There’s an old adage – Time is Money. This couldn’t be more true than in the world of higher education – the more time you spend in college, the more money you pay. Here, time IS money. That being said, I’m always looking for the best ways to minimize both variables – time and money. That’s where CLEP exams come in. They let you test out of general education courses, so you can save time and money. You’ll have to purchase the study materials yourself, put in the time and effort to study, and then take the exam. If you pass, you can test out of that course and receive college credit without ever having to take the expensive semester-long version on campus. The exams are administered at various local testing centers.
The College Level Examination Program (CLEP) is administered by College Board (the same organization that also administers the SAT and AP exams), and is an amazing way to save both time and money. It’s essentially an opportunity for students to get college credits without taking college classes. Notice, I didn’t say anything about being in high school. That’s because, unlike AP classes and exams, students of all ages can take the exams, not just those in high school. The intent of the exams is to “test-out” of college courses, especially those that are core credits, common across all majors (ie. social sciences, language arts, elementary math, etc…) By studying for and taking the exams, students can “waive” or bypass the courses, without having to spend thousands of dollars registering for them and entire semesters attending them.
There are 30+ exams to choose from, and passing scores are accepted by about 2900 colleges across the United States. While it is extremely likely that most schools accept the credits, it’s best to check with the school before assuming. And sure, there’s a fee to take the exam ($87)*, but it is an extremely small fraction of what the course actually costs in college (a few thousand!). While the cost is low to take the exams, the price is steep – there is a significant amount of studying and work that goes into preparing for them on your own, but the reward of saving a few thousand dollars and saving six months of time and energy by completely bypassing a class in college, should provide plenty of incentive.
Prepare Using the Modern States Course Material and Vouchers
An amazing resource is Modern States. They are a non-profit education alliance dedicated to providing college access to students of all backgrounds. Their featured program is called Freshman Year for Free, and provides “tuition-free, high-quality courses online for college credit,” focusing on preparation for CLEP exams. The courses, textbooks and study materials are FREE (amazing right?!) and they also offer links to tutoring and mentoring resources. Once you pass 8 CLEP exams, you can potentially earn your “Freshman Year for Free,” depending on which college you choose to enroll in – they also provide a list of colleges that accept passing grades on CLEP exams. This is an amazing (and generous!) resource for those that want to put in the work and save tons of time and money.
But wait, there’s more! If them helping you to learn the material wasn’t enough, they also provide vouchers to pay for the CLEP exams! Once you finish the course material and take their practice test, they allow users to request a CLEP voucher code that will pay for the cost of the exam. The organization is a simply remarkable resource and worth checking out and utilizing in the pursuit of preparing for and successfully passing CLEP exams.