<p>A friend is going back to school after several years away and has an opportunity to take 3 CLEP tests. The question she has is how difficult are the tests and how reasonable it would for her to study for them and still pass. </p>
<p>Would these be similar to AP tests both in difficulty and how the schools give credit for them?</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>She needs to check her college’s policy about credit by exam. It should be right on the website.</p>
<p>CLEP exams are available all year round at many different locations. You can search for testing sites on the CLEP website. Some testing sites have more flexible scheduling than others do. </p>
<p>The CollegeBoard has an official CLEP exam book that you should be able to find at the public library. Your friend can try the exams she’s interested in, and see whether or not she thinks she can get the score she needs with a little bit of study. Happykid took the Spanish CLEP. We used AP and SAT II prep materials for review.</p>
<p>There is a subforum for the CLEP inside the testing forum. Your friend might want to look there for specific suggestions about prep for the exams she’s thinking about.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. She is not on CC, but maybe that should be her first step. I will look there for now and pass on what I can ;-)</p>
<p>There are brief versions of the practice tests online. Tell her to Google the particular tests.</p>
<p>CLEP tests are not that difficult, and nowhere near the difficulty of AP tests. I have been out of school for 40 years and recently took 3 CLEP’s. In one case, I bought a textbook (Human Growth and Dev.) because I had never done much work or reading in that area. I studied fairly superficially for 2 or 3 weeks and did fine. College Composition is like the SAT in some ways, with multiple choice on grammar and comprehension and an essay. I also took Humanities and looked over a book on art and “Classical Music for Dummies” which I had in the house, and I briefly reviewed Shakespeare’s plays online. One tip for some of the exams is to make sure to cover multicultural topics (maybe 3 questions). I also bought a study book for American Gov. and for American Lit. for about $2 online (like Sparks notes).</p>
<p>I actually wish I had discovered CLEP’s earlier. They save time and money. Of course, I would have preferred to have taken the classes way back when, but without the college courses in some of these subjects, I have done enough reading and writing over the years to know the equivalent amount on most of the subjects in CLEP’s.</p>