1. CLEP 11-16 credits by May 15:
Possible Courses:
College Algebra & Trig (5 credits)
General Biology (4 credits)
General Chemistry (4 credits)
Humanities (3 credits)
What is CLEPing classes?
Basically taking a pass/fail test to get credit for a subject, instead of taking and passing a class to get the credit. More in-depth here.
Why?
Save Money. CLEP tests cost around $50-$75 to take. So 16 hours would be around $300 (4 subjects times $75 each, assuming I pass the 1st time). To get 16 hours at my college with the scholarships I ‘had’ would cost around $2300, without those scholarships (which I don’t know if I still have them) would be around $4400. Umm….wasting $4000 on gen. ed’s when I don’t even know if I’m going to stay at this school or not is probably a bad idea for me (transferring could make my credits irrelevant, in which case, I’d have to take & pay for the same classes at the new college).
Get stuff done in less time. The classes that I will be CLEPing are basic gen. ed’s, so it’s not like this is stuff that will really help me out in my major (accounting/finance). I might as well not spend 15 hours in class a week, another 2-5 a week studying and probably 2 hours a week getting to and from class, when I could probably study 15 – 30 hours TOTAL for a CLEP test and pass it.
Maintaining my GPA: In classes that don’t really matter to me (gen. ed’s) I usually don’t pay attention/work very hard. This usually isn’t a big problem since they are entry level courses, but every once in a while you come across a teacher that wants to turn English Lit. into ‘How many papers can I make these kids write’. These are the types of classes that are my undoing. I don’t really care enough to devote the time to write multiple 10 page papers, so I get a C or low B automatically because all my papers end on page 6 or 7. On the CLEP tests you don’t get graded A-F, instead it’s a pass or fail test. Pass and you get your credits, fail and you waste your money.
HOW?
I currently have most of the CLEP study books that I need. The internet also has some learning opportunities concerning CLEP and of course, all types of stuff. Another solid resource I can use if I need something I can’t find/don’t have is the college and city libraries.
I plan on studying around 30 minutes to an hour a day on the weekdays, 2 hours a day on weekends. That’s 6.5 to 9 hours a week. I will work on one subject at a time and then take it’s CLEP test, then move onto another subject. If I had to guess I’d say it will take around 2-3 weeks to complete each subject.
If I start in February and average 3 weeks per subject(assuming 4 total subjects), I would finish at the very start of May, two weeks ahead of my goal: May 15th.
