For those that say CLEP is "cheating"

[Prloko]

[quote=Publius]There have been studies done, and people who study one subject at a time heavily for a short period of time retain more information then the people who study multiple subjects at a time for a longer period. So generally when someone studies a topic for a CLEP for 4-5 hours for a week or two will retain more information in then the folks who study 5 subjects in a college for an entire semester.

I would like to see one of these studies; every scientific study I have read contradicts your claim that cramming is good for long term memory. You are delusional if you think passing a multiple choice exam, with a relatively low percentage of correct answers needed to pass, is equivalent to class at a decent school.
I did both- brick & mortar political science at a top tier private school & a BSBA @ TESC, 22 years later w/ the purpose of avoiding MBA foundation courses. CLEP & DSST do not require one to demonstrate critical thinking. I am not putting them down or discounting their worth; I just find the claim that they are superior to a semester long class at a reputable school to be absurd.

I have seen some reputable schools (depending on the difficulty of the class) that require students to get about a 60% average for a C. My BYU accounting class calls for a 40-50% grade for a C (but I must admit the class is tough and I'm just squeaking a B+). I have a friend who went to UCONN (not the greatest school, but a good, reputable one) who told me he slept through half his classes and crammed on midterm/finals week to pass, he was drunk 1/3 of the week, I know because I used to party with him.
Of course, CLEP can't cover everything and shouldn't (i.e. Engineering and hands on fields), but CLEP is a good measure of knowledge on a subject, and some of the refreshed DSSTs are more difficult than an actual class (like business math and finance). Also, keep in mind that CLEP and DSST guage their passing scores based on comparable knowledge of C students at universities. That means that the superior B&M student can only regurgitate 50% of the knowledge they just learned prior to taking the CLEP. CLEP and DSST students merely match this skill of a C student, and as you can see on this site, many of the CLEP/DSST students surpass the standards.

CLEP/DSST isn't anywhere near the caliber of a Harvard course, but students at Harvard are naturally top students to begin with and not your run of the mill "average" student. On a tangent though, I think college age students should take the actual courses, especially in their major since they train intangibles that cannot be measured on a GPA.