Years ago, I took the Accuplacer math placement test (CPT) at Valencia Community College in Orlando, FL and scored high enough to be placed into Calculus. I'd spent some time abroad and had already completed coursework well beyond Differential Equations. However, my international transcripts weren’t evaluated correctly and I was told that I would have to retake all three levels of Calculus. Even though they were core courses required for my engineering degree, I didn't want to have to sit through them all again. My adviser was surprised at my placement test results because students typically tested into College Algebra so she suggested that I look into taking the CLEP Calculus exam. The CLEP was one of their best kept secrets, which was quickly made apparent on the day I showed up to take the exam. The test administrator look surprised when she saw what I was registered to complete and told me that students rarely took any CLEP exam and it had certainly been years since any student had attempted the CLEP Calculus exam. I was never the type of student that feels blind terror and has panic attacks before an exam but I must admit that made me a bit nervous. There were no real study guides out at the time so I just reviewed as much as I could from my old textbooks and hoped for the best. I mean, at less than $100 per exam it was well worth the risk. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The exam mostly involved applying the basic rules of derivatives and integrals with a few limits and volume problems thrown in so I passed and got credit. And yes, I still had to sit through Calculus II and III.
What is the CLEP anyway?
CLEP exams are prior learning assessments (PLA) designed to grant college credit to students who may have already officially (or unofficially) completed the coursework elsewhere but are not able to transfer credit. There are 33 CLEP exams and achieving at least the minimum score as set by your institution means that you can skip the hefty tuition bill and receive credit for a college course without sitting through an entire semester. With the exception of the College Composition exam, which is 120 minutes long, the CLEP exams are mostly multiple-choice exams that last for 90 minutes, not including the time it takes to complete the personal information and tutorial sections. There are two categories of CLEP exams: General and Subject Examinations.
The five (5) General Examinations are:
- College Composition
- College Mathematics
- Humanities
- Social Sciences and History
- Natural Sciences
The other 28 are Subject Examinations covering a wide range of introductory-level subject areas from Introductory Psychology to General Biology. CLEP exams cover core curriculum or general education courses that are typically taken during the first two years of college before you move on to your major’s course requirements. The American Council on Education (ACE) provides recommendations as to how many credits should be awarded for each of the CLEP exams.
However, every institution sets their own CLEP policy as to which exams they accept (if any), the minimum score required to earn credit and how many credits they grant per exam. CLEP scores typically have no effect on your GPA as most institutions simply grant college credits, not letter grades. Note that some colleges treat CLEP exams as exemptions that allow you to test out of prerequisite courses without earning credit. Others count them as electives so you can only test out of a general education course and not any course required for your particular major.
Why should I take the CLEP, if available?
Students working towards an undergraduate degree at a traditional 4-year institution can expect to pay more than $200 per credit hour in in-state tuition and fees. Out-of-state tuition typically costs about 3 times more. With averages ranging between 3 and 12 credits, a core curriculum course normally costs between $600 and $2,400. The College Board, developers and sponsors of the CLEP, charges $80 per exam but your testing center may also charge a nominal administrative fee. It’s clear that taking as many CLEP exams as your institution allows can save you hundreds! If you choose to take a CLEP exam, you can prepare around your schedule and, if you are already familiar with the material, studying can take a lot less time that going to class for an entire semester. Since credits earned through CLEP are sometimes counted as transfer credits and many institutions have a limit on the number of credits you can transfer, most of the time there is a limit to the number of credits you can earn towards your degree through CLEP. I’ve mostly seen a range of 30 to 50 CLEP credits allowed. But, based on the fact that the typical college student takes at least 30 credits per year, that’s about a year of time you can save in earning your degree! This makes the CLEP a huge time and cost benefit and, for many students, can be the difference in whether they can afford to go to college.
What score do I need?
