ACCUPLACER Test Taking Advice Reasons to Take your Exam and do Well

Truth about Placement Exams

Rome Wells and his team didn’t just create this page with knowledge out of nowhere, our company placed decent amount of research to see what the placement exams are all about, so this way we can provide proper guidance for you and clarify some of the misconceptions that exist out there on the internet.  ACCUPLACER is not the first type of placement exam that we are writing about.  In case if you are interested check out other placement exams that we discuss on our site such as CLEP exam page, another type of placement test. 

Misconceptions about Placement Tests

So what is one of the misconceptions about placement exams and why taking ACCUPLACER test and doing well on it is actually pretty good idea for students who are trying to get placed into proper class

Rome Wells Story and experience with Placement exam

Well let me tell you my story, once upon a time Rome Wells went to UCONN University, and once upon a time, I Rome Wells took one of the placement exams, it was similar exam to ACCUPLACER, but not exact, but similar concept, where if you take your test and get a good score you get to be placed into higher level classes.  I didn’t pay any particular attention to exam that I took in my freshman year of college. 

 I was simply told that I need to take exam but never was given proper reason why

I simply was told I need to take this test as part of college requirements.  I didn’t have anyone tell me that Hey listen, if you take this test you can skip bunch of classes that you may not even need to take, especially if you already familiar with content knowledge related to such classes.

Even though i wasn't really given reason why, this is what my college advisor told me to and so I did, however, if I knew importance of it, I would study even smarter!

Luckily I just went ahead and took the placement exam, the one that I took actually allowed me to use calculator, and given the fact that I was a total geek in high school and loved concepts of graphic calculators, I simply brought one of the texas instrument calcs with me and managed to get a very high score, on my placement test and managed to skip several math classes that I didn’t need to take. 

When Rome Wells took his placement test similar he got lucky

I got lucky that the test I took was ok with me using advanced graphic Texas  instrument ti-89 calc, however that is not the case with ACCUPLACER exam so don’t count on that, especially if math is not your strongest subject.  The funny part about me, is that when I took my placement test, I really honestly didn’t know math that well.  Sure I liked numerical based approach when solving math equations using calculator, but I honestly hated at that time, concept of solving anything analytically, and frankly was scared about solving math problems analytically.  

Here is the shocking discovery I made after I finished my test

 So it was very funny to me when I did finish my exam, my professor came up to me and said, WOW you got a really advanced math score, and you have extreme level of analytical abilities showing all the steps when solving equations.  Well luckily my calc was able to do that for me and show me factored out and simplified form of quadratic equations, linear equations. 

My professor had no idea that I used the calc, and didn’t use my manual analytical without the calculator type of skill at all!   What was even more surprising to me, is that I skipped whooping 3 classes in math that I didn’t need to take.  To tell you the truth it may have been more than 3 classes, I don’t quiet recall!  However, the fact is simple… I managed to take higher math classes rather than going through lower level classes. 

Many students do understand conception of saving money on College Credits

Some people don’t really understand what that means (maybe that is because for some students parents are willing to pay, so they prefer to care less, but for some students who do not have parents to pay and must rely on financial aid and filling out that FASFA application, we have no such luxury! hence is the reason why i am sharing this story with you).   Let me help you clarify it.  What that means is very simple, I was able to graduate quicker, and even managed to switch from my computer science degree into math right the last minute and still graduate with pure math degree for my bachelors, the type of luxury I wouldn’t have if let’s say I didn’t end up skipping bunch of classes. 

So Rome wells actually skipeed 3 classes taking placement test really?

 Now if you think about this carefully, I skipped 3 classes let’s just minimum was 3….  Each class was 3 credits, that is basically 9 college credits, so what does it mean?  Well if you like to know what it means, simply go to your college and ask them how much is each college credit costs, then do your math… Back then when I went to college each college credit was obviously cheaper than it is today, for obvious reasons, education simply increased rapidly in price over the years.     

