Picture this: it’s the final semester of your senior year. You’re already fantasizing about life after your undergrad, whether that’s applying to your dream grad program or spending a gap year in the Bahamas. Your fantasies are interrupted when you get the dreaded email from your academic advisor:
“Hey, I just wanted to let you know you’re missing this gen ed! You’re going to have to take another semester in the Fall”
A story I’ve heard once too many times (and even experienced myself), here’s how you can get FREE college credits as a student in undergrad or even high school!
Soooo what is it?
The College-Level Examination Program®, or CLEP, is a resource offered by College Board. You choose your exam, study, and take it at your discretion! Even better, you only need a score of a 50 (63%) to pass your exams and get college credits! It doesn’t affect your GPA either, so I take this as a win.
They’re offered year-round and at a fraction of the cost of university! A typical exam costs around $90, and can be worth up to 12 credits at your university! The exams are usually 1.5 to 2 hours long; definitely better than the average 12-week $1200 college course.
an example of the course equivalence of CLEP at my university
“But low-cost isn’t free”
No gatekeeping here! In conjunction with College Board, Modern States offers a free prep course to prepare for the exams. You register for free, enroll in the course, and after passing about 75% of the material, you receive a free voucher for the exam! After taking the exam, you can ask for a reimbursement of any testing fees you had to purchase, making the credits you earn COMPLETELY FREE! No catch!
I’ve known people that have taken up to 80 credits for free!!
But this means they’re super hard right?
From the ones I have taken, I didn’t find them all too difficult. I don’t suggest this but I pretty much took my exams after a few hours of studying the Modern States’ materials and passed. If you have a basic background in your exam, I wouldn’t sweat it. If you’re taking something like science, mathematics, biology, or languages, I would suggest at least a month of preparation.
(then again math isn’t my strong suit. It could be different for some but I wouldn’t suggest failing an exam on purpose because you have to wait 3 months to retake)
A list of all the study materials I used to pass
College Board: the layout of the exams, what to expect, and a free practice exam + scoring guide
Modern States: along with getting your free voucher here, I found the videos to be the perfect amount of information I needed for the exams
R/clep (on Reddit): This is a subreddit with active CLEP-exam goers. Pop a question in the forum, or ask others how they passed their exams!
Petersons: Offers study materials and free practice exams, which I found the most helpful resource of this list. The exams were the most similar to the exam I took, and I found that I would even score higher on the actual exams than the practice! The site isn’t free, but there is a free 7-day trial (hint hint)
Quizlet: An obvious choice, you can simply look up whatever exam you want to study and go over these terms!
Purdue OWL: for anyone taking the English exams, this is a great site to brush up on citation formatting!
Duolingo: A good resource for studying the language exams! There are two listening and one reading section on those specific exams, so make sure you brush up on this!
Free-CLEP-prep: has free exams, difficulty ratings, and tips on how to pass the exam
Ask your local library as well! They may have free exam booklets
FINAL NOTE
Make sure you check the CLEP course equivalency with your college/university! What may count for one school may not count for another. Even if you get an associate’s degree from a community college with CLEP, your 4-year institution may not accept it.
All in all GOOD LUCK on your exams! Please utilize this free resource and graduate early!
6 Comments
Jamie A. Dreamer
Hello loves! Glad you stopped by <3 feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions!
Grace Stime
hey girl heyy!! really really appreciate this! #blackgirlexcellence 🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾
Joan
Girl thank you so much for this. I’m not at risk of not graduating but just knowing this is an option makes me so happy
amara
Thank you so much. I really hope this works for me because I took a year to decide my major now I’m behind on classes and didn’t know how to tell my parents plus I wanted to minor in Spanish but gave it up because it was “too late”.
I already had credits from highschool but they never went through
pisceshabits
Always happy to help! Good luck with the Spanish CLEP exams! I know you’re going to pass with flying colors <3
Amanda Osei
YOU JUST SAVED MY SUMMER