<p>My DD16 has decided to take a CLEP test in Spanish (her HS language choice) the summer before she enters college. If the college (as yet, an unknown) accepts CLEP credits (and she makes the required score), it could give her either 6 or 12 credits, depending on if she takes the Level I or II test, apparently. I'm sure each college has its own CLEP policy, but I'm going to start looking into it for her current college list. </p>
<p>I think she'd be able to handle the Level I. That could be a lot of savings in tuition, if credit is granted by the college. If nothing else, perhaps she can use the CLEP credits to cover a language or elective req and use her tuition for something more desired. </p>
<p>She'll be taking the SAT so I would guess she could use that account for any CLEP testing. The College Board offers SAT, AP and CLEP. (She might do an English Lit AP, but we haven't even looked into that. Her English Honors teacher mentioned something about it at Parent night last week.) Just thought I'd share this tidbit about World Languages CLEP. It seems like low-hanging fruit for HS students who don't take (or pass) an AP test in Spanish, French, or German. </p>
<p>The tricky part will be whether her college accepts the CLEP for credit. It’s more likely at a public school. My son has 15 hours of credit from 2 CLEPs, 1 AP and his ACT score which got him out of 2 introductory English classes.</p>
<p>Does she care about the credit units, or the placement into higher level Spanish courses?</p>
<p>If what she cares about is the latter, colleges typically have their own placement tests or guidelines for foreign language course placement, since students enter at all levels of knowledge of foreign languages. CLEP, AP, etc. may be just some on several options for placement. Fulfillment of foreign language graduation requirements is often based on completion of a certain level or placement into a higher level.</p>
<p>Check each college for the relevant information.</p>
<p>Not placement at this point. One of the schools on her list will require a gen ed for world language as a BA req, and that case is a bit more complex. I figure if she goes there, she’ll just do Spanish I and II (two years) of college language. That BA req might be a deal-breaker for her however, given that her LDs that make it an extremely difficult req. Or, she’ll just slug it out if she decides that one school is the one her her. </p>
<p>CLEPs are a great way to earn college credit or test into a higher level of that subject. And they also show the college that the student is ready to tackly college leverl work. Some of my kids tooks CLEPs instead of AP as this was a better option for them. It ended up saving them from having to retake those credits at their 4 years college and they finished up in less than 4 years. </p>
<p>Not all schools accept them and some schools accept them after you pay some sort of transfer fee. My kids’ uni had a pretty hefty transfer fee to bring in their CLEP credits but there was no fee to bring in AP credits. Go figure. That sure annoyed me as College Board gives both exams. </p>
<p>Last time I checked, there was only one exam for each language with CLEP. The score on the exam was what determined the amount of credit awarded. Your own public library probably has a CLEP exam sample book to look at. The CLEP is a bit longer and harder than the SAT II, but shorter and possibly slightly easier than the AP exam. If you look at the sample exams, you will be able to figure out which parts of an SAT II prep book and AP prep book to use for review. Cheapest 12 credits Happykid ever earned.</p>
<p>Wisconsin lets each year of a HS foreign language count as one semester in meeting the foreign language graduation requirements- those who have taken 4th year of a HS language do not need any in college. I’m not sure getting extra credits through CLEP is worth the time and money since a student likely will use four years to benefit from the courses available at their college instead of only doing the minimal credits required to graduate. UW also offers its own required testing for language course placement. AP credits can be a boost in class standing (helpful in registration dates) but using them to graduate early precludes taking more advanced courses in one’s major, especially those with sequential courses.</p>
<p>Great if this is your D’s idea but I wouldn’t limit my college choices to those where CLEP results matter.</p>
<p>Her college list is based on desired major. Since she has no ACT or SAT scores yet, the list includes schools with very low admissions reqs and middling ones. No highly selective schools on the list. She’s just starting to now collect all the specifics for each school, which is quite a research project. Like options for CLEP credts.</p>
<p>I believe taking a full four years of undergrad would be best for her, and not rushing it. However, if she gets some credits from CLEP that would cover some gen ed reqs, that would create some wiggle room for other, more desired courses, such as a minor, more in the major’s department, or more favorite gen ed subjects. </p>
<p>Plus, one other benefit to her from CLEP or SAT subject tests would be scores that show where she stands nationally (correct way to state it?), as colleges are going to be suspect of her.high grades from a miniscule school (actually, schools, plural). Kind of like homeschooling kids need outside confirmation of subject mastery,</p>
<p>I would say that ANY test in Foreign language is useless in HS. They have to take a placement test in Foreign language before they register for the first semester of freshman year. If your kid test way way beyond the highest score and his/her major require Foreign language, then he/she still need to take it. My D. took only one semester - it was a 3rd year of college Spanish. it was one of her best UG classes after which she is able to talk, used it at several occasions at her Med. School and actually had more opportunities there because of her Spanish.<br>
I would go for the highest level available at college, very worthwhile to consider (or you may not have a choice because of the requirement of the major)</p>
<p>That might be true for many schools, but some of the colleges on my DD’s list would take Spanish CLEP 50 or higher score as 6 credits (Level I test - doable for DD) or 12 credits (Level II - not doable) and the test score credits from the school would knock out her Humanities gen ed reqs.</p>
<p>If she becomes committed to developing her Spanish skills further, then perhaps she’ll take extra in college (a given if she goes to a college where you MUST take additional language no matter what test scores you bring in). It’d be a delight if she could become fluent in Spanish (and VERY useful career-wise), but that might not be within her reach. However, I’m hopeful. I am talking to her about heading for a Cuernavaca language school in her summer between HS and college to gain better Spanish skills. A graduation present. We’ll see where she lands with all this — she’s just a HS junior now and is only in Spanish I. :)</p>
<p>Still, the main point: Folks, Check out CLEP Spanish, German and French tests with your intended college to see if they’d be useful. </p>
<p>“colleges are going to be suspect of her.high grades from a miniscule school” - nobody expressed any suspicion about my D’s #1 standing in a class of 33. I am not sure where you got this idea. Also, D. was coming from the middle school (irrelevant for colleg admission, though) of 4 kids (yes, FOUR). She can do whatever she wishes, but it is a very good idea to take foreign language at college at as high level as possible, there is no substitution for it besides being a native speaker.</p>
<p>Bringing in CLEP credits can also help in creating space in a student’s schedule. For example some students do better taking 12 credits a semester and using the extra time to study. One of my daughters did much better taking fewer credits as that gave her the option of working more hours. For her, having a part time job helped her to focus on her classes. I believe that had she only had classes (say a usual 15 credit course load), she would not have done as well in her classes. She needed the balance that work brought to her life (instead of all classes and no part time job). </p>
<p>She had earned a year’s worth of college credit in high school, so she could easily take fewer credits per semester and work also. </p>
<p>She had one semester where she was quite ill and could only manage 9 credits. Again, her surplus of credits earned in high school came in quite handy. </p>
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