WHAT’S ON IT
The Humanities exam tests general knowledge of literature, art, and music and the other performing arts. It is broad in its coverage, with questions on all periods from classical to contemporary and in many different fields: poetry, prose, philosophy, art, architecture, music, dance, theater, and film.
NUMBER OF CREDITS
The Humanities CLEP used to be a 6-credit exam but now it is a 3-credit exam. Some schools might still grant six credits but a student should check before assuming that. See Locating College CLEP Lists and College CLEP Policies to help you learn about the CLEP credits that your target school may accept. See CLEP on the High School Transcript for ideas on how to record these credits.
NUMBER OF CREDITS
There are approximately 140 questions to be answered in 90 minutes.
PASSING SCORE
This exam is pass/fail. A passing score is 50. Read CLEP Exam Scoring.
DIFFICULTY RATING.
The Humanities CLEP exam is rated a 3 out of 5 with 5 being the most difficult according to websites that rank CLEP tests. Difficulty depends on previous studies in the humanities area. See CLEP Difficulty Ranking based on our experiences as middle and high school test takers.
WHEN TO TAKE
Since this exam pulls from a wide range of facts, it is probably best taken in the 11th or 12th grades. This gives a student time to learn American and English literature facts. It also gives a student time to gather facts about art, music, dance, and theater from around the world. See Which CLEP When: How We Tracked from Middle School to Graduation.
STUDY PLAN
My daughter crammed in the facts for the Humanities CLEP in one month. She studied four hours a day. See CLEP Study Plans and Sample CLEP Year.
RESOURCES
Having already passed the American Literature CLEP and English Literature CLEP, my daughter had a solid base for the Humanities CLEP. She used InstantCert questions to prepare. She read through the questions and researched the facts writing down new ones for study. She created pages and pages of facts and memorized them. Since the topics are broad, an effective strategy is to browse through multiple resources and gather facts. Pick as much low hanging fruit from as many resources as possible.
FINAL PREPARATION
See CLEP Prep Boot Camp: The Final Weeks and Determining CLEP Exam Readiness.
WHAT THIS EXAM PAIRS WITH
The American Literature CLEP and English Literature CLEP exams provide a bulk of data for the Humanities CLEP.
USING THESE CREDITS AT COLLEGE
The value of the Humanities CLEP is that it can fulfill a global studies general education requirement. We find this category harder to fulfill because the options seem slim. Foreign language can serve as global studies credit for example. My older daughter was able to use the credits from this exam at her four-year college. It was 6 credits when she used them thankfully.
My second daughter did not study for this exam because she did not take English literature or have any interest in it.
This exam would be great for someone who wants to transfer into a college that accepts a lot of CLEP credits and for someone who might not be excited by the global studies options at their school.
There is a way to transfer CLEP credits into a state college that does not normally accept them. If your state has a comprehensive articulation agreement like North Carolina has, a student can earn an associate’s degree at a community college and then transfer CLEP credits to a state college in the same state. For more information read CLEP and NC’s Comprehensive Articulation Agreement.
PLACING A CREDIT ON THE HIGH SCHOOL TRANSCRIPT
After studying for and taking this exam, a student can confidently place one credit on the high school transcript. Since the material involves a lot of literature, this credit can contribute to an English credit. If you include writing in this course it can be a full English credit.
Another option is to portion off a half credit and combine it with a half credit of writing. The other half credit of humanities can be combined with endeavors in art, music, theater, or dance to create one credit in these areas.
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 Calculate Course Credits.
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.