CLEP questions....

[Corraleno]

I would like for my son to CLEP out of as many Gen Ed requirements as possible, since he is planning a double science major and needs to concentrate on major courses once he's in college. He's gifted, but not a great test taker (dyslexic, processing speed issues), so it's hard to predict which tests he would do well on and which might flop. He will be attending our state university, which accepts CLEPS (although they require higher scores for credit than the CLEP minimums). My questions are:

 

Will it count against him if he takes a bunch of CLEP exams and only passes a few of them?

 

Can he wait until after he's admitted to send the CLEP scores to the University?

 

TIA,

Jackie

[Sandra in NC]

Answers to your questions:

1) You choose which scores to send to the college. On the transcript request form, the CollegeBoard has an option to send only scores of 50 or more (50 is generally the minimum passing score).

 

2) Yes, the CollegeBoard will retain all scores for 20 years. Wait to send all CLEP scores until your student is accepted to a college. That way, you only have to pay a transcript fee of $20 for all the test results.

 

For more information, see info on getting started with CLEP and AP on this site: http://www.freewebs.com/officesolutions/contact.htm

Cntl-click on the orange hyperlinks. You'll see a link to the College Board's CLEP Information Guide for 2009-2010 and on page 13 of that guide, you'll see the transcript request form. Note that you have complete control over which scores are sent.

 

After having the experience of paying out of state tuition for Gen Ed courses, I am delighted to find the CLEP alternative! My son commented that "CLEP is shorter, but harder" (i.e. it requires more focused, thorough study for a short amount of time...but college courses are actually less demanding--they just take more time and money than CLEP.)

Edited August 1, 2009 by Sandra in NC
reword

[Corraleno]

Thank you so much Sandra! I'd read on the College Board site that the transcript was "a cumulative score report of all CLEP exams you have taken and the scores you earned in the last 20 years" and I just assume that you didn't have a choice about which scores were reported. It didn't occur to me to download the transcript request form (duh!).

Thanks again for your help!

Jackie

[Sandra in NC]

Yes, some states have tuition surcharges for students with more than 140 credits, so it's important to be able to send just the test scores relevant to your student's degree.

 

In NC, credit from AP, CLEP and IB is not included in the 140 credit total, but check your own state's policies. You don't want to be caught off guard!