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February 9, 2016Get Smarter Prep

PSAT Results

PSAT results are finally released, about a month after they were initially expected. While some students are still having difficulty accessing their scores, those who have been able to get in have been confronted with scores that look quite different from previous PSATs.

Total PSAT scores are between 320 and 1520. The total score is a combination of the Math and “Evidence-Based Reading and Writing,” each of which is scored between 160 and 760. While these score ranges are not the same as the SAT – the upper and lower limits are shifted down by 40 points – College Board maintains that they are basically predictive of a student’s performance on the SAT.

The Selection Index will appear lower this year due to the new scoring ranges. For the class of 2016 (the last class to take the “old” PSAT), the highest possible score was a 240, and state-by-state NMSQT/PSAT cutoffs for semifinalists varied from 202 to 225. This year’s maximum Selection Index is a 228. Estimates of this year’s cutoffs vary considerably, and it might be easy to obsess over all of the possibilities if you believe your score is in the range for National Merit consideration.

Percentiles have also become more complicated on this year’s reports. Online score reports will include both percentiles – a “Nationally Representative Sample Percentile” and the “User Percentile.” The Nationally Representative sample will generally be higher, and provides the score as a percentile of a “nationally representative” group of 11th grade students. This measurement demonstrates how a student’s score compares to all high school juniors in the United States, including students who “don’t typically take the test.” The Nationally Representative Sample Percentile is the one that will appear on a students’ hard-copy report. The User Percentile is the percentile rank we’re more familiar with, comparing the scores of students who actually took the test. The User Percentile is only available online.

With so much uncertainty remaining, what useful information can we gain from the PSAT? If you’re still debating which test to focus on – the ACT or SAT – your PSAT results/score can help you decide. If you do decide to move forward with the SAT, a more thorough review of your PSAT can help. When your hard copy score report is released, take the time to review your test booklet for additional insights and make a study plan for the SAT.

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December 16, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Winter Break Time Management

Winter break is fast approaching, and you’ve probably got serious plans. Maybe you’ve got ACT prep to do or college applications to (finally) complete or volunteer work or rehearsals or practice or family projects…it’s all doable, right?

Until suddenly you’ve got two days left until class begins and it feels like you’ve done nothing but scroll through Unimpressed Cats and moderate an unwieldy group text between some people who, honestly, shouldn’t be allowed to group text.

Here are some tips for how to manage time wisely and make the most of your upcoming break.

  • Schedule time for interruptions.

If your schedule is too tight, one unexpected distraction can throw everything into chaos. Your mom wants you to pick up your little brother from soccer? Where is that time going to come from? You don’t even have time to get a glass of water until tomorrow at 3:15 PM.

Build time into your schedule to allow for the unexpected so that you can move things around, be flexible, and not lose all of your momentum. If you don’t end up using your extra time, resist the urge to cram more (unnecessary) activities into your day. Take a break. Go for a walk. Take a nap.

  • Examine

Procrastination can be a source of frustration and guilt, but it can also be a source of information. What kinds of things are you putting off? Examine what your feelings are about those tasks. This might not be pleasant, but it’s important!

You might find, at the root of your strong desire to avoid a task, you’re feeling uncertain about the requirements, or anxious about the outcome, or just generally overwhelmed. Getting to the bottom of your procrastination is the first step towards solving the problem.

  • Focus on one thing at a time.

Multi-tasking is a waste of time.

It’s been proven. With science. Work on one task at a time. You’ll actually get more done. If you’re worried you’ll waste all of your time on one thing when your to-do list contains 75, see tips #5 and #6.

  • Don’t waste time waiting.

It may not seem like it, but you probably have time you’re not using. Down time is important. I am not suggesting that every moment be dedicated to accomplishing tasks. However, time that is neither productive nor restful is wasted time.

Waiting for an oil change? Bring a book or an assignment. Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty – these little bits of time add up, so don’t kid yourself into thinking they don’t “count.”

