subject: Homeschooling High School- Homeschooling College With The Clep Test [print this page] Earning college credit is not just something you can only do if youre enrolled in college. Some students earn college credit-essentially homeschooling college-while theyre still in high school, and summer is an excellent time to do this. My sons homeschooled college one summer after their junior year, when I wanted to figure out how much they knew before applying to college. This helped us to be sure they were placed appropriately. They earned all of their college credits through CLEP tests over the summer, and its something that you can do, too.
The first step to homeschooling college is to assess. The book that we found most useful in this process was The CLEP Official Study Guide. I had my sons look at the table of contents in this study guide and decide which of the tests they thought they might be able to pass. Then they took that particular sample test, and if they got 50 or more, we knew it was worth studying for the official test. A score of 50 (or sometimes lower) is typically a passing score on the CLEP, because all of their questions are hard.
The next step we did was study, and we bought a study guide for the subject area that they were going to take a test. For example, my youngest sons highest score was in American History so I bought the REA study guide for CLEP American History and gave him one week to look over it at his leisure. He would just sit there and study his REA study guides during swim meets; it wasnt hard, and it didnt bother him at all. Other people might do a little bit of study for half and hour or an hour a day for a while just to see if they can get the best possible score.
The next step in homeschooling college is to actually take your student to the testing area. You need to make an appointment to take the exam, and to do that, just visit the College Board website at www.collegeboard.com. Select the CLEP section at the bottom of the page, and find the locations close to you where tests are offered. Tests are scored right after your student completes the test (with a few exceptions), so you will know before you leave what their final score is. Different colleges award credit for CLEP scores in different ways. For example, one college might give your student 5 college credits for a score of 50, while others might award only 3 credits for the same score. Talk with the colleges youre interested in to learn their policies and score requirements.
Although you can if you want to, you dont have to report your test scores to a college immediately. During the summer when we homeschooled college, we only reported scores to my sons number-one college. We did this because I felt very confident that this college would be happy that I was keeping touch with them, but we didnt report scores to all the other colleges that they applied to.
