CLEP QUICK START: DIY

I remember being completely intrigued and completely baffled by CLEP exams and how to prepare for them by myself. It has taken me 9 years of research and trial and error to feel confident making recommendations about how to prepare for them. This post is to help you cut straight to the chase, so you can help your high school student get started quickly.

WHY CLEP

Passing a CLEP exam earns college credit. The homeschool transcript can especially benefit from objective scores and grades. CLEP credits are the antidote to Mom-grades. A strong transcript can earn college acceptance and merit scholarships. College credits can also shorten the amount of time spent at a college on either end of the experience. See CLEP on the High School Transcript.

CLEP STRATEGY FOR HIGH SCHOOL

College level resources either replace high school curricula or supplement them with the goal of passing a particular CLEP exam. These resources can also help a student who already had a high school course prepare for an exam.

REASONABLE TERMS

CLEP exams are pass/fail, affordable, convenient, and always available. See CLEP Q & A for basic information. See also CLEP Exam Scoring.

CLEP SUBJECTS

CLEP exams represent the courses generally taught in the first two years of college. Certain high school courses feed into these courses and some do not. For example, psychology and sociology are not typical high school courses. But they can still be taken and recorded on the high school transcript.

POPULAR CLEP EXAMS

These are the most popular CLEP exams: US History I, Sociology, Psychology, Western Civilization I, College Algebra, Analyzing Literature, Biology, American Literature, Principles of Marketing, and Principles of Management. Read CLEP Exam Difficulty Ranking to see how we ranked them based on our experiences.

HOW TO CHOOSE AN EXAM

If you have a target college, find the CLEP exams they accept. Then pick a CLEP subject from their list that best fits what your student is doing or has done in school. If you don’t have a target college, pick a subject that is rated easy to medium in difficulty and that fits what you are doing in school. Ideally, the subject would fill a slot on the high school transcript.

Community colleges, certain colleges, and online adult education programs tend to accept most CLEP credits. See Locating College CLEP Lists and College CLEP Policies. Also find out if your state has an articulation agreement between the community colleges and its four-year schools that would allow more CLEP credits to transfer with an associate degree. Read CLEP and NC’s Comprehensive Articulation Agreement.

CHOOSE A STUDY PLAN

Depending on previous courses, exam, student experience, and preference, the preparation can take 1 school year, one semester, or 1 month. See CLEP Prep: Different Study Plans, Sample CLEP Year, and CLEP Short Cram Plan.

CHOOSE STUDY RESOURCES

You will choose resources that will either replace a high school course or supplement one. I encourage families to pull together resources on their own rather than use one of those quick-pass online courses. See my post CLEP Study Materials for a basic overview of the types of resources available. To find out the specific resources I used for each exam, click on individual exams.

STUDY FOR MULTIPLE CLEP EXAMS

My kids typically prepare for more than one CLEP exam a year using a one-year study plan. After more experience, they were able to condense the learning into a semester or less. My older daughter crammed the Marketing and Management CLEPs into 2 weeks each. Reducing the length of study periods can increase the number of CLEP exams studied in a year.

SEQUENCING CLEP EXAMS

After 9 years of using CLEP exams, I figured out a sequence of CLEP exams that makes sense with the sequence of high school courses. It’s a way to gain the maximum number credits in high school. Read: Which CLEP When: How We Tracked from Middle School to Graduation.

CLEP CREDITS CAN LEAD TO EARLY DEGREES

If you have a driven student like I did, it is possible to earn enough CLEP credits to earn an associate degree before high school graduation.

For super motivated students, CLEP exams can help them earn a bachelor’s degree in the 12th grade. This is not an impossible feat as there is a company formerly called College Plus (now Pearson Accelerated) that coaches students to do just that. Using College Plus as inspiration, my daughter actually earned enough CLEP credits to be accepted into an online college at the end of 10th grade. She only needed two more years of college for a bachelor degree, but she decided against the online school. Read how this can be done and our story: Bachelor Degree in the 12th Grade.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE FOR CLEP EXAMINATIONS

Students who have prepared for a CLEP exam can take it in middle school and high school. But these exams are not for every student or family. To find out if your student would be a good candidate for these exams read Ideal Candidates for CLEP Testing.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CLEP EXAMS

For the fine details, read my posts on CLEP basics to get started. I have also posted our experiences with 16 different CLEP exams. The resources and study strategies are included. To screen out which CLEP exams not to take, read my post Which CLEPs Not to Take.

No downsides. One of my friends, whose rising 10th grade son has 15 CLEP credits, recently said to me, “In the beginning, I was skeptical about CLEP exams for many reasons, but now I see that there are absolutely no downsides to doing them.”

My experience with CLEP testing. I have coached my kids and their friends through 16 different CLEP exams over a period of 9 years. Collectively, they have passed 39 CLEP exams and earned over 159 college credits. I’m still coaching my younger son through his CLEP journey. My high school graduates have received full-ride merit scholarships.

Musing: a period of reflection or thought. As such this post reflects my thoughts, opinions, and experiences on the topic. The choice to home school and the methods you choose are yours to determine.