  • Don’t be a perfectionist.

One of the best time management tips I ever received was from this textbook: “Define ‘acceptable’ and stop there.”

For those of us used to overachieving, this might sound blasphemous. You can’t just get by with acceptable! You’ve got to do the very best job possible! But when doing the very best job possible one on project means that something else doesn’t get done at all, it’s time to re-evaluate your system. Some tasks don’t require lots of flair. What is the expectation? Fulfill the expectation, meet the requirements, and move on.

This doesn’t mean you’re turning in shoddy work. It does mean that if you’ve got a 10-point worksheet of French sentences to write, writing them neatly and correctly might be enough. Maybe you don’t also have to create a delightful story out of them, if that’s not even part of your assignment.

  • Set time limits.

If you have many things to do, decide how long you’ll spend on each task. Set a timer or an alarm and stick to it. You might be surprised how much you can accomplish in an hour or even 15 minutes.

Setting a time limit helps you to stay focused on your task because you have less time to waste. If I have two days to write a paper, spending two hours on Instagram doesn’t seem like a big deal. If I have an hour to come up with an outline and an introduction, I am less likely to waste that time.

Time limits also help coax you into approaching tasks that seem frightening or unmanageable. You can do anything for fifteen minutes. Even brainstorm college essays.

  • Take care of yourself.

If you’re already ruthless about getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, taking breaks, etc., congratulations! Keep those habits up.

If you’re the type of person who misses out on basic self-care in favor of getting more done, know that you are actually less productive than you would be if you were eating and sleeping and taking regular breaks. Leave enough time in your schedule for meals, breaks, sleep, and social activities. You’ll feel better, get more done, and be less likely to get sick.

This is a busy time of year for everyone, but if you approach it intentionally you may be surprised at how much you can accomplish while avoiding mind-numbing panic. Good luck!

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December 7, 2015Get Smarter Prep

College Interview Tips

College Interview Tips

Most students will not be required to complete an interview as part of their college application process. However, many schools offer interviews, some going so far as to “strongly encourage” applicants to complete one – online, on campus, or in person with an alumni representative. Some scholarships applications also require interviews, even if the college or university itself does not. Here are some college interview tips for navigating the process.

  • Do your research. What is the interview policy for the schools on your list?

Some schools offer only informational interviews, which are a great opportunity to ask questions about a college, but don’t become part of your application. Preparing for an informational interview will quite different than preparing for an evaluative interview, which is the kind that does impact your application. Some schools offer interviews to all students, while some have a limited number. Some colleges and universities require interviews from only specific applicants, and some will invite a number of students to interview. Knowing how the colleges on your list approach interviewing will ensure that you’re prepared!

  • Practice, but don’t rehearse.

Get help with this part. Practice with a friend or family member. Give your helper a variety of questions, and let them choose the order, so that you’re not simply memorizing a script. Similarly, don’t try to prepare verbatim answers. It will be helpful, for example, to choose a book to discuss, but you’re better off being familiar with the book than memorizing paragraphs of analysis. Select some stories to tell about your life, your academic career, and your goals for the future. Feel comfortable with those stories, the way you might feel if you were telling a new friend about the time your dad tried to drive you to school and help you review for a calculus exam – at the same time. (Bye-bye, hubcap.)

  • Be friendly but professional.

The interview is a great opportunity for the school to get to know you – even more than the essay, this is your opportunity to bring life to the numbers and lists of activities that make up the rest of your application. Actually being a real person is an important part of that process. Be yourself. Try to enjoy the conversation and engage with your interviewer(s). At the same time, be professional. Dress neatly, give the interviewer your full attention, and keep your language appropriate to the setting.

  • Do your research.  Be knowledgeable about the school and city.

