cookderosa Wrote:I want to add that it's an assumption of many people, myself included, that the DOD pass rates likely include many people who take tests cold, that's never been confirmed or denied- pure speculation.

dcan Wrote:Not necessarily. Just use it as one more piece of info but don't rely on it too heavily. The general thinking is that with us military folks we have an incentive to just take the test without even studying. Speaking from the Air Force side, there is very little knowledge of the CLEPs. I mean, we know they exist, but few people really knows about the (few, sometimes very old) study guides available at the base library. In my experience, far more people talk about "just take a random test and see how you do" rather than actually studying for it.

A lot of it is inertia. You have to get fired up about doing this. If you aren't "gazelle intense" as Dave Ramsey likes to say, then these are just little extra "gimmick" tests that may get you out of one or two classes, maybe, but they are free and the classes are free so who really cares? There isn't really an incentive to study, actually. Although, retests are no longer free, so if you fail you have to pay to retake. But then, when you can just take the class for free, and none of your peers know how to study for a CLEP, and when you look for study guides and advice the ed office says "check the library" and the library says "check the ed office" then you basically throw your hands up and just take the class.

I guarantee if the military personnel taking CLEP and DSST tests in FY12 spent time here, the pass rates would shoot way up.

freddy Wrote:It does. I'm active duty and I have talked with a lot of people over the years that take CLEPS, just to see if they can pass them. I know guys that have taken the French Clep even though they didn't know a lick of French, just to see if they could pass.