<p>My son was visiting a state school and the student tour guide was promoting the benefits of the CLEP test. What a blast from the past! Suddenly I was reminded of my high school days when we were encouraged to “CLEP out” of low level classes. I ended up going to a private school where CLEP was not accepted. Now AP is all the rage and it has a level of prestige associated with it, even for students who will end up attending a state school. High schools brag about how many AP classes they offer and students brag about how many they are taking. They are considered a higher level class even though they “teach to the test” in such a way that my son finds them intolerable.</p>