To Clep or Not to Clep?

[sue]

What are the pros and cons of Clep?

[kate in seattle]

con:

they cost money (not as much as an AP, but $)

they may not be accepted at your student's choice of college

any type of standardized test may not show what your student really knows

 

pro:

they provide some kind of outside verification of what your student has done at home

they are less expensive than AP

they are less difficule than AP

they are available in more subjects than AP or Sat Subject tests

they could provide college credit at your student's college

 

I am sure others will have more to add.

 

If you need independent verification of a student's work I would consider CLEP as a way to do that. My older two did three-four years at home (and I did not care about outside verification) and then two years of community college. I am sure it is those grades that got Alex into the AFAcademy, not my mommy grades. But I don't think they would have been impressed with CLEP scores either.

[LatinTea]

My son has taken 4 CLEPs, just finishing up one last Friday. He studies for the topic which takes a couple weeks, does the test for 1 1/2 hours (well, it took him 35 minutes for his Humanities test!), and then receives his score, so far always passing and then has college credits (from 3 - 6). Our state gives the student 6 free tests (we only pay the administration fee of $15) and then they are only $70 after that. With brick and mortar college credits going up towards $1000 for 3 credits, there's definitely a big difference.

 

You must decide though, how you want to handle the CLEPs. Colleges will only take up to about 30 credits this way. Some take less, some a bit more, but 30 credits is where they start to have issues with it (you know, they start missing out on the big bucks then). :glare:

 

Right now my ds is going to go for his bachelor's using testing, a few online classes, and registering with Thomas Edison State College. This way, he will have his degree in less than 2 years at a fraction of the cost. His plans include going for a Master's after that.

 

Margo

[Jane in NC]

The usual mantra applies: check with the college.

 

I looked at a couple of colleges within the UNC system and found that the CLEP policy varies among schools. For example, Appalachian State is far more generous with CLEP credits than say NCSU which does not acknowledge many of the CLEP tests.

 

From a financial perspective, I can appreciate the desire to cross off some of the basic course work in order to expediate the degree. My concern, however, is that this may raise the bar for students who are then placed in the next course in the sequence. Will their background be sufficient?

 

No hard and fast rule here, I fear. You and your student must determine what is best for your student which may not apply to other students applying to other colleges.

 

By the way, my son's number one college of the moment does not accept any CLEP credits. At this point, he is not planning on taking any CLEP exams.

 

Best regards,

Jane

[Sharon in MD]

We will try two CLEPs this year, our first. Both will be for courses that are not in ds's intended major. He could probably CLEP more, but they would fall into his area of study and we want him to take those courses at the University he will attend.

 

Since we are new at it, what is the CLEP format....multiple guess? Is it done on a computer or what?

 

He's going to try the biology and the Western Civ I tests.

[readwithem]

 

 

By the way, my son's number one college of the moment does not accept any CLEP credits. At this point, he is not planning on taking any CLEP exams.

 

Best regards,

Jane

 

The same is true here. FWIW I CLEP'd out of Spanish (over 30 years ago) but it didn't help me one bit. My university didn't have a foreign language requirement, and I changed my major so many times I had nearly enough hours to graduate twice :glare:

[LynnG in Arizona]

 

Since we are new at it, what is the CLEP format....multiple guess? Is it done on a computer or what?

 

 

 

The format is multiple choice, done on a computer (under supervision) at a specific test site in your area.

 

The nice thing about CLEP is that the student gets immediate results upon finishing the test. The only exception is the writing exam.

 

My dd is about to take her first CLEP this week. She's taking the Spanish exam, and is hoping to get enough credit to avoid her college's foreign language requirement. She could have just taken the university's foreign language placement exam at orientation next month, but this way she will get actual college credit if she does well enough.

 

Her college website gives a specific sliding scale for each CLEP exam. For Spanish, for instance, if the student gets a certain score (say, 55), they are awarded credit for Spanish 101. If they get over 60, they are awarded credit for Spanish 102. Etc . . . so that my daughter has the potential to get credit for up to four semesters of college Spanish.

 

As others have pointed out, it definitely depends on the college. But it can be a really painless and inexpensive way to rack up some college credit in specific areas. My daughter is going to an excellent state university, and I think they are very generous in their CLEP policies.

 

HTH.

[Sharon in MD]

Thanks Lynn! nt