Presumably, you’re going to an interview because you actually want to go to this college or university. Think about why you want to go, and if your answers don’t sound like interview material, come up with something a little deeper. Spend some time connecting with the school and its current students, if possible, and figure out how to explain what makes this particular place special. When the interviewer gives you an opportunity to ask a question of your own, be ready. Showing your interest and curiosity about the college is important, but it’s also a good chance for you to learn more about the school!

 

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December 3, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Social Media in Admissions

Will that post come back to haunt you? According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, “Certain violations on social media have the potential to completely end an applicant’s case for admission.” Depending on where you apply, the chances that your online presence will be scrutinized vary significantly. Some schools just don’t have the time, and some actually prohibit the practice.

The NY Times reports that, at Oberlin, “admissions officers may review only the material submitted by students as part of their application.” That means they’re prohibited from considering other information in making their decision. Washington College in Chestertown, Md., takes a more moderate approach. “Admissions officials do not proactively seek out candidates on social media. But while monitoring the college’s brand online, admissions officers often happen upon applicants who have publicly commented on the college, and they immediately forward those posts to Satyajit Dattagupta, the vice president for enrollment management.”

Do those posts affect admission chances? You bet. Dattagupta “looked favorably” on applicants who kept things positive, but was “troubled” by students who spoke negatively about any college online.

What Colleges Are Looking For

According to Kaplan, 35% of admissions officers look for information about students on social media, and 16% report that they have found things that negatively affected a student’s chances. Protecting online reputations has become big business – Forbes reports that companies may charge as little as $100/year for a simple service to alert them to problematic material, or as much as $1300/month to bury troublesome information on the third page of Google search results.

OK, you’re thinking, I know all of this. None of this is new. You’ve changed your privacy settings or even deleted your accounts. You’ve gone underground, and you’d challenge an admissions officer to even find any trace of you online, at all. You’re all set, right?

Maybe. Maybe not. You might be missing an opportunity. US News suggests using social media in your favor to support your application, demonstrate interest, and create a positive presence. Monitoring your privacy settings and removing photos of you holding a red Solo cup? That’s 101-level stuff. Let’s talk about the advanced version.

How To Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Is your application an ode to your service work? Post pictures of that work on Facebook. Passionate about sports or music? Upload videos of your performances. Are you proud of your writing or design skills? There are plenty of ways to create an online presence that reflects those things and will support your application, should your admissions rep go digging.

Social media can also facilitate networking with schools and demonstrating your interest and interacting with them in ways beyond the traditional campus visit. Consider seeking out programs that catch your interest, and even specific professors you’d like to work with, on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It won’t take much time, but it can make a difference to your admission chances.

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September 22, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Changes to the SAT

College Board has released four practice versions of the new, redesigned SAT. The revised test will be rolled out beginning with the 2015 PSAT this fall; the new SAT will begin in March of 2016. More information will continue to become available as we move closer to those dates (for example, the SAT score concordances won’t be released until May of 2016), but here are some of the changes to the SAT we know so far:

1) Scoring is changing.

The SAT will return to a 1600 point scale, with a 200-800 range for Math and a 200-800 range for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. The Essay will be reported separately.

The PSAT will be on a new scale, too, with scores ranging from 320–1520. These will be divided between two sections, like the SAT, with each score between 160 and 760.

The College Board website indicates that scoring is still “subject to research,” which may mean changes are possible. See item #2.

2) Expect some delays in interpreting scores for the first test date(s).

College Board has been upfront about this. The first administration of the redesigned SAT will be in March of 2016, and College Board plans to release concordance tables in May of 2016. Concordance tables are important. They help establish what the new scores mean by comparing them to the previous scores. Students who take the test in March will not have much useful information to help them decide whether or not to retake at the next test date in May.

3) That looks familiar!

