What is a CLEP exam? CLEP exams cover intro-level college course materials. They cover subjects typically taken during the first two years of college. These courses are known as general education courses or core courses. Students who receive a passing score can earn 3 or more college credits accepted at more than 2,900 colleges and universities. See CLEP Q & A for more details.
Are CLEP exams easy? Some are rated easier than others. Some require very little preparation and some require a lot. It depends on courses already taken too. Age is a factor as well. You can check websites that rank the difficulty of these exams. You can find out from the College Board website what material is on each exam and determine the difficulty for your student. Another way to determine difficulty is to look at a CLEP practice test. The CLEP Official Study Guide published by the College Board has one practice test for each subject. It may be available at a public library. See CLEP Difficulty Ranking based on our experiences as middle and high school test takers.
CLEP exams are pass/fail. There are approximately 90 multiple choice questions that need to be answered in 90 minutes. A passing score is usually 50. The bar is pretty low. The scores are computed using a raw score and a scaled score factored together. See the College Board website for the scoring process.
How do you prepare for a CLEP exam? College level materials replace or supplement high school curricula. My preferred method is using a college textbook and study guides over the school year. If a high school course has already been taken, study guides and a college textbook can fill the gaps of missing information. This blog is to encourage you to gather a variety of resources yourself rather than use a quick-pass online CLEP prep course. See CLEP Study Materials to get a general overview of the types of resources we found essential.
Who can take a CLEP exam? Anybody who has prepared for an exam can take one. I had a twelve year old take one and each one of my children at the age of 13 had taken at least one.
How will I know if my student is ready? The best way to determine if your student might be ready for an exam is to have her take a practice test. See my post on Determining CLEP Readiness.
CLEP credits at the community college. High school students can earn from 3 credits to 56 or more. Since community colleges accept most CLEP credits, a student with many CLEP credits may only need a few additional courses to complete an associate degree. The additional courses would include subjects not covered by CLEP exams like public speaking. My older daughter earned an associate degree before she graduated from high school using 56 CLEP credits.
CLEP credits at a four-year school. These credits can be used at four year schools too. A student with 30+ credits may be able to transfer in as a sophomore or junior. These credits can be used by a college freshman to gain scheduling priority at their school as well as to allow an early graduation.
My daughter entered a four year school with enough credits to be a junior but the freshman scholarships and freshman experience drew her in as a freshman. Many students with substantial credit choose to enter as freshmen for these reasons.
Not all colleges accept all CLEP credits. To find out which CLEP credits a college accepts, you have to access the college website. This information is usually found under transfer student information. Some colleges accept a lot of CLEP credit, some a few, and some accept none. Even if a school does not accept certain CLEP credits that your child earned, there are so many other benefits to taking these exams in high school. See Locating College CLEP Lists to learn which CLEP credits your target school accepts. See College CLEP Policies to learn about a few different ways that colleges handle CLEP credits. Read Assessing the Limitation of CLEP Credits to help you determine if the benefits of CLEP testing outweigh the one limitation.
CLEP exams can validate your student’s knowledge base. I know many homeschooled families who do not take courses seriously and I suspect that college admission officers are aware of that. Passing a CLEP exam demonstrates to college officials that your student learned the subject matter at a college level.
Even if the college does not accept the CLEP credits your student earned, it still makes the student stand out from his homeschooled peers.
CLEP exams can demonstrate hard work. It takes a lot of effort to prepare for some of these exams. Colleges want to know if a student is willing to work hard to make good grades and not end up as one of the 40% who drops out.
CLEP exams can improve study skills and testing skills. CLEP exams give homeschooled students a study goal and testing experience. These two things are hard to incorporate into home education otherwise.
CLEP credits can convince a doubter that homeschool is good. All too often I hear stories about a family member who feels that homeschool does not provide a quality education. Even homeschooled students second guess their progress. Once my kids started racking up CLEP credits, the value of homeschool was no longer questioned.
Who is the ideal candidate for CLEP testing? Preparing for CLEP exams takes organization and hard work. The ideal student is one who wants to go to college and is willing and motivated to make that happen. He will figure out study schedules and stay on task. Another candidate is an agreeable student with a motivated and organized parent. There is no third candidate in my opinion.
How to get started. To read about a general overview of how to get started check out CLEP Quick Start. Check out my posts on CLEP basics and how we approached individual exams.
If you want to create a pathway using multiple CLEP exams from middle school to graduation, read my post Which CLEP When: How We Tracked from Middle School to Graduation?
My experience with CLEP testing. I have coached my kids and their friends through 15 different CLEP exams over a period of 8 years. Collectively, they have passed 38 CLEP exams and earned over 156 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.