What are the drawbacks of taking a CLEP exam "just because?"

[happymainemom]

My son just finished Biology with Apologia and I would love to have him take the CLEP just to test his knowledge. He's 9th grade, doesn't know what he wants to do or where he wants to go. Can he take it "for fun" and we can have a record of his score or would it be better to NOT take it? I would rather have him do it now just after he has finished than 2 or 3 years from now.

 

Thanks

[Ms. Riding Hood]

I don't see any drawbacks, except there is a cost involved...so it isn't totally "just for laughs", you know? ;) I don't remember the policy off-hand about how they report scores; you may be able to cancel score you are not happy with, or report scores individually, rather than having a report that shows all scores. Plus, we never reported any scores at test time. Ds just took them and they are waiting for some possible future use. We'll have to pay to have a score report sent then (as opposed to free at the time of testing), but the ones he did were as an 8th and 9th grader when we didn't even know where he wanted to go to college.

 

Of course, even if ds did score badly, I wouldn't expect any college would think it a big deal. You just don't get credit in that case. Bad scores on CLEP can't hurt you, imo. I think they are pretty much all up-side: score well, maybe get some credit; score poorly, oh well.

[Jane Elliot]

I agree with Lynne. The only drawback is the cost (I think $65 plus an administration fee from the school of about $15-25).

 

I recently checked the college board website for my boys. You can pick and choose which scores to send to a school, so if you have a particular score you didn't like, you can just not send it. One other thing to note is-- if you're planning to do the English composition, and you want the college of your choice to see the essay (and it seems most colleges want it), you should wait until you're enrolled in your college to take that test. Otherwise you'll be retaking it. That's my understanding anyway from what I could tell on the college board website and the websites of the colleges we've been looking at.

[Sandy in Indy]

Has he done both Biology books? If not, I'd hold off on the test. (I don't know too much about CLEP tests so I can't answer your *real* question!)

[Jane Elliot]

I am hoping Lynne will chime in again here. I think I read in another post that her son did the biology CLEP, and I've been wondering if he used just the one Apologia book or if he did the advanced book as well. My son finished the first Apologia book last week, so I had him take a practice biology CLEP and he passed. He said he only had trouble with questions relating to evolution. He's planning to study up and take the CLEP next week without doing the advanced book. You might consider getting the REA book so your son can take a practice test just to see where he is.

[Ms. Riding Hood]

He only used the first book, and the REA prep book. There was some stuff not covered in Apologia, and I can't remember if he just got that stuff from REA or what, but he didn't think it was a big deal or anything too difficult to cover, or anything that figured very prominently on the test. I think he scored an 85 or something (which is not 85%...but 85 in their wierd scoring system); the college board recommends credit for a 50. The test administrator was kind of shocked; she seemed to think this a very high score. I think most college kids come in and take these off the cuff when registering for classes, thinking to get out of some requirements.