Many of the content and formatting changes to the redesigned SAT look a lot like things we’ve been working with on the ACT for years:

  • The essay is now optional, and reported as a separate score.
  • There will be fewer, longer sections. One major difference between the ACT and the SAT has been that the ACT had 4 sections, which lasted, on average, about 45 minutes each, while the SAT had 10 sections which lasted 20-25 minutes. The new SAT has 4 sections, which last an average of 45 minutes, while the new PSAT is down to 3 sections, which average 55 minutes each. With the longer sections, pacing may be more challenging.
  • The ACT has long included a handful of trigonometry questions, while the SAT has avoided them. The redesigned SAT includes trig questions.
  • While there is no Science section on the new SAT, there are plenty of opportunities to read charts and graphs. Both the Math and the Reading sections will include graph questions.
  • Students taking the current SAT have often been enervated by the onerous, even noxious, practice of learning a plethora of vocabulary words for the Sentence Completion questions. The dearth of such questions on the redesigned SAT might strike you as serendipitous.  Like the ACT, the redesigned SAT Reading test will focus on passages, and any vocabulary questions will involve a student’s ability to understand a word’s meaning in the context of the passage.
  • The redesigned SAT, like the ACT, will now include several different subscores.
  • Like the ACT, the new SAT will no longer deduct points for incorrect answers. (In other words, no more “guessing penalty.”)
 

4) There’s a new type of math section.

There are two Math sections on the redesigned SAT. One does not allow calculators. It’s the shorter of the two Math sections, and it includes 20 questions to be completed in 25 minutes. Some of those questions are “grid-in” or student-produced response questions.

5) The essay is a longer, and has new requirements.

The new, optional Essay section will be 50 minutes, and will involve analyzing source material in order to answer the prompt. This is a departure from the broad, open-ended type of question that appears on the current SAT.

We’re here to help! Navigating the new SAT will be an adventure for everyone – students, educators, and college admissions teams alike. There’s still a lot of uncertainty around the new tests, and we will be researching and providing the best information to help guide you through the process.

 

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September 14, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Tips for a Successful School Year, Part II

Tips for a successful school year

Summer vacation has come and gone, and whether you’ve spent the last three months watching Netflix in your bedroom or volunteering in Haiti, now is the time to focus on setting goals for the upcoming school year. Regardless of where you’re at in your high school career, we’ve got a few tips for what to prioritize this year. For Part I of this series, which focuses on Freshmen and Sophomores, please click here!

For Juniors

1) Breathe.

For many students, Junior year is the most stressful of their high school career. Remember to balance self-care with all of your other goals. “Challenge yourself” is not the same thing as “destroy yourself at the altar of academic and extracurricular perfection.” Part of time-management is knowing when to take a break.

2) Continue taking challenging courses.

For many Juniors, Junior year means AP courses. Be realistic, but challenge yourself. Talk with your counselor about the right number of AP courses based on the classes you’ve taken so far and your future goals.

3) Pursue leadership roles within extra-curricular activities.

Stick with the activities you’re most passionate about, and consider becoming more active within those environments. Look for opportunities to pursue leadership roles and responsibilities

4) Create (or Narrow) Your College List.

If you don’t have a college list, now is the time to start. If your list currently includes every mid-sized private school with a decent psychology program, it’s time to start narrowing. Keep researching, evaluating what’s important to you, and work towards creating a list of schools that you’re truly excited about.

5) Visit More Colleges.

Take tours, meet professors, and sit in on classes. Visiting will help eliminate some colleges from your list and solidify the position of others, and it’s also a great way to demonstrate interest.

6) Get your test scores in order.

If you haven’t taken a Practice ACT, do so. If you have, and you’re happy with your score, take a real test, get an official score, and move on with your life! If you’ve taken a practice test and want to boost your score, work with a tutor to get the score you need.

7) Start thinking about recommendation letters.

Think about which teachers you might want to ask, and plan to do so in the second half of Junior year. Participate in class and make connections with your teachers.

For Seniors

1) Keep up your strong academic performance!

