Stupid question of the week: What is a CLEP?

I imagine this is a stupid question. I have no experience with a CLEP or with anyone who has taken one, so I would like to know.

What is the value of a CLEP? I understand that it is a acronym for College Level Examination Program, but what exactly is that? What is the value/usefulness?

 

A CLEP is an examination that measures college-level proficiency in one of 30-odd subjects ranging from Algebra to Sociology. Largely freshman and sophomore level. Some 2900 colleges in the US will grant credit for them in place of sitting in a classroom/taking the class online. Traditionally 3 semester hours for most, 6 for a handful of general subjects. They're very useful and pretty fun way to document one's learning IMHO. More info.

Phillip

 

CLEP are a series of "challenge" tests for college courses that have been developed by the College Board. Most CLEP tests correspond to undergraduate general education courses taught at colleges and universities.

Let's say that a student enrolled in college felt that he or she already could do what was taught in "English 102- English Literature". That student could take the English Literature CLEP test. If the test was passed, then the student would be awarded the credits for ENG 102 and would not have to take the class.

Most colleges and universities accept CLEP tests for transfer, so it is a good deal for students who already possess the knowledge taught in one of the 34 subject areas covered by CLEP tests.

The military also offers their own version (DANTES-DSST) that also has wide acceptance within colleges and universities. A few others, such as the Excelsior College Exams (ECE) are also accepted at many institutions.

CLEP info can be found at http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html

 

Phillip just beat my post

 

But Anthony was more thorough

By using books from the library to study, taking a CLEP exam can run approximately $33/credit, in my neck of the woods.

Phillip

 

But Maniac Craniac did it with style .

I can describe CLEP in a single word... AWESOME. I have taken 3 of them so far, for a cost of $330, and have obtained 18 credits by them. I have one more to go- the French CLEP for 12 credits. Altogether, I will have 30 credits- equal to an entire year of coursework, completed and transcripted for a WHOPPING $440.

Can you name me a school ANYWHERE that has tuition rates as low as $14.67. Per credit?

 

Maniac Craniac, you are the Obi-Wan Kenobi of the CLEP! You are right, they sound like a good deal. Might need a couple of those myself.

 

So am I correct, Dr P, to say that a CLEP is mostly an undergraduate tool for testing out of subject areas that the student has already mastered?

 

LOL- there are people here who have taken 2 dozen or more CLEPs. My specialty happens to be languages, which, fortunately, are worth 12 credits each. I just wish I knew a lick of German to snag some more credits... but, I'm not interested in the language itself :\

¡Buena suerte!

Bon chance!

Good luck!

 

Yep. Of course, if you want to, you can work on mastering them now and take the test later.

It took me 3 weeks to plow through 600 double-columned small-printed pages and review (by looking through the indez) of a library book to achieve a near-perfect score on the Sociology CLEP.

A PASS on a CLEP exam has been thoroughly researched and calculated as getting the equivalent of a C or higher in a course.

 

They are a great source of "easy" credits if you know the work. I passed 54 credits in 6 weeks and only failed 2 or 3 tests (passing 16 in that time frame).

 

Dude, you are a workhorse! All your teaching and studying you've mentioned and still planning more in the future...you just keep going! Very impressive. I'm already a little behind at NCU, but I'm catching up this weekend.

 

Important to remember that universities vary considerably in how much credit they will give for the same CLEP exam. The range, for nearly all exams (except language) is from zero to six. Last time I checked, roughly 1/4 of schools gave no credit. Excelsior often gives the most: six, when many others are giving 2 or 3 or 4.

What I don't know (and would like to know) is whether one can go through the back door, as it were: get 6 semester units from Excelsior, then transfer those units to a school that gives fewer or no credits for the same exam?

There are a lot of anomalies (my opinion) on credit for CLEP exams:
Harvard and Yale don't give credit. Princeton does.
University of California system doesn't. California State University system does.
CalTech does, MIT doesn't.
That sort of thing.

 

Most likely not.

This is why schools require ALL transcripts to be sent to them. Once they receive your CLEP transcript they will evaluate it according to their policies.

 

DSST is another series of exams, similar to CLEP, with some providing upper division credit.
http://www.getcollegecredit.com/

 

Ian, does a DSST provide legit, credit that would transfer into a RA university in the same way as a CLEP? That website made me a little wary; this doesn't operate like a mill, right?

 

Yes. Most institutions that accept CLEP accept DSST as well.

I didn't answer your last question because, when I logged in, I discovered that Maniac Craniac had already given you a great answer.

 

Not only does DSST have the same kind of exams as CLEPs, but Charter Oak, at least, actually gave letter grades for performance on both of these (depending upon score).

Peace,

Matt

 

I sooooo wish I had known about CLEP exams when I was 18 and starting college off the first time. The number of crap classes that I had no interest in, and subsequently skipped constantly and failed, would have been eliminated, or nearly so.

 

I believe that the California State University places a limit of 30 semester units (45 qtr.) units on total credit that can be earned through any combination of the challenge examinations that the system accepts (including CLEP).

Given that limitation, the CSU system encourages students to explore the CLEP option (it saves the state money) and the university testing centers feature it.

And for schools in general, I've noticed that they will sometimes grant credit only for specific (not for all) CLEP exams and/or might place restrictions on the particular syllabus course requirements that students can use examination credit to avoid. (In some cases, major courses are excluded etc.)

So students will probably need to look very carefully at the catalog small-print for whatever universities they anticipate ultimately graduating from, before they set out on any program of extensive CLEPPING.