Preparing for the CPE
Check out the "Guide to the CPE" Interactive Tutorial
Study the Reading Selection
With the registration materials for the CPE, students receive a reading selection
to study. Most of these selections are taken from materials commonly assigned
to students during the first half of their college experience or from books
or articles intended for a general audience. Read the selections that you
were given several times. Read with a pencil, and underline, mark up, highlight,
or outline the important points in the text as you would if you were studying
for a college examination. You may need to use a dictionary for some vocabulary.
Become familiar with the CPE format, directions, and
scoring criteria
As with any test, it is important to know what to expect and to follow the
directions carefully. Five thousand CUNY students have already taken forms
of the examination. The readers found that the students who wrote the best
essays:
- Prepared thoroughly.
- Took time to plan their answers.
- Answered all parts of the questions.
- Summarized only the parts of the readings that the question asked them for.
- Kept the reader in mind as they prepared their responses; that is, they focused their essays clearly and made logical connections between the two readings and also between the readings and their own ideas and experiences.
- Took time to edit and correct their work.
