CLEP
College Learning Examination Program (?maybe). A while back I got a notice from the local school system recommending CLEP as a way of getting college credits. I wanted to let you know what I’ve found about that so far, and I’ll update as we go along. This is a sample of the adverts they put out.

So. My first question was: How can I find out if my kids’ colleges will give credit for CLEP exams? I wrote to the admin dept of my son’s school and got a clear affirmative. Then I got clued in that you can search the college website for “CLEP policy” and get an answer for any college.
Second issue; where are tests given. I was able to search CLEP’s website for their testing sites and found that the local community college has CLEP testing.*
So far, so good. Where it gets a bit stickier is the actual coursework to prepare for this exam. If you’ll read the advert above, you will note that they promise “free and affordable online study resources.” That is . . an exaggeration. Like many other education sites I have investigated over the years, you don’t get to see even a small sample of what you’re buying until you have already bought it. In this case, the ‘study resources’ consist of a pdf, 23 pages of which consists of promo info for CLEP and details of testing rules and 14 pages of which consists of 60 sample questions for the chemistry exam. They are multiple choice, and the correct choice is given at the end, but the actual worked-out answer is not given. Nor any other study material. Instead, you are supposed to go find your own resources and study the (very large) number of topics covered. All you get from CLEP is. One sample exam. Sixty questions.
Well, we are going to try to make this work. Primarily because the (only) prof who teaches this class at my son’s school is an absolute maniac. As I said, I will keep anyone who is interested posted on the process. I DO have an actual chemistry textbook. Youtube Bozeman Science, here we come.
* however when I actually bought the exam and tried to get access to the local testing center, I got an error message? That is a concern.


