Teenager Testing Question

[marianne202]

Ok, so my 16 yr old son comes to me this morning and informs me he has decided he wants to pursue a BS/BA degree through testing like I did! My heart soared. He is such a bright kid and I think he will do well. He wants to start right away. Now I have a few questions for those that have kids that have tested. Are there any age minimums or anything special that must be done if they are under 18 and haven't graduated high school? Has anyone had any problem getting colleges to accept the credit if it was earned prior to graduating high school? Has anyone had a HS accept the the CLEP or DSST exams for HS credit, thus getting double credit? He should technically graduate in January, as he only has a couple of required classes left, but it would be nice if he could take some of those via testing over the summer and give him more time for testing and B&M college classes in the fall. I know there are a lot of people out there with this info. Please pass along any advice and suggestions. Does anyone recommend a specific order of testing for high school kids? I thought I would have him start with A&I Lit. He loves to read and it would be a nice jump start of 6 credits to motivate him. I'm just worried about some of the old literary words since they really don't cover much literature here. Thanks in advance for any info!

[TMW2010]

From what I recall, there's no age minimum for CLEPs. I'm not sure about DSST though.

There's a great number of posts around here that have links to good sites for the literary terms. Ponygirl can also give you some good info as far as teenagers & testing, she's a young clep-(to?)-maniac.. Hehe

[alleycat]

Ok, so my 16 yr old son comes to me this morning and informs me he has decided he wants to pursue a BS/BA degree through testing like I did! My heart soared. He is such a bright kid and I think he will do well. He wants to start right away. Now I have a few questions for those that have kids that have tested. Are there any age minimums or anything special that must be done if they are under 18 and haven't graduated high school? Has anyone had any problem getting colleges to accept the credit if it was earned prior to graduating high school? Has anyone had a HS accept the the CLEP or DSST exams for HS credit, thus getting double credit? He should technically graduate in January, as he only has a couple of required classes left, but it would be nice if he could take some of those via testing over the summer and give him more time for testing and B&M college classes in the fall. I know there are a lot of people out there with this info. Please pass along any advice and suggestions. Does anyone recommend a specific order of testing for high school kids? I thought I would have him start with A&I Lit. He loves to read and it would be a nice jump start of 6 credits to motivate him. I'm just worried about some of the old literary words since they really don't cover much literature here. Thanks in advance for any info!

Marianne,

My son took some clep exams and they did count toward his high school credits, but this school is really geared toward people obtaining their education in many different ways. He also did fema credits which this school also excepted. But my daughter school would not hear of such things. My daughters college did take her cleps that she did during last summer before she actually attended the school. It just depends on the schools policies.

I would also recommend that he consider taking Intro to Computers since he is quite good at that. What sort of degree is he looking into? Is he in any AP classes that he could take the test and receive credit for that. Also in my state they have this program called Running Start were you take classes in high school and if you pass the final exam they are sent to the CC that accepts the credit and it is placed on a transcript. I would also recommend that he take a look at different tests and see what he has the basic knowledge and back ground in and the test out of it, like the computers test. Many of the colleges in my state take ACE reviewed course. The school I am using does not but many others do. He possible could get some of his math credits out of the way.

You do not need to be 18 to take clep exams. I would like to also point out that COSC will take anyone over 16 yrs of age with I believe it is 9 college credits. Also take a look on college boards and see the list of credits that the possible schools he might want to attend accept. Her school has very few they take, something like 9 or 10 clep exams. They all go under free electives. Her AP credits went under her gen eds. She walked into her university with almost 30 credits.

Good Luck

[Ruddigore]

Ok, so my 16 yr old son comes to me this morning and informs me he has decided he wants to pursue a BS/BA degree through testing like I did! My heart soared. He is such a bright kid and I think he will do well. He wants to start right away.

Woo hoo! Very, very cool. I wish I started when I was 16. I didn't start until I was 17, and didn't start in earnest until I was 18. Seriously though, that is great news.

Now I have a few questions for those that have kids that have tested. Are there any age minimums or anything special that must be done if they are under 18 and haven't graduated high school?

Not that I know of. Like I said, I took my first test (and joined the forum) when I was 17. I was even able to take advantage of a Minnesota program that gave 6 free CLEP exams to highschool students. Alas, it has since been discontinued -- such a good comeback to the "Oh, but PSEO is free" argument!

Has anyone had any problem getting colleges to accept the credit if it was earned prior to graduating high school?

Nope. Once I managed to extract a transcript from CLEP, Excelsior accepted everything without question. My DSST scores get sent to them automatically.

Has anyone had a HS accept the the CLEP or DSST exams for HS credit, thus getting double credit? He should technically graduate in January, as he only has a couple of required classes left, but it would be nice if he could take some of those via testing over the summer and give him more time for testing and B&M college classes in the fall. I know there are a lot of people out there with this info.

My homeschooling facilitator was in charge of those decisions. (Thanks, Mom!) Sorry that I don't know the answer. We treated it something like PSEO: credit for college and highschool. I don't know how public or private highschools would handle the matter.

Please pass along any advice and suggestions. Does anyone recommend a specific order of testing for high school kids? I thought I would have him start with A&I Lit. He loves to read and it would be a nice jump start of 6 credits to motivate him. I'm just worried about some of the old literary words since they really don't cover much literature here.