So how much exactly can typical student save if for example they managed to skip couple of classes

However let’s just say each credit costs $500 and suppose you just managed to skip 3 classes, how much money did you just save?  Well $500*9=$4500.  Hmmm… that is a real good chunk of change holy cow!  Obviously college credit price depends, on many factors if you are in state, out of state, what type of school it is, ivy league or not etc, etc, etc…   So this is just an example to give you some idea for how much money you can save. 

So what exactly is the advice and the tip and the gist of this story?

Note the gist of this story is that it helps you realize the importance of a any type of placement test, and ACCUPLACER   happens to be one of these tests.   Note ACCUPLACER doesn’t allow graphing calc like Texas instrument ti-89, so you can’t use this trick to do well on your math section of ACCUPLACER, there is embedded calc on the test, but you must know how to do problems without calc!)

 Anyway the gist of the story is very simple, you may say oh wow, Rome Wells used calc… and yes the placement exam that I had allowed, calc, but the placements exams at that time didn’t catch up with technology at the point of time when I took placement exam, so even placement exam administrators didn’t really realize what newer graphic calcs were capable of. 

So wait does that mean you can’t study with calculator before ACCUPLACER exam?

 No I didn’t say that, you can still study for your test with calculator, however learn analytical approach and make your goal to understand problem and solve it without calculator but then able to support your answer by proving it using calculator so this way you can easily solve problems analitically, before going to the test! 

How Rome Wells learned math backwards, by looking at calc first then trying to discover analytical answers, during his study

 I learned analytical approach in fact backwards.   I simply enjoyed technology so the way I learned how to solve problems analytically in math, is simply by relying on answers from calculator, where I would draw a graph then try to figure out how on earth did the calculator derived such answer!  This helped me faster learn analytical method of solving math problems quickly.

Ok now that you seen my story do you see the benefit of taking ACCUPLACER exam and dong well on it and getting better score, YES or NO?

 If you answered no, here is some level of additional information for you.  Some questions may be going through your head such as, my guidance counselor told me my ACCUPLACER test score will not impact my graduation date so I am good!   This is misconception number 1.  Just because your guidance told you that your graduation date will not be effected for whatever major you pick, that doesn’t actually means that you are all good! 

Common misconception about placement tests revealed

That just means you would still in one way or another have to adjust to the fact that you didn’t do well on your ACCUPLACER exam to either take bunch of other classes that can help you reach your graduation path quicker, or end up taking more classes either in the summer or throughout your semester, something that you wouldn’t have to do otherwise, especially if you did well on your exam?  So don’t fall into that misconception, placement exams are for a reason, and that reason not just for you to take it for the heck of it, but to determine your skill level to better place you in proper class. 

Why is this advice helpful to students and why Rome Wells thinks it's helpful.

When I was a student no guidance counselor told me that!  In fact I didn’t even speak English really well at that time, since English is my 2^nd language!  However, the fact that I managed to skip lots of classes that I didn’t’ need to take, I was able to restructure my goals accordingly, even in the situation where I realized computer science major wasn’t for me and math was (that is because that was around dot com bubble and there was not much demand for IT professionals)  So doing well, on ACCUPLACER gives access to some options that you may have never even thought about, deeply as what I am describing in this article. 

You may read this and say, well I don't want to know about some placement test Rome Wells took that is not even ACCUPLACER!

yes but that is not the point of this advice, the point of this advice is to help you realize importance of placement tests in general and why you should get better score, this concept is the same across many placements tests!  So regardless if it's ACCUPLACER or any other placement test, this advice is definitely relevent!

What's even more relevant is how you are going to prepare for this exam to improve your score or better what is the ACCUPLACER exam all about?

Find out how to prepare for your ACCUPLACER, exam view exam format, study info and test preparation advice, from Rome Wells on this page click here <-----

Oh one more thing... take a look how Rome Wells helps local CT students save money on education.... by match making students with local tutors and helping students study affordably.  Rome Wells also helps nationally students find tutors through his sister site www.TutoringServices.com where you can find a tutor for whooping $15 only for the first lesson for some tutors!  Sweet deal, especially since there is no agency recurring fee involved.