Minimal age to start taking CLEPs and DSST's

My son is a honor student in high school, what is a good age to have him start taking exams for college without burning him out.
What is the minimal age for taking the exams???

Thanks!

 

Hello clcharle. I contacted a clep representative. There is no minimum age required. Your son may begin testing as soon as possible. Summer is an ideal time.

If you need more information, call CLEP at: 1-800-257-9558.

Cheers,

Ray


P.S. Slow down parents. Infants may not take clep exams.

 

If he has particularly sharp academic skills, prep for and take the 5 general exams. That's 30 hours of first year college credit. Depending upon his areas of personal interest, some of those tests will be a challenge.

Then, go for the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature -- if he's a good honor student then this one will be a very easy 6 hours.

Some of the other exams aren't too hard but they tend to be program specific. The American History and/or Western Civs aren't so bad for someone at an AP level in the subject or a high interest in The History Channel.

Just don't let him go in thinking they'll be overly easy -- always prepare for the exam first. I've found The College Board study guides to be sufficient for most exams. If he can nail above 50% on one of those practice exams and preferably above 75% then go for it.

The tests above account for 36 semester hours of credit. Where I've been for 3 years that's 36 x $290 per semester hour for $10,440 plus books at roughly $1200 for that many hours. A nice savings if he has the knowledge and ability to do it.

Go for the language exam if he has language skills from HS... up to 12 hours available there.