Sample Questions: College Composition

The following College Composition sample questions aren't used in actual CLEP exams and aren't presented here as they will be on the exam. Use them to get a sense of question format and difficulty level.

Directions

This section measures test takers’ ability to analyze writing. This skill is tested primarily in passage-based questions pertaining to critical thinking, style, purpose, audience, and situation: appeals, tone, organization/structure, rhetorical effects, use of language, and evaluation of evidence.

Questions

(1) There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. (2) A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. (3) It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.

(4) Two other passengers, besides the one, were plodding up the hill by the side of the mail. All three were wrapped to the cheekbones and over the ears, and wore jack-boots. (5) Not one of the three could have said, from anything he saw, what either of the other two was like; and each was hidden under almost as many wrappers from the eyes of the mind, as from the eyes of the body, of his two companions.

1. Which of the following pairs of literary devices appears in sentence 1?

A. Alliteration and onomatopoeia
B. Metaphor and juxtaposition
C. Personification and simile
D. Irony and paradox
E. Point of view and stream of consciousness

2. Which of the following best summarizes the meaning of sentence 5 (reproduced below)?

Not one of the three could have said, from anything he saw, what either of the other two was like; and each was hidden under almost as many wrappers from the eyes of the mind, as from the eyes of the body, of his two companions.

A. Even though the passengers were friends, none of them knew how the others were feeling.
B. Two of the passengers were attempting to conceal what they knew from the third passenger.
C. The dense fog made it hard for the coachman to keep track of the passengers.
D. None of the passengers could discern the appearance or character of the other two passengers.
E. All of the passengers had witnessed something they were afraid of but could not discuss with each other.

3. The overall mood of the passage can best be described as

A. ominous
B. melancholy
C. nostalgic
D. depressing
E. serene

Answers

C, D, A

For more sample questions and information about the exam, download "College Composition at a Glance" from the resources below.