Notes

In this lecture we will discuss every possible thing you need to know about CLEP exams.

CLEP or College Level Examination Program has actually been around for decades.

This program allows students to take an exam in more than 30 different categories to get college credit.
Think of it like a final exam except this exam is the difference between taking a class and avoiding an entire class.
In other words, if you take and pass a CLEP exam, you receive college credit, save hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars and time.


A few Subjects include Foreign Language, Math, English and Social Sciences.
The complete list of exams will be in the description.

So how does the process work?

By the time a modern high school student graduates, they will be well aware of the college board.
CLEP is a test administered by the college board but this is something high schools do not administer. This means that there will never be a CLEP class like there is an AP class. High schools have nothing to do with CLEP exams. You must go to a testing center to take the exam.


The first thing a student must do is look at their university testing webpage to see their policies regarding CLEP exams.
This means students must make sure the college of their choice accepts CLEP exams. In more than 95% of cases, colleges accept at least some exams.

For example: University A may accept Spanish CLEP exams while University B may accept all CLEP exams.
In rare cases, a university may not offer credit for any CLEP but we will discuss this later as there are still many options available.

Thousands of universities accept CLEP exams for college credit. This applies to 4 year universities only.

The easiest way to see if your school accepts CLEP is to type CLEP into the search bar. The wording varies but from our experience with universities, it will normally say "Credit by exam", "CLEP", or "College Level Examination Program".

Academic advisors are a great resource as well because you will utilize them a lot in your college journey to help you map out your quick college degree.

Now after you've found out how CLEP exams are applicable for your school, the next step is to purchase the exam of your choice. In order to purchase the exam, you must go to the college board website and type CLEP in the search bar or find the CLEP section. The CLEP section will appear. You will then be able to browse all exams and pick the exam you want and purchase it. The cost is around $90. This means you will pay around $30 per credit hour if you pass an exam and earn 3 college credits.

Many schools award more than 3 credit hours but the price remains the same per exam.

If that sounded amazing, there lies the opportunity to take these exams completely free.

Modern States.org

This website allows you to join and select any CLEP exam you want to take. They also have study materials for AP exams. Once you select the exam you would like to take, you will then have a course that you must complete that basically covers topics that will be on the CLEP exam. So if I wanted to take the Biology CLEP exam, instead of spending $90 at the College Board, I can simply go to ModernStates.org and sign up for free and take their Biology course. This course teaches you everything that you need to know and it is taught by real college professors.

Once you are finished with the course, you will then be able to recieve a voucher to cover the cost of the CLEP exam once you register with the college board. Either way, you will have to register with the college board. Modern States exists to allow students to get free college credit and their program is designed to educate students in the subject of the CLEP exam they plan on taking. Once they are done with the course, they request a voucher and then input that voucher on the CLEP registration website.

For any test center fees, they will also reimburse this to you so this is a completely free experience. There are also NO limits to the number of exams you can do this way. If you fail, it's free so you have nothing to worry about. You can also take an exam a second time if you fail... completely free. Modern States makes all of this possible and this is exclusively for CLEP exams.



Only purchase an exam if you plan on taking the test in the next few months. The reason is because there is a time period from when you purchase the exam til when you have to take the exam.

Once you purchase the exam, the next thing will be to find a testing center. You will need to go to an in person test center as these exams are on the computer and proctored. The college board has a list of testing centers and for you students who are already in college, many campuses have testing centers so you can test on campus. Unlike AP exams, you can take these exams any time during the year. Simply schedule the test with a testing center. We will discuss how you should study later in the program.

Once you take your test, there will be 5 multiple choice questions. Simple advice here: take it easy and be hesitent to second guessing. Many questions are pre-test questions and will not be scored. These questions exist to guage where students are.
Unless your exam includes a writing portion, you will recieve your scores instantly. While many universities have unique score requirements, most consider a 50 passing.

The grading scale goes from around 20 to 80. 50 is in the middle. On a scale of 1-100, this is equivalent to a score between 64% and 70%.
Once again, each university has different requirements. Some universities may accept a score of less than 50 and others may not accept unless a score is more than 60.

It takes up to 4 weeks for schools to receive your test results. In most cases, it happens much quicker.
You also go to the collegeboard CLEP website for sending transcripts to other universities if you desire.

Note that these exams almost never count for or against your GPA. This means you can fail an exam and be 100% fine academically. These normally count as pass/fail with an absolute majority of universities. Let me emphasize it will NOT count towards GPA

Now... how do you study? Which resources should I use? Is modern states enough?

In this section of the lecture, we will discuss exam outlines and why you should take advantage of them.
Look at the picture below. That is an exam outline. It outlines what you need to study in order to pass. Most students skip over the outline but we recommend you examine what you need to study and what you don't.
For most people, there will be parts of the exam that they are naturally familiar with. This does not require studying. Only study the parts that you are not familiar with or need help on. For this reason, we consider modern states to be very helpful in this regard because you can focus on the sections you need help with. We also recommend you watch videos in the specific categories as well and utilize study.com, which we will discuss in detail.






Let's summarize this lecture.
You learned that CLEP exams are really like final exams but you can take these any time you'd like for college credit. There are more than 30 exams to choose from. Most schools offer exams like this. The cost is around $90 but we discussed how you can use modern states to get it completely free. Even if you fail. no penalties. It does take some time to complete their course so if you need multiple exams done quickly and your knowledge is sufficient in them, purchasing a few might be your best bet.