Absolute cheapest way to "test out" and earn credits?

[CollegeStudent7]

So far, from what I understand, my best bet will be CLEP. I COULD take classes through my community college. They charge $26 a credit. So a 3 credit class would be $78, but then you must add college fees and MOST books the professors require average around $60. So respectively, I could fulfill my classes this way and it would be around $150 per 3-credit class, average. The classes last 16 weeks or 8 weeks if taken during summer. Everyone here knows that online is NOT the easy way out and neither is testing out, but I'm looking at it from a financial/time viewpoint.

I'm in the NYC area and I know of one community college that charges $109 per CLEP. There seem to be a LOT of free study guides out there for CLEP and you don't seem to be restricted to a particular book and it looks like there is some sharing going on on this board. So I figured....if I could keep my study materials around $40 per subject and pay the $109, I would be coming out around $150 PER class. I think the fee for clep is the same regardless if you're testing out of what could be a 3,4 or 5 credit course. I look at it like this...if this is the most affordable option, then I may as well do it this way since I can study hard and plug through it at my own pace (fast hopefully) and it seems to come even.

Am I wrong to make the assumption that testing out of college classes seems a LOT cheaper than taking them and saves a ton of time? I don't know ANY schools that are offering tuition at less than $26/credit like my community college, and even the CLEP route looks competitive to that in comparison. Feedback? I'm paying out-of-pocket completely to finish my Bachelors. Have posted a few threads on here and I'm becoming more and more excited as I stick around on here and learn more. At first it was confusing and now I'm starting to understand more.

Just don't understand the difference (price/timewise) between Dante, CLEP, TSSC, CE/ECE etc.

[burbuja0512]

So far, from what I understand, my best bet will be CLEP. I COULD take classes through my community college. They charge $26 a credit. So a 3 credit class would be $78, but then you must add college fees and MOST books the professors require average around $60. So respectively, I could fulfill my classes this way and it would be around $150 per 3-credit class, average. The classes last 16 weeks or 8 weeks if taken during summer. Everyone here knows that online is NOT the easy way out and neither is testing out, but I'm looking at it from a financial/time viewpoint.

I'm in the NYC area and I know of one community college that charges $109 per CLEP. There seem to be a LOT of free study guides out there for CLEP and you don't seem to be restricted to a particular book and it looks like there is some sharing going on on this board. So I figured....if I could keep my study materials around $40 per subject and pay the $109, I would be coming out around $150 PER class. I think the fee for clep is the same regardless if you're testing out of what could be a 3,4 or 5 credit course. I look at it like this...if this is the most affordable option, then I may as well do it this way since I can study hard and plug through it at my own pace (fast hopefully) and it seems to come even.

Am I wrong to make the assumption that testing out of college classes seems a LOT cheaper than taking them and saves a ton of time? I don't know ANY schools that are offering tuition at less than $26/credit like my community college, and even the CLEP route looks competitive to that in comparison. Feedback? I'm paying out-of-pocket completely to finish my Bachelors. Have posted a few threads on here and I'm becoming more and more excited as I stick around on here and learn more. At first it was confusing and now I'm starting to understand more.

Just don't understand the difference (price/timewise) between Dante, CLEP, TSSC, CE/ECE etc.

Yes, testing out is probably the most bang for your buck, with a couple of exceptions. This of course will depends on how much you spend on study materials and how much the testing fee is at your particular center.

Overall, I averaged about 57 dollars a credit, including everything I paid for IC, SL, and books. I'm not including the 24 B&M credits that I had from the early 90's because I don't remember what I paid and I'm pretty sure that my parents helped.