Senior course selection and grades are important! Remember, colleges are interested in your trajectory. Keep challenging yourself with difficult courses, including AP/IB classes, and keep your GPA up.  How you perform in difficult classes your senior year will give admissions officers insight into how well you will do in challenging college courses.

2) If you need to, take the ACT or SAT one more time.

Do you need one more point to get into the middle 50 for your top school? Go for it. Take one more ACT. Don’t take one more ACT if you’re “just wondering” if your score might go up, and you haven’t spent/don’t have any time to spend on prep.

3) Ask for recommendations.

If you didn’t do so at the end of Junior year, ask for letters as soon as possible. Your favorite English teacher is going to be asked to write recs for a lot of students. Writing good recommendations takes time, and bad recommendations are not going to help you.

4) Get organized.

Know your deadlines – applications, scholarships, everything. Make a plan and stay on task. Filling out applications can be overwhelming unless you break the process down into manageable steps. If you’re overwhelmed, ask for help.

5) Keep visiting colleges.

Even after applications are submitted, you may want to keep visiting colleges. If you apply to 6, 8, or 10 schools you’re really excited about (and hopefully you ARE excited about all of your schools), you may need more information to make your final decision.

Audrey Hazzard is a Tutor at Get Smarter Prep.

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September 1, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Tips for a Successful School Year, Part I

Tips for a Successful School Year

Summer vacation has come and gone, and whether you’ve spent the last three months watching Netflix in your bedroom or volunteering in Haiti, now is the time to focus on setting goals for the upcoming school year. Regardless of where you’re at in your high school career, we’ve got a few tips for what to prioritize this year.

For Freshman

1) Start taking challenging courses.

Challenging yourself now sets you up for better test scores and a more impressive transcript. Select courses that cover the core subject areas first. Choose electives that look challenging and/or represent interests you may wish to build on later.

2) Explore activities and interests.

High school may provide an opportunity to explore activities that haven’t been an option previously. Trying out a few different things (while balancing your time with schoolwork, of course!) is a great way to find strengths and passions that you can continue to pursue in the coming years, and also eliminate things that perhaps just don’t interest you as much as you thought they might.

3) Read!

Reading for pleasure has many benefits – higher test scores is just one of them. If you’re already a reader, that’s fantastic! Make time to keep reading. If not, work on cultivating the habit. Take a trip to the library and let yourself explore. Pick anything that interests you! Commit to reading one book a month this year.

For Sophomores

1) Continue taking challenging courses.

Build on your successes from last year. When colleges look at transcripts, one of the things they evaluate is your trajectory. If you took two honors courses last year, take more than two this year. Set a goal for your GPA that is higher than last year’s. Keep taking your core courses and challenging electives. Set challenging, but reasonable, goals.

2) Narrow your extracurricular activities.

You don’t have to do everything. Having some focus is beneficial, not just for your resume, but also for your life. Volunteered at three different, totally unrelated places last year? Pick the one that speaks to you the most and log some serious hours. Didn’t love yearbook? Drop it. Your time is valuable, and your activities should be things that you value.

3) Start generating a college list.

Yes, you’ve got time. But there are thousands of schools in the United States, and beginning your research now – when there’s less pressure – can actually be kind of fun. Don’t feel the need to make specific plans yet, just explore your options and see what sounds interesting.

4) Start your college visits.

Visiting colleges might seem premature if you don’t have a list, but your first visits should be less about meeting with admissions counselors and more about getting a feel for a few different colleges. Walk around a small liberal-arts campus, a big university, a medium-sized Jesuit school. Visiting colleges in your region, or that happen to be nearby on a family vacation, is a great place to start.

Look for “Tips for a Successful School Year, Part II, which focuses on Juniors and Seniors, out next week!

Audrey Hazzard is a Tutor at Get Smarter Prep.

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August 17, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Facts about Rolling Admissions

If a college or university lists a “rolling” admissions deadline, they process applications as they receive them, instead of waiting until a fixed deadline and processing them all at once. Applying to a school with rolling admissions can provide a host of potential benefits, but many students may not look for these types of schools specifically. Here are some quick facts about the subject.

