Home


Welcome!
This website is dedicated to help any person who wishes to
cut their first two years of college down DRAMATICALLY, and do it CHEAPLY!                           
It's a combination of my personal experiences,
facts, and advice about CLEP, DSST and other accredited tests.

After reading this, you should be able to pass CLEP and DSST tests that award real college credit.
The savings are substantial.
You will spend $20 to $50 per credit including study material.
With CLEP tests you will save time by avoiding the classroom.
Depending on how much time you want to study,
you can take one or more tests and earn 3 to 12 college credits for 2-3 weeks of study time.
You do not need to have any previous knowledge of the subject to pass CLEP tests.
Only good study material and time is required.

Please keep in mind that reading this website will take around 5 minutes,
I promise you that it will help you out!

_____________________________________________________________________________

"How does this work?", most people ask me.
This is primarily because CLEP and other accredited tests such as DSST are a rather new and a different method of  earning most, if not all of your college degree.

I personally never heard of them until about two years ago.
I thought I would have to go to a community college
and spend many semesters doing, well, basically a repeat of high school.

"What's so good about them?" 
You can prepare for them for approximately a hour a day for 2 months or less,
earn 3 to 12 credits per test, and take 2 or more tests at a time. (I took 3 tests at once and earned 12 credits in a day.)
They cost $72 a test, $20 a month for InstaCert flashcards, and $20 or so a REA book
____________________________________________________________________________

After a friend told me about the tests,
I ordered two REA CLEP Prep books online.
I began to research online, and constructed a plan that involved CLEPs, DSST and other tests as my way to  a college degree.
Here is a list of all the CLEP Prep books REA (seems to be the only publisher of quality books) offers and information pertaining to them.
REA CLEP Prep Books

___________________________________________________________________________
Later I found this forum : DegreeForum.net
After reading some, but being overwhelmed by college in general,
I found something that supposedly would help me with passing my first two CLEP tests, Sociology and Microeconomics.

I asked a few question there,
all the responses were helpful, enthusiastic and detailed.
It's a really nice free resource to ask other people that know more than you about CLEP tests or college in general.

Here are some really nice posts that I consider "gold."
I didn't know much, so I asked some questions and got very helpful responses.
"What are Cleps"
(gives you a very informative run down)
Dantes Testing
(Like CLEPs, you earn higher level credit for your major.)
Being as keptic about many things
I asked about InstaCert and how well it worked for others.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Using InstaCert, as suggested on the Degreeforum, I started to memories,
and understand my CLEP subjects.  The REA books have some deficiencies that
InstaCert, or online material suggested from forums, seems to fix.

I typically go through around 400 questions per subject (divided into sub categories.)
The system of flash cards are very efficient and seem to have all the major facts that the CLEP and DSST tests demand.

I prefer to read my REA book once or twice, then go to InstaCert.

 Likewise, the REA books compliment the InstaCert flashcards. 
They don't appear to disagree and they fill in each others missing information,
concepts, and such.

You need to know as much as you can,
as the preparation material won't fully prepare you.

You may ace the preparation material and won't ace the CLEPs unless you have some in-depth knowledge of the subject.
Setting a goal of scoring 70% or so correct on the practice exams/Instacert will usually be high enough to pass the CLEP test.
InstaCert.com
Use discount code 93409 to save $5.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a link to the College Board  (the makers of the CLEP)
on where you can find a testing facility for  proctoring the CLEP test near you.
Unfortunately, I have to fly from the Big Island to Honolulu.
For most people you might have to drive 20 minutes to a testing facility.

College Board's List of Colleges that Accept CLEP
Keep in mind some colleges accept 40 or so credits
of your whole AA, while others let you use 20 to 30 of them.
Some do not accept certain subjects like English Composition for instance, however most accept almost all of them.

Excelsior, Edison, and Charter Oak (online colleges) appear to be very popular with
people who like to take CLEP tests and other various tests.
They seem to have a core philosophy and structure around assimilating tests into a degree.
Degree Forum's Sub Forum for Excelsior, Edison and Charter Oak "The Big Three"
A nice compilation of information for three good online colleges.

I personally think I will enroll at Excelsior since I can use CLEPS and DSSTs for my AA. I have estimated my total college expense for a Bachelor degree to be approximately $15,000! 
That is amazing to me and I can still work and do not have to worry about traveling to a school campus nearly every day of the week.
__________________________________________________________________________________

You only need an average  50% of them correct.
The College Level Examination Board says you need to get 50 out of 80.
This is a scaled score, the actual CLEP tests are about 90 to 120 questions.

Most colleges accept a scaled score of 50.
 A pass is a pass, however some college may have a higher score they deem as a pass or fail.

For less than $200  (including resources) you can earn 6 credits or more depending on what you take.
You need to spend a hour or two at home reading books for a few weeks,
schedule a test date, then take your test. 
Each test on average take me about 20-35 minutes,
however you have approximately
1 1/2 hours to finish the test. 
This shows how well Instacert and REA's books prepared me.
Please keep in mind that even if you do really well on InstaCert and
the REA books you more than likely won't "ace the test".
There seems to be some deviation between the prep material and the actual test.
If you set the bar high enough for your practice tests and InstaCert, you will more than likely pass and then some.

Overall, InstaCert is very helpful when combined with REA's books and possibly some online information.
At age 18 I earned 59 credits for under 3K with airline tickets,
I am now earning credits from Straighterline and plan on continuing on to Excelsior.