Here's how the prices break down excluding study materials:
CLEP/DSST - 35 bucks a credit **for the three credit tests.. cheaper for 6 credit and foreign language CLEPs**
ECE - 86 bucks a credit (but keep in mind that there are many UL ECE's)
ALEKS - 20/month, so perhaps just under 7 bucks a credit if you're quick
SL - 46 bucks a credit if you only do one class in a month, but can be cheaper if you squeeze in more classes in one month.
FEMA/NFA - can be free for TESC students, little bit more for EC/COSC

Edit to add: A few more thoughts.. one of the things that makes testing so cheap is that you can be a lot more flexible on how you learn. You're not required to buy the most recent edition of the text. My Capstone text has to be the latest version because the pages and some of the studies have changed, but if I could test out of the class, I could go buy a version that's 4 years old and costs 10 bucks on eBay. Or.. maybe I wouldn't even buy a text. I've always paid the 20 bucks a month for IC, for the cards, but just as much for the specific feedback. Most of my tests, I've never bought anything more. I've passed from IC, youtube lectures, and study guides that members have posted in the specific feedback area. I've also done a few Peterson's tests that are available for free on free-prep-clep.com, but I didn't discover those until just a few months ago, so didn't use them in the beginning. You really don't need to spend a lot and with all the used books and free internet resources, it's a great way to learn. Also, one other comment about SL. You DO need to buy the book for every SL class you take as their tests are almost totally taken out of the book, but I bought older editions for my classes and had no issues. Don't think I spent more than 15 bucks on any SL text.


One more edit lol: I left out TECEPs because they are so incredibly expensive for non-TESC students, but also a good option if you end up at TESC. I don't remember how much it would have cost me, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 700-800 bucks (not to mention that I couldn't get TESC to call me back to answer questions about it lol). That's a little too much money IMHO for a test, even if it does save time. I believe TESC students pay 250? so about the same price as the ECE.

[cookderosa]

excellent post from burb. I'll add that you could apply for financial aid and see if you qualify for a pell grant (not loan- the grant is a gift). If so, it's about $5500. At TESC, they apply your grant in quartly payments (5500 divided by 4) and any overage is given back to you in cash. This is how I paid for most of my education.

[Maniac Craniac]

Clovis Community College courses are $225 for 6 credits (the price goes up astronomically if you take more than 6 credits per semester). That evens out to about the same as a CLEP. However, since it is tuition, you can apply it to tax credits (HOPE, Lifetime Learning, American Opportunity) or you might be able to find a way to deduct it from your income on your tax return. Either way, it ends up being less expensive than CLEP by far. The trade-offs are that a course takes more time and that you have to wait for your tax return before you see the benefit of doing it this way.

[GoodtoGo]

Your community college is a great bargain and would be a good option too. I pay around $500 for a 3 credit class. There are certain things I just can't learn on my own (math) as much as I try, and need the instructor and classroom time. I have taken a few tests, a few online classes and a few on campus classes. The online classes have been the most difficult by far and have required the most writing assignments. I took CLEPs on subjects I had some prior knowledge of, with the exception of Psychology which I barely passed with a 50.
Your degree plan may include a variety of tests, on campus & online classes depending on how much time you have.

[ryoder]

I understand not being able to learn math on your own but you owe it to yourself to try out mathway.com plus ALEKS -- Assessment and Learning, K-12, Higher Education, Automated Tutor, Math for a good math test out experience.
Take my word for it. You can do intermediate alg, college alg, stats, precalc and business stats in the time it would take to finish a single community college algebra course.

[Yenisei]

The CLEP Spanish, French and German exams are great values if you speak any or all of those languages well enough to obtain 6 or 12 credits (note that fluency is certainly not required to get a good enough score for 12 credits). The 6 credit general CLEP exams are also an excellent value.

[MA2]

Join the military and they're free

[STG]

The CLEP Spanish, French and German exams are great values if you speak any or all of those languages well enough to obtain 6 or 12 credits (note that fluency is certainly not required to get a good enough score for 12 credits). The 6 credit general CLEP exams are also an excellent value.

Is the language CLEP the same as the NYU language test? They're both 12 credits...so why did I have to pay $300 for the NYU test when I could have just taken the CLEP for much cheaper?!

[MA2]

Is the language CLEP the same as the NYU language test? They're both 12 credits...so why did I have to pay $300 for the NYU test when I could have just taken the CLEP for much cheaper?!

The reason the NYU exam is $300 because people are still willing to pay $300.