CLEP Test
What Can CLEP Do for You?
CLEP Exams can provide numerous benefits to students working toward a college degree! Earning credits through CLEP exams can benefit people of all ages and from all walks of life including:
What Kind of Student are You?
College Age Student?
High School Student?
Adult Student?
Military Student?
Home-School Student?
Student with Foreign Language Experience?
Cost-Conscious Student?
College Students:
Students nearing graduation may find that they lack one or two essential courses in order to meet degree requirements and graduate on time. Often, they can use CLEP to gain these much needed credits.
CLEP Exams can also benefit students who wish to skip tedious lower level courses and move onto more relevant, exciting, and rewarding upper level college courses. Sometimes, due to a cultural, work, or life experience or some other independent study, students find that they possess the knowledge necessary to pass a CLEP test. CLEP exams provide the opportunity for students to avoid having to take courses in which they will just have to relearn material they already know.
High-School Students:
Many high-school students take college-level AP (advanced placement) courses while still in high school. By achieving satisfactory scores on AP exams following the completion of the AP class, high school students often can gain college credits. In addition, these high school students can choose to take a CLEP exam and gain even more college credits using the knowledge they gained in the AP course or other rigorous course work taken during high school. For example, students taking AP English during their senior year of high school could take the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP exam (or other literature or composition CLEP exams) and gain college credits for core level college English classes.
Adult Students:
Many students who choose to take CLEP tests are non-traditional college students, such as working adult professionals and other adult students who are often managing family life and a full-time job. These adult learners may have limited amount of time to spend in the classroom and find that CLEP exams provide a way to gain college credits. Students can generally prepare for a CLEP test in a much shorter period of time than would be required to actually take the college course. Earning a college degree can often result in career advancements or a wider range of job opportunities.
Military Personnel:
Many military personnel in the United States military find that CLEP tests are an excellent way to work toward their college degree while at home or abroad. While attending college may not be an option for military personnel, especially when they are deployed, studying for and taking CLEP tests is often an excellent way for persons in the military to work toward degree achievement. Individuals wishing to take CLEP tests can study for and take the test on their own schedule. Best of all, CLEP exams are free for eligible military personnel and veterans and there are even CLEP test centers in international locations and on certain military bases in the U.S. and abroad.
Homeschooled Students:
Homeschooled students are an excellent group who stand to benefit from CLEP exams. Homeschooled students are often self motivated learners who perform well at independent study. By taking and passing CLEP tests, homeschoolers have the potential of finishing high school with many of their core college degree requirements already completed. By simply transferring knowledge of their current course work or supplementing current course work with additional studying, many homeschoolers can take and pass CLEP exams.
Students with Foreign Language Skills:
Students who fluently speak foreign languages, such as Spanish, can demonstrate this competency on a foreign language CLEP test and in doing so, gain valuable college credits through a skill they already possess.
Cost-Conscious Students:
Most students, including adult learners and traditional college students, are aware of the great expense that pursuing a college degree can entail. CLEP exams, which cost $77 to take (plus an administration fee to the CLEP testing center of around $15), can result in amazing cost savings when compared to taking the actual college course. When students gain credits through CLEP exams, they may be able to lighten their course load during college and have more time to work a job while going to school. In addition, students may find that by graduating sooner due to gaining credits through CLEP exams, they are able to achieve their career goals and earn income sooner than if they had not had the CLEP credits. Students can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars by taking even one CLEP test compared to if they took the college course. Earning credits through CLEP tests can also help students graduate with fewer student loans, which in turn increases the amount of money those students will keep in their pockets when they enter the workforce.
CLEP Credits:
Because the CLEP transcripts are maintained for 20 years, students who are not actively pursuing a college degree can take CLEP tests at whatever time in their life when they are best prepared to demonstrate their college level knowledge . . . and then, they can have their scores sent to their college or university whenever they choose to enroll….whether that time is months or years down the road!
