WHAT’S ON THIS EXAM?
The College Composition Modular exam assesses writing skills taught in most first-year college composition courses. Those skills include analysis, argumentation, synthesis, usage, ability to recognize logical development, and research.
TEST SPECIFICS
Visit the official College Board CLEP website to see specific skills and knowledge needed to score well.
NUMBER OF QUESTIONS
There are approximately 90 questions to be answered in 95 minutes.
NUMBER OF CREDITS
This particular CLEP can earn a student 3 college credits and 1 high school credit (1 year). See Locating College CLEP Lists and College CLEP Policies to help you learn about the CLEP exams your target college may accept.
PASSING SCORE
This exam is pass/fail. A passing score is 50. Read CLEP Exam Scoring.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO COLLEGE COMPOSITION EXAMS
This exam (modular) should not be confused with the College Composition CLEP exam. The modular exam does not have a writing component, while the non-modular requires two written essays. The modular exam is worth 3 college credits while the essay exam is 6 college credits. The credits from the essay exam are more likely to be accepted at a community college than the modular credits. More on that below.
DIFFICULTY RANKING
This exam is rated as one of the easier exams. I’ve had three students pass it in the 8th grade, and I know a student who passed it in the 9th grade. One of my daughters did not have time to complete the entire exam and she still passed it. See CLEP Difficulty Ranking based on our experiences as middle and high school test takers.
GRADE TAKEN
My students have taken this exam in the 8th and 9th grades. See Which CLEP When: How We Tracked from Middle School to Graduation.
STUDY PLAN
This exam does not require a specific course or textbook. If your student has had grammar and writing, and has read a decent number of books, he can probably pass this course with some basic review over a period of several weeks. See CLEP Prep: Different Study Plans.
FINAL PREPARATION
See CLEP Prep Boot Camp: The Final Weeks and Determining CLEP Exam Readiness.
RESOURCES
Start off with a practice test from a CLEP study guide like the CLEP Official Study Guide available at a public library and see where your student stands. If he gets a score higher than 60%, then he can probably pass without much preparation.
There’s not much you can do to prepare for this exam anyway. Brush up on grammar rules and look through a CLEP study guide. I think that an ACT study guide for writing (not the essay section) would serve a student well. ACT study guides provide a lot of multiple choice practice questions. You can find ACT writing tests for free on the internet.
The test has questions about MLA and APA reference formats. My kids memorized the standard format of each to prepare. One of their friends passed the test without studying the MLA or APA format, and he had no previous experience with referencing.
LIST OF HELPFUL RESOURCES
- CLEP Official Study Guide (provides 1 practice exam) (find at public library)
- Grammar review guide
- MLA and APA format guide
- ACT study guides and practice tests (use writing sections only) (not the essay section)
- REA CLEP study guide (for additional practice tests)
USING THESE CREDITS AT COLLEGE
Our community college does not accept the three College Composition Modular credits. It accepts the six credits from the College Composition exam with essays, however. None of the four year schools my daughters applied to accepted the credits from either one of these exams.
The College Composition with essays would be an appropriate choice for a student shooting for an associate’s degree or certification and does not want to take an introductory writing course at the community college.
The six credits from the College Composition with essays exam could possibly be transferred to a four-year college under a state articulation agreement like North Carolina has. Read CLEP Credits and NC’s Articulation Agreement.
PLACING A CREDIT ON THE HIGH SCHOOL TRANSCRIPT
Preparing for and attempting this exam can be a blessing for the high school student in several ways. First, it’s hard to fulfill the recommended 4 high school English credits. Technically, this exam can fulfill one of these credits. The credit can also be used in combination with a 1/2 credit English course like an essay or grammar course to make it a full credit. Adding the CLEP can boost a course to honors. Combination courses can be recorded as English I or II, etc.
Second, by preparing for this exam, a student is actually preparing for the writing section of the ACT exam too. This could improve an ACT score by several points.
Third, passing this exam can boost a student’s confidence in homeschool education. Kids always seem to fret about how their education stacks up to the public schools.
Read CLEP on the High School Transcript for ideas on how to record these credits. For ideas on how to determine a letter grade for the material studied read Determining Grades for CLEP Courses. Finally, if you need help on how to calculate a credit read Transcripts: How to Determine Course Credits.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
I think the main value of this exam is to bolster mom-grades for an English credit on the homeschool transcript. Since this exam ranks easier than most CLEP exams and can be passed by students who have decent reading and grammar experience, there is little time investment for what they get out it.
I’d prefer that my children take an actual writing course at college because most college courses have writing projects. Students need to develop writing skills to survive these projects. Furthermore, I trust that most four-year colleges require students to take an actual college level writing course.
Nevertheless, this exam has its pluses. I love the way this exam fortifies an English credit on the homeschool transcript, serves as ACT prep, and gives pause to homeschool skeptics, who may in fact be your own child.
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.