Rolling admissions may provide some peace of mind.

The timeline of the college admissions process can be stressful; months of hectic agonizing over essays and transcripts are followed by months of silence, waiting and wondering. Those waiting moments provide great spaces for worries and stress to emerge. Even students with carefully chosen lists and great “safety” options might wonder: what happens if I don’t get in anywhere? What will I do then?

Applying to a school with rolling admissions offers a chance to circumvent some of that worry. If you’ve already been accepted to one school, waiting to hear back from other colleges becomes less about what happens if I don’t get in anywhere and more about I know I have at least one option. That can make a world of difference if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

If you’re applying to a school with rolling admissions, applying early is better.

As spots begin to fill up throughout the rolling admissions process, schools can afford to be more selective. Your best chance of being admitted to a school with rolling admissions is to apply early. Also, because one of the major benefits of applying to a rolling admissions school is having at least one acceptance letter before your other applications are even due, applying early just makes sense.

Financial aid deadlines may be different than admission deadlines.

At K-State, students can apply as early as 15 months before the beginning of the term in which they plan to enroll, or as late as 7 days before classes begin. However, scholarship applications are due in November. Again, earlier is better.

Earlier is better, but sometimes late is OK.

Often, some rolling admissions schools provide an option for students who need to make last-minute applications. At Loyola-New Orleans, 2015 classes begin on August 24th, but as of August 3rd their website says they’re still accepting applications. Do we suggest waiting until the very last minute? Not at all, but if you find yourself needing to look into new schools after conventional deadlines have passed, these schools might be your best bet.

In some cases, getting accepted earlier might mean making your decision early.

Some schools with rolling admissions are prepared to wait for your decision until you’ve heard back regarding your regular-decision applications. Some won’t. This depends on the school, so check to see what their decision deadlines are when you’re deciding where to apply.

Admissions can be beneficial to students navigating the college application process. Doing your research and being aware of deadlines and requirements can help you take the best advantage of rolling admissions.

Audrey Hazzard is a Tutor at Get Smarter Prep.

 

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June 18, 2015Get Smarter Prep

Gap Year – Thoughts on Taking a Year Off

If I’d told my parents that I wanted to spend a year doing some other stuff before starting college, they would have freaked out. American culture is go, go, go, succeed, succeed, succeed – taking a break is seen as a sign of weakness. Americans have less vacation time than almost any other first world country, not to mention longer work weeks. The trajectory is supposed to go high school -> college -> job or graduate school -> job -> job, with no variations. Saying “I’d like to spend the 18th year of my life backpacking around and maybe working in a cafe” in America is tantamount to saying “I’d like to drop out of society, not be productive, and waste my life.” – Lillet Marcus

There’s been a lot of buzz about gap years recently. Since the beginning of the gap year phenomenon in the 1960s, the practice has increased in popularity, especially in Europe. More recently, more American students have begun to take a structured break between high school and college, as well, but the expectation for most American students is still that they will progress directly from high school to college without a break in between.

While it might be tempting to write off a year-long “break” as indulgent, silly, or even reckless, many colleges actually encourage students to take a gap year. Princeton has gone so far as to institute its own Bridge Year program. Contrary to some popular perceptions, 90% of students who take a gap year do enroll in college as planned, and students who take gap years perform better once they enroll in college than students who start college right after high school. They also report that their gap years helped them choose their majors more wisely, and ultimately claim higher job satisfaction.