He likes to read? Perfect. Make him study literary terms and a Shakespeare sonnet or two before taking some practice exams. He'll be fine.

My advice is to start with things that he enjoys or is good at (not always the same thing: I'm reasonably good at math though I don't particularly care for it). Use some of the potentially easier exams to get into the testing groove -- to figure out what works well for him.

Not to mention the more he gets done now the more flexibility he has in the future for cool classes (I'm starting a Chaucer class! Woo hoo!), crazy grad school stuff (like taking a GRE :eek, or working a job (those $20 proctor fees add up milelol. For example, I wish I had sacrificed the Lower Level Credit PSEO class I took in 2008 in favor of more exams, but that's how it goes. At least I know now I prefer Independent Study courses over the Online Class setup.

Also, I would hold off on the English CLEP until he knows which institution he's channeling his credits into so that he doesn't have six useless credits like I do. (You're amazing, EC, but really...)

Keep us posted on how he's doing, or better yet, tell him to join the forum so that he can tell us! The more the merrier.

Regards,
R.

[operalady]

Ruddigore covered most of what I was going to add, but here I go anyway.

Begin with his strengths

My students began with American Government because they were in academic debate at the time and had something to attach the new information to. I began with computing and US History.

Join the forum

Even though it can be addictive there is nothing like the support here on the IC forum. He can even determine what courses interest him by reading the feedback for each exam.

Have fun!

[PonyGirl93]

I don't know about how B&M colleges respond to tests taken before 18, but I know for a fact there's no minimum age for CLEPs or DSSTs.

I would definitely start with A&IL, I started with US Hist for some reason, and was a bit overwhelmed. I did fine, but it was a little scary for a starting one (and trust me, I am not an easy scare!! lol)

(I'm 16, almost 17, and if all goes according to plan I should be done with 60 credits before I turn 17!! woot woot!! lol)

[TMW2010]

I don't know about how B&M colleges respond to tests taken before 18, but I know for a fact there's no minimum age for CLEPs or DSSTs.

I would definitely start with A&IL, I started with US Hist for some reason, and was a bit overwhelmed. I did fine, but it was a little scary for a starting one (and trust me, I am not an easy scare!! lol)

(I'm 16, almost 17, and if all goes according to plan I should be done with 60 credits before I turn 17!! woot woot!! lol)

Eesh.. At your age, I was lucky to be able to come up with an excuse to why my homework wasn't done, let alone taking tests for college credit...

[marianne202]

Thanks for all the help. Ponygirl, can I have him contact you if he has any questions? He is 16 and will turn 17 in June, so he won't be anywhere near as quick as you! You should be very proud of yourself! Some more info. He is interested in computers, especially digital animation & game design type of area. He is getting ready to take his A+ certification through his school. Today for the first time he is talking about wanting his Master's! I was blown away. He said he is very proud of all the hard work I have done and how quickly I have obtained my BS and he is now getting serious and thinking outside the box. I think he would like to try to get a degree in computer science or some similar field. He will probably take a specific program for digital animation / game design, but he wants to have something to back it up for employment. Does anyone know if any of the big 3 do such a program? He said he would like to go through EC, since that is the only school I have used. He will probably go to NC State or similar local school for anything else. Please keep all the suggestions coming. I want to get him into this as soon as I can so he doesn't lose his momentum!

[PonyGirl93]

Thanks for all the help. Ponygirl, can I have him contact you if he has any questions? He is 16 and will turn 17 in June, so he won't be anywhere near as quick as you! You should be very proud of yourself! Some more info. He is interested in computers, especially digital animation & game design type of area. He is getting ready to take his A+ certification through his school. Today for the first time he is talking about wanting his Master's! I was blown away. He said he is very proud of all the hard work I have done and how quickly I have obtained my BS and he is now getting serious and thinking outside the box. I think he would like to try to get a degree in computer science or some similar field. He will probably take a specific program for digital animation / game design, but he wants to have something to back it up for employment. Does anyone know if any of the big 3 do such a program? He said he would like to go through EC, since that is the only school I have used. He will probably go to NC State or similar local school for anything else. Please keep all the suggestions coming. I want to get him into this as soon as I can so he doesn't lose his momentum!

Yes, I would love for him to contact me!! It would be awesome to know another young person doing this :]

As far as computers go, my mom is a programmer-turned-web-designer (she still does programming in her free time) and she always stresses the importance of intense training outside of school, especially in areas like graphic design/animation/programming. She has researched masters programs endlessly and has never found one in computers that truly teaches you what you need to know in the field. So getting a degree is really great, and sometimes necessary, but you guys should definitely find some private training or classes somewhere. But it sounds like you were already planning on that, so yeah :]

[TMW2010]

Yeah, most masters programs in MIS are for leadership positions (How to run the department, more so than anything advanced programming-wise.)

He may have to jump a gap to something like Graphic Arts for a masters that would make sense for him. But otherwise, the IT field has a ton of different available certifications along with the courses taken during the course of a bachelors. But most necessary thing is experience. Writing programs on your own to do things, understanding how everything interacts, so on and so forth.