Best to test for DANTES/CLEP before or after registering?

I desire to cut costs and time as much as possible. Thank you.

 

I always recommend that folks do as many tests as possible before registering. Once you've registered (and I'm assuming you're talking about COSC, TESC, or Excelsior), the clock starts ticking. Best to get as much done as you can beforehand.



Tom Nixon

 

I second what Tom said. Take as many exams as possible before registering, but just make sure the exams will be accepted at your school.

 

Assuming you're going to pick COSC, TESC or Excelsior, I'd start with the CLEP General exams first (6 credits each so they reduce the cost).

However, if you're going to Excelsior, don't do the CLEP English Comp as it doesn't meet their Written English requirement. Likewise, the College Math exam doesn't meet the math requirement if you're in a business program.

With COSC, you need to keep in mind the order of the exams you are taking - you won't get credit for the lower-level exam if you've already taken an upper-level one.

For Excelsior, it seems that new requirements come into place Jan 1st (this year was the new Information Literacy requirement), so you may want to consider doing CLEP/DANTES for a few months to build up your credits and then enroll prior to the end of the year. I don't know if this is applicable to TESC or COSC so this may be an unnecessary requirement.

Also, the best "bang for the buck" for CLEP is definitely the language exam as you can get 12 credits for a good showing on a single exam (French, Spanish, German). This will nicely help meet any Humanities requirements.

Have you put together an exam strategy yet as to what you want to take and in what order? Do you have a proposed major/concentration? With this info we may be able to give you a few more suggestions.

Cheers,
Mark

 

I'm all about keeping cost down!

This is what I’m doing to keep cost down. I’ve enrolled at my local community college and will use them as a sort of bank for all my Clep / Dantes exams. I will also take a few online or directed studies courses that I think I will have trouble testing out of. My goal is to take all the exams first then enroll. Upon enrollment (I’m assuming that I’ll most likely enroll at Excelsior) I will only have 3 or 4 courses/ECE exams to finish up as opposed to trying to cram in a bunch of courses before my 12 month tuition ends. Hope this helps. Best of Luck!