaluable for this exam, especially the feedback section of the forum)
• The CLEP History of the United States I w/CD (REA) - The Best Test Prep for the
• CLEP Official Study Guide 2010 (makes a great final exam)
• Peterson's online practice exams (harder than the actual exam but excellent for study)
• The History Channel Presents The Presidents

For this exam we used a combination of texts, videos, flashcards and a few movies from the period. Making flashcards or a power point presentation of the presidents, the highlights of each administration, and the major supreme court cases were helpful to solidify the timeline and flow of the study. Reading through the text of the REA book, while taking notes was important for the first phase of study. Next we began practice testing, starting with REA's CD-ROM tests and moving to Peterson's online tests and finally ending with the CLEP Official exam. The practice testing phase showed us what we needed to study more and Wikipedia is a good source for this because it was so easy to search for the term or person we were unfamiliar with.

The major "must knows" for this exam are:

• Women's issues of the period
• Reform Movements (both religious and political)
• Literature of the period
• Differences betwen the different British colonies
• Presidents, their administations (along with their scandals)
• The Constitution, Bill of Rights, Articles of Confederation
• Slavery and Indentured Servitude

A more detailed exam description can be found here.

A suprising component about this exam was the time spent on more minor players and issues and less on major figures like Washington. If you need any more Social Science credits and don't mind a challenge think about following this exam with DSST Civil War and Reconstruction. More on that one later...

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