This year, I took AP Biology and took the exam for it. A few days ago, I learned about CLEP biology and was interested in taking the exam. I plan to go into the medical field, so is there a benefit from me passing the CLEP biology exam though I already took AP Biology? If there are any benefits, what are they?
CLEP biology and AP biology are mostly duplicating content, so colleges are unlikely to give you credit for both (or either/both and college general biology).
Additionally, medical schools expect pre-meds to take at least a year of biology and labs in college, so if you do skip general biology with CLEP or AP credit*, you need to substitute suitable upper level biology courses (that are not used for other pre-med course requirements). Perhaps not much of an issue if you are a biology major, but if you do some other major as a pre-med, you would need to plan for those upper level biology courses and labs in your schedule.
*And if your college does give you subject credit for general biology due to CLEP or AP credit, but you retake it in college anyway, you may have to mark it as a “repeat” on your medical school application.
I’ve known several doctors and med students who had to retake bio in college The AP Bio for which the y got 4s or 5s did not count towards the 2 semesters of college Bio required for Med school. I think CLEP would fall into the same category. They were not penalized with double taking the course. I’ve not heard of that ever happening as a result of taking an AP or CLEP exam. It is an issue only when a student takes Dual Enrollment courses during high s hook at a community or other college. Those courses count as college courses for a lot of graduate and professional school GPAs.