So, these are legit and do work? Because I know that I can test out. I have my AA Degree but want to finish my BA, that is 20 years in the making and then work on my Master's. I am glad to have found this site. Very helpful and glad to see others who are like me.

Unless CLEP tests have changed much in the last twenty years, they can get you your first two years of college credit very economically, as long as you're the kind of person who can study entirely on your own. The tests are given all over the USA. You do have to make sure that the college you want to attend will accept the credits. They may have standards about how many, and which ones go toward requirements.

An out of date AA may not transfer completely and the CLEP can fill in.

Hi Sdpickens,

I hope that this article includes the information you are requesting.

Does anyone here have tried and earned and transferd Credits by Examination? Did you earn an Associate Degree?

I've taken a few exams and those credits have transferred. Also, military credit can be easily transferred if attending a SOC (Serviceman's Opportunity College). There are SOC-AD, SOC-NAV and others. Many two- and four-year colleges are SOC colleges, but aren't advertised (except on the SOC website - http://www.soc.aascu.org/).

What these schools do, through a contract with the government, is take all earned military credit (as spelled out in the ACE Guide) and apply it toward a degree. While this is a touch off-topic, these aren't exam credits, but credits that can transfer.

Also, a little more off topic is to check websites for the educational service offices for a specific branch of the military (if any one here has served). There may be a transcript already made out. For example, the Navy has a SMART transcript, breaking down a servicemember's technical schools into ACE Guide credit recommendations. I've attended four colleges and universities so far and all have accepted such transcripts as legit (but SOC colleges accept more of the credits).

I used CLEP to eliminate 3 classes. I think I paid around $80 dollars per test.$20 was to UI as an admistration fee. So around $60 for the CLEP tests. It might have been $65. I do know this: each credit hour at the college I attended cost $100. Each course was worth 3 credit hours. Add in about $50.00 per course for a textbook and for the 9 credit hours I gained using CLEP, I would have paid about $1050.00 if I'd sat through the classes. At the most, CLEP cost less than a third of that.

It's definitely the way to go if you know a good deal about a subject!

Always check out what you are able to do. My teaching credential program wouldn't accept my Lit. degree because it wasn't English or American lit. They wanted me to take another two years of classes, but I found out I could test in English and American lit. instead, so I did. Two years of classes or a three hour test? No brainer!