Tracey S. shared with me how they used the HS4CC approach of aligning CLEP exams with the homeschool classes you’re already doing to scoop up every possible CLEP along the way. The result of their resourceful high school planning was nothing short of incredible – and something anyone can do!
“My daughter used CLEP exams as final exams for her homeschool high school courses. She used the subject curriculum I gave her, then found CLEP exams that were similar. She studied a little extra using CLEP REA guides we found at online used book stores for a tiny fraction of the new cost ($5 usually) & she tested locally. After her first passed exam, she was hooked & went back & took exams for every homeschool course she had already taken.”
I want to highlight Tracey’s approach, because you don’t only have to look forward to bringing in college credit, you can also look backwards! As an example, if your student has already studied American Government, Literature, or History, it is likely that they only need a short amount of time to prepare for the exam. This is something you can squeeze in during holiday breaks or periods between classes.
“The goal was to CLEP out of all her college gen eds, which she did. She hadn’t chosen a college at that point, so she simply collected CLEP exams in case she needed them.”
This is very smart strategy, and one that parents are sometimes hesitant to do. It really doesn’t matter what (or if) a future college will award college credit for a CLEP exam when you take the HS4CC approach of pairing CLEP to a homeschool course, there isn’t enough extra work to worry about it. In many cases, a week or two is plenty of test prep time. As you’ll read below, Tracey also used the program through Modern States (.org) to get her CLEP exams paid for, so zero out-of-pocket costs.
“Modern States made it free, so it cost her nothing but some extra time. She skimmed the course to get the free voucher, as her curriculum had been rigorous enough to fly through it quickly. My daughter was able to leverage her passed Calculus CLEP into proof of prerequisite completion to qualify for Calculus 2 which she then took as a college Dual Enrollment course. Anyway, that is our CLEP experience and I highly recommend it to every student. You have nothing to lose. We found H4CC late in the game, but she made up CLEP & Dual Enrollment ground pretty quickly once she was aware that it was an option. Thank you for your book, Facebook groups, & personal suggestions. They all helped get her where she is today.”
And thank YOU Tracey, for sharing your Happy Story with us! Do you have a Happy Story you’d like to share? Send it to Jennifer Cook-DeRosa at cookderosa@hs4cc.org