What is it about the gap year that contributes to these outcomes? The benefits are different, certainly, for each student, but here are a few:

  1. A gap year allows time for recovery from high-school related burnout. Many high school students are sleep-deprived and overwhelmed, running with all their might towards the light at the end of the tunnel – college ­– as if the next phase might bring them a respite from the hectic pace, frantic studying, and late nights. While college can’t provide that relief, a gap year might.
  2. Students can experience something more of the world – and of their own interests and abilities – than they might otherwise. Wherever a student spends their gap year, working or volunteering in a new environment provides an opportunity for a completely different type of experience than those typical of high school or college environments. Broader experience leads to more knowledge about the world and what you’d like your place in it to be.
  3. Taking a gap year can provide an opportunity to develop life skills and independence that will lead to greater success in college. Stepping outside of your comfort zone builds confidence and independence, ensuring that when you do arrive in college, you’re ready to get the most out of the experience, not stressed out by learning how to do laundry or trying to get to know whole groups of strange people for the first time.

 

The most important thing about taking a gap year is making sure you have a plan to spend the time wisely. There are a lot of organizations that provide structured programs and help make that planning process a little easier. Check out groups like Thinking Beyond Borders, American Gap Association, and Cross Cultural Solutions. Of course, you can always plan your own unique experience, but having a plan is critical. Consider your interests, goals, and budget when devising your strategy.

And no matter where you decide to spend your gap year, plan to complete your college applications in your senior year, just like everyone else. It’s much, much easier to get all of the necessary information compiled when you’re in school, with face-to-face access to the people writing your recommendations, than it is if you’re on another continent doing service work.

Do some research into the gap year policies at the schools you’re considering: some schools are flexible, and even encourage students to take a gap year, while others require that you re-apply if you’re not enrolling in the semester for which you initially applied. Check to see which colleges are likely to offer deferments, and whether or not the deferment will affect any financial aid you’re offered. If you plan carefully and do your research, taking a year “off” can be an adventurous addition to your educational plans, and may even give your grades a boost in the future.

Audrey Hazzard is a Tutor at Get Smarter Prep.

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June 8, 2015Get Smarter Prep

CLEP Tests

CLEP stands for College Level Examination Program. CLEP is a group of tests offered by College Board (maker of the SAT, as well as those delightful AP tests you’re so looking forward to). One of the major differences between AP tests and CLEP tests are that CLEP tests are often offered by a college or university for students already enrolled at that school.

Where are they offered?

CLEP exams are offered at many colleges and universities across the country, and are designed to provide college credit for material you may have covered in previous classes, or experiences you’ve had outside of formal school environments. For this reason, CLEP tests are often popular with people who have been in the military, but they can also be useful for people who’ve done independent research on a topic or learned about the topic through work or other experiences. There are tests for foreign languages, sciences, math, history and social science, and other subjects. CLEP exams can save time and money in college, so knowing a little bit about how they work can be useful!

Do all colleges and universities offer them?

While many colleges and universities do participate in the CLEP program, some don’t, and some only offer some of the possible tests or place limits on how much credit you can earn through the program. For example, KU accepts many – but not all – of the exams, and different programs within the University have different requirements or standards. Depending on the test and your score, taking a CLEP exam at KU might earn you an exemption from a pre-requisite (but zero course credit), or it might count as 3 or 6 credits towards graduation.

Saint Louis University also allows student to earn college credit by taking CLEP exams, but the exams must be completed within the student’s first year at SLU. The University of Colorado – Boulder lists a short group of exams accepted, but notes that “This credit is applied toward degree requirements at the discretion of the student’s dean.” Southern Methodist University gives credit for 4 CLEP exams (a total of 33 CLEP exams are offered by the College Board).

Do your research.

Many colleges who accept CLEP credit conduct “open” testing at their testing centers – meaning people from the community or from other schools can come to the testing center to take their CLEP tests. This means that just because a college offers a certain test, that doesn’t mean that same school will accept it. It’s important to get a good feeling for the credit by examination policy at your college or university before you sign up to take any CLEP tests. Also, keep in mind that policies can change from year to year. Make sure you have the most current information about your school’s policy in order to get the most out of the CLEP program.

Audrey Hazzard is a Tutor at Get Smarter Prep.

 

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