CLEP Chemistry vs. AP Chemistry

Hi, CLEP newbie here.

My daughter is a HS Senior. She is a very good student, taking five AP classes this year and is going to be a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill.

She was in a car accident and has been in pain, going to PT 3x week, on pain meds to sleep, had to quit work, quit coaching soccer. It really messed up her studying for the AP exams, especially Chemistry and she's afraid she didn't do well enough. She is dissapointed...she needed to get a 3 in Chemistry to get credit for a science class at UNC. She's taken two years of HS Chemistry and is also taking AP CalcAB, which she is doing well in.

She wants to take the CLEP Chemistry exam this summer if she didn't get a 3 or better on the AP Chem. The question: Are AP and CLEP tests generally comparable? Harder? Easier? I guess she should go get a CLEP Chem book....

Can you take CLEP at any time or is there a registration period? Grades aren't ready on AP until July. She only has a short window between when AP scores are available and when she leaves for school in August.

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

I've never taken an AP exam, but from what I hear, CLEP exams are much easier. You can take a CLEP at anytime. Just go to UNC's testing center and schedule it.

 

I've never taken CLEPs, but I did take AP Exams when I was in high school. I took Calculus, Chemister and US Government. Each exam has a multiple-choice portion and then a response section. The response section, which is usually essays, short answers, or problems, are hand graded by teachers who have been selected to grade the test. My best friend from high school teaches AP Government, and she said that the response portion is somewhat graded on a curve. (That's how it was done 10 years ago when I took them too). Essentially, if the readers go through several tests and find them comparable, they'll recieve a 3, but if one is more outstanding, it might recieve a 4 or 5. The scores are averaged out and included with the multiple-choice part and they work out a final score from 1-5 for the whole test.

Again, having never taken a CLEP test, I would hypothesize that the CLEP test is comparable to the multiple-choice portion of the AP test. If you could financially swing it, I'd say why not take the CLEP test too? If she gets at least a 3 on the AP test, there's no harm done. But if not, perhaps the CLEP test could help her out by getting her the credit.

Also, you might want to check with UNC to see which credits she would be awarded. It could be possible that the AP exam and CLEP exam give credit for 2 different courses.

-Matt

 

Good info, thanks.

 

So CLEP tests are all multiple choice. I guess I knew that because they give you the score right away.

I think she should just go ahead and take it, and risk wasting money but getting the benefit of taking it while it's fresh in her mind. From what we got from the academic site, both the AP and CLEP give credit for the same class, but I should have her call and verify.

Thanks.

 

Yeah, go for the CLEP. I have never taken a CLEP, yet, but I have taken AP. I believe that many students could receive an A in their AP class and still only get a 3, barely, on the exam. Those same students should easily be able to do well on CLEP from what I can tell. Unless they are just poor test takers.