All the multiple choice CLEP exams are scored by the computer as you enter and submit the answers to each question. Each correct answer is worth 1 point towards your raw score. Incorrect answers or questions left blank don’t count against you so your raw score is simply the number of questions you got right on the exam. Therefore, you should always make an educated guess if you don’t know how to solve a problem on the test. Since every test has a few versions (obviously to prevent friends sharing the questions), once you complete the exam your raw score is converted to a scaled score of between 20 and 80 points via a process called equating. This is meant to account for any differences in difficulty among test versions. The College Board won’t specify how they convert raw scores to scaled scores of course but as I mentioned, ACE provides suggestions to colleges as to what score would correspond to a C grade on the corresponding college course. Colleges then use these suggestions to set the minimum score for which they grant credit. On the exams (except for the level 2 language exams), ACE suggests that a scaled score of 50 should grant credit for the corresponding course. Since a score of 50 is halfway in between 20 and 80, you need to correctly answer about 50% of the questions on the exam in order to gain credit. We always recommend that students aim for 65% or higher to factor in the unknown equating formula as well as the fact that the minimum score set by your chosen school may differ from the ACE suggestion. This makes the CLEP even more lucrative. Your score doesn’t affect your GPA so there’s no worrying about grades, you get full credit for the course without sitting through months of classes, you pay less than $100 AND you only need to score about 50%!
Why don't more students know about CLEP?
My older sister also went to VCC and, over the years, came to be friends with my future guidance counselor. Had it not been for their relationship, I would never have been pointed in the direction of CLEP. College tuition and fees are always on the rise, making earning a degree that much harder especially for adult students trying to pay their way through college while also working full-time. More and more students are going the path of online higher education, seeking flexibility, lower costs and a chance to earn their degrees in less time.
The graph to the left gives a comparison of the number of students that actually went on to complete their Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree after earning PLA credit through exams like CLEP as compared to students who didn’t earn any PLA credits. As you can see, the number of students earning their Bachelor’s degree is significantly higher among those who chose to take exams like the CLEP. This is most likely due to the fact that using the CLEP can significantly reduce the cost of earning a college degree while giving the added bonus of early completion. So considering the time and cost benefits, why is it that more students don’t take the CLEP? Simple: most don’t know about it for the obvious reason that colleges prefer that you obtain credits from them by paying tuition. The higher education system does not survive if they allow you to CLEP your entire degree! Most have policies setting the minimum amount of coursework that must be completed at their institution in order to graduate. At the University of South Florida where I completed my degree, a minimum of 25% of the total credit hours required for my degree had to be earned at the colleges within the USF System.
Institutions are encouraged by the College Board to make information about the CLEP available to incoming students by:
- Having college recruiters share information about their CLEP policy with students during high school visits
- Adding information to the acceptance packets mailed after admission is granted
- Distributing brochures during orientation
- Including details about available exams and registration in their college catalog
Other than the college catalog (which no one reads entirely because they are simply too long and filled with boring verbiage), I don’t recall ever seeing information about the CLEP when I began at VCC or transferred to USF. Colleges often have information on their websites and brochures at their testing centers but you can’t access information unless you know that you should be looking for it. To get the word out we need to more heavily involve our guidance counselors and financial aid advisors; these are people that you are most likely to visit at least once, especially very early in your college career.
Afterthoughts
We strongly believe in the advantages of CLEP. I’ve met professors that do not approve of non-traditional learning as they believe it encourages cramming for an exam rather than fostering long-term retention. I believe that a student willing to spend a couple months teaching themselves Biology should be applauded for their dedication, drive and determination. I don’t believe that you can cram for the CLEP; you either know the material or you don’t. I’ve met many self-taught individuals who have gone on to become leaders in their field.
The CLEP exams are extremely appealing to high school graduates who want to make their scholarships go further while reducing the amount of student loan funding necessary to finance their college degrees. If you are like many adult students, you simply want to further your education to improve your career choices and earning potential. You definitely don’t want to waste time sitting in a classroom taking those general education classes like College Math or English Composition. CLEP exams are made even more lucrative to military personnel and veterans who may be able to claim reimbursement for CLEP testing fees. If you are a student with disabilities, please ask your testing center about the special accommodations they may provide, including extra time to complete your exam.
I encourage you to visit the College Board CLEP website to see which CLEP tests you may be interested in taking then make an appointment with your advisor to discuss your options for taking a CLEP exam today! It might be well worth the effort.
