Most students have never heard of the College Level Examination Program. But every student should know about them. CLEP tests are exams administered by College Board that allow access to an accelerated education at a lower price. Students can take them in high school or at the college level. Many colleges, including AU, accept some of these tests as replacements for courses. Students can pay $72 to take a CLEP test in, say, general chemistry, prove proficiency in the subject and forego a grueling, semester-long classroom experience. As The Eagle reports, students can save an average of $3,372 per course. How’s that for a bargain?
The only questions worth asking about these exams are why they aren’t better publicized and why they aren’t more widely utilized. At $1,148 each, credits are awfully expensive at this university. CLEP tests provide a huge opportunity for savings. Students who do well on them free up space in their schedules to take courses they otherwise would not have taken. This may seem like a trivial point to make, but imagine the number of extra electives students could fit in by taking CLEP tests for general education credit.
Plus, imagine how much smaller general education class size would be if more students got credit through CLEP tests. Students might get more personalized attention from professors.
AU currently gives course credit for good scores on five different CLEP tests — American government, general chemistry, introduction to macroeconomics, introduction to microeconomics and introduction to sociology. The university should drastically expand the number of tests it accepts. Meanwhile, students should seek more information about the tests and certainly pass it on to their younger siblings.
One final point: College Board should publicize the heck out of this. Not since AP and IB tests were introduced has there been a better way to get advance college credit and save huge amounts of money. In these tough economic times, the College Level Examination Program is a great deal for students.
