Have you heard of CLEP?

If not, you should definitely know about it, regardless of the school environment for your children.  CLEP allows your children to earn credits for college before they actually get to college age.  Unlike PSEO, which is only for 11th and 12th graders, CLEP has no age restrictions. 

There are a variety of subjects your child can select for testing. Thirty-three tests in available.   The tests are given in testing centers year round and only cost $80/test. There is often an administrative testing fee of $15-20.  Generally a child can earn 3 credits for each CLEP test completed.  Compare $100 to the the cost of a class at any public or private college and you are saving a boatload of money.  Get this, proficiency means getting 50% of the questions right.  Yes, I said it, your child only needs to get 1/2 of the questions right to get college credit.  The College Board holds onto the test scores for 20 years so the results don't expire.   If your child fails the test, they are able to sit for the exam in another six months. 

I learned this last night after attending a workshop done by Cheri Frame from Credits before College.  Not only did I learn about CLEP but I learned a lot I didn't know about college.  For example, most of the first two years of college (the general education courses), the first 60 credits, are repeats of what a child learned in high school.  Not until the final 60 credits does the child really get into new material.  CLEP allows your child to show proficiency in many of the classes offered during the first two years of college.

Credits Before College

College affordability and value is a big conversation these days.  CLEP allows you to substantially reduce your college costs.   Your child could easily have two years of education under their belt for a few thousand dollars in testing fees.  

The only hang up I could see is that some colleges will not accept CLEP.  Ivy leagues and military academies fall into this column.  It's important to check with colleges of interest to your family before taking the exams.   Some colleges will grant proficiency in the subject but not credit.  This means your child can take a more advanced class in place of the entry level course. 

Awesome books exist to help your child prepare for the exams and it is becoming more and more common to find CLEP classes (especially in the homeschooling world).  Cheri's suggestion was to have your child do a few practice exams, available in the books, to determine if your child is prepared to sit for the exam. 

The other exam mentioned was the DSST.  They offer 38 tests and the parameters are similar to CLEP.

Please check out Cheri's website! There is much more information on CLEP, DSST, college planning and dates for her upcoming workshops.