CLEP question

[OhioMomof3]

My DD is planning on taking some dual-enrollment courses and CLEP tests to earn college credit while finishing high school. She is planning on a career in health care. Generally, she will take DE courses for the science and math requirements of her major and use CLEP tests to fulfill other basic GE requirements. I am wondering whether my DD should take the Psychology CLEP or a DE course. I would appreciate your knowledge.

[Corraleno]

If you have a choice between DE and CLEP, I would go with DE unless you know exactly where she will attend college, and exactly which CLEPs they accept. Many many colleges only accept CLEPs in a few subjects, and those subjects vary greatly from school to school.

 

For example, the lists of accepted CLEPs for our two state flagships have barely any overlap — one accepts the literature CLEPs but none of the 4 history CLEPs and no biology. The other accepts biology and all the history CLEPs, but no literature. One accepts psychology but not sociology, while the reverse is true at the other one. And these are large public universities in the same state!

Edited May 30, 2016 by Corraleno

[katilac]

As far as knowledge goes, intro psych classes tend to be huge and cookie cutter, so self study for CLEP would probably do just as well. 

 

But Corraleno is correct about different schools taking different tests. It would depend on how old she is and how far along in the college selection process - if she's a rising senior, and you know she plans on a state school and they all take the CLEP, then I'd probably roll the dice and use DE for something more useful. 

 

My dd really wanted to test out of biology, and every school but one on her short list accepted that CLEP! So she is trying for chemistry, which all on her list accepted - and she is actually attending that one school, so it was a good choice. Biology would have been so much easier for her, but the universe did not cooperate. She's much more on the edge with chemistry. 

[OhioMomof3]

Thank you, Corraleno and Katilac. DD is not close to a decision about her future college yet; I do know some colleges in our area that take no CLEP tests and others that take all or close to all.

[rlestina]

What about self-study for the AP test?  APs tend to be accepted at a lot more places and more consistently than CLEPs, and the material for self-study is similar.  If the fee is not a big obstacle, you could always self study and then take both the CLEP and the AP, just in case.

[Joules]

What about self-study for the AP test?  APs tend to be accepted at a lot more places and more consistently than CLEPs, and the material for self-study is similar.  If the fee is not a big obstacle, you could always self study and then take both the CLEP and the AP, just in case.

 

This is generally true, but for Psychology, one of ds's short list universities gave credit for Psy 101 for the CLEP, but only gave elective credit for the AP.  So the AP wouldn't have given him the basic pre-req credit for higher level classes.  He didn't choose that school, but we were looking at having him take the CLEP (even after a 5 on the AP), so that he didn't have to repeat the intro course.

 

Really, when (ahem!) students wait 'til the last minute to choose a college, all you can do is go with the averages and make your best bet.  In general, scouring requirements,  I found that DE was better than AP (unless the DE is at a 2 year college) and AP was better than CLEP.  But I felt like I was studying English spelling where my exception-to-the-rule list was pretty long.

[Mom22ns]

If she is considering nursing, she should definitely take it DE. Nursing programs judge candidates in different ways. However, we have found it common to give higher weight to grades in required courses. Psychology is required. It is also (often) an easy A. Additionally, in all the nursing programs we've looked at a second Psychology course is required. I think it is easy to pass the Psychology CLEP with minimal understanding and that gaining a bit more understanding is probably necessary to do well in most DE classes, forcing the student to be more prepared for the second psych class.

[OhioMomof3]

Thank you, everyone. DE is the way DD will go.

[OhioMomof3]

Dp

Edited May 31, 2016 by OhioMomof3