Questions about CLEP

[QuotableKali1918]

Hello QuotableKali and welcome to InstantCert!

In the vast majority of cases, your general education requirements will be the same, i.e., English, Humanities, Social Sciences, and et cetera. So in that case your safe to do some CLEPS right away.

However, there may be some CLEPS you should stay away from until you know which college you are going to. For example, most colleges will accept the English Composition CLEP to meet the English requirement but there are two versions of this exam. One is with essay and the other is without essay. Some colleges will accept only the CLEP with essay, and some colleges will only accept the CLEP without essay. Also, if you are not going to be enrolling into one of the "Big 3," most colleges grant credits only above a certain score.

Most of the colleges in the "Big 3" accept the ACE recommendation (American Council on Education) with a minimum score of 50 (with the exception of some of the foreign language exams which require different scores for different credits) to grant credit for a CLEP. Others require scores higher than the ACE recommendation.

My suggestion to you would be to pick 3 colleges/universities that you think you might want to enroll in and call each one individually. Ask about their "CLEP Policy." You should be able to get this information online without calling if it's posted online, or call the school's admissions office which should be able to provide you with this information.

Once you have a firm grasp of what their policies are, start taking exams. It doesn't make any sense to me for people to start taking CLEPS without taking the aforementioned steps. Why go take a CLEP, score a 51, and find out the college you wish to attend will only grant credit for a score of 60!!! You would just be out of a $70 CLEP fee plus any testing center fee you paid. Always be prepared. Do your homework first and then take your exams.

I myself am going for the BA in Communications although I'm not enrolled as of yet. If TESC is in your top 3 to attend, I can send you a sample degree plan which may be of some use to you. Then you can get a good idea of what you need to do to complete your degree. If you're not certain as to what you want to major in, I believe a BA (maybe in Liberal Studies or something to that effect) would be a good start. I started off shooting for the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and wound up changing my focus to the BA in Communications. Don't let the major thing trip you up. Just pick something to shoot for and go for it.

In summary, make sure you do your homework first. This is not going to be a daunting task, just make sure you have all of your ducts in a row. Make sure to get the Clep policies for the schools you're thinking about attending and start taking exams. Before you do that, make sure you know what testing center you will be taking exams at. Find out their schedule dates and et cetera.

This is all I have for now. If there is anything else I can assist you with I will be glad to help you. That's what we're here for, to help each other.

Good luck on your educational journey and welcome again to InstantCert.

From a loyal degree seeker,

Marshall

Thank you!
That was very informative, and I will be sure to check out college's CLEP policies and such.

That was very helpful, thanks!