By Kendall Gray
For students who want to skip introductory college courses and still earn the credits, taking College-Level Examination Program test is the answer, although only few know this option is available to them at the University.
CLEP exams, if passed, offer undergraduates an opportunity to skip required introductory courses that are generally taken during the first two years of college. It is a computer-based exam that is graded immediately after a student is finished. Each exam is 90 minutes long and consists of mostly multiple-choice questions; there is a $60 examination fee that students pay when they register to take the test.
The University is one of the 2,900 colleges across the country that grants credit to students who take and pass the exams. Every school that accepts the CLEP exam has its own policy for administering credit to students. The University accepts 22 different CLEP examinations that cover a wide variety of subjects such as English composition and literature, social sciences, history, science and mathematics. It does not, however, accept any business or foreign language CLEP exams.
Dr. Barbara Bohannon, the associate dean for Student Academic Affairs, said that there is a hesitation about accepting foreign language credit because there is a speaking component of a foreign language that is not experienced through taking an exam such as the CLEP exam.
The scores of the CLEP exams range on a total scale between 20 and 80. According to the University’s Web site, a student must receive a score of 50 or higher in order to receive the credit and have taken the exam prior to the start of junior year. The University will accept up to 30 semester hours of course credit earned through CLEP and other written examinations.
The University does not administer the CLEP exams. Therefore, a student must register through www.collegeboard.com to find the closest test center.
Although available to all students wishing to pass out of first and second-year level courses, only 24 percent of students 19 to 22 years of age take the CLEP exam, according to statistics on Fastweb.com, a college search Web site.
Dr. Gail Schwab, who is in her second year as associate dean for Curriculum and Personnel, said that in her tenure at the University, “I believe I have only had two CLEP requests.” Dr. Schwab said she was unsure as to why so few students take the CLEP exams.
Sophomore Jackie Hetzel said she thinks that the lack of participation is due to schools not informing the student body of the exams to avoid losing tuition money. She added that some professors believe that introductory courses are necessary to succeed in classes.
“Some educators believe that taking these intro courses are part of a stair case method of learning,” Hetzel said. “If you don’t know the basics, you can’t learn the advanced stuff.”
Had she known about the exams, Hetzel said she would have taken them immediately.
“Sometimes it is a waste of time to sit through a class that you already learned in high school,” Hetzel said. “In my case, for example, the English classes that I took freshman year were a complete waste of time. The classes did not help me pass the proficiency exam. I could have done that on the first day of classes.”
A female graduate student, who wished not to be identified, shared similar feelings with Hetzel when asked about the CLEP exams.
“I cannot believe there are tests out there that can get you college credit for intro courses,” she said. “I really wish I would have known about these tests because I would have been able to save a lot of money my first two years of college.”
If a student at the University wishes to take the exam there are several steps that they must complete. For example, if a student wants to take a CLEP physics exam he or she must first go to the chair of the physics department and receive approval. Then, the chair of the department sends his or her approval to Dr. Schwab.
To get Dr. Schwab’s approval the student must set up a meeting to go over the University’s policies for accepting CLEP exam credit. Dr. Schwab says that the first thing she looks at is whether or not the student is eligible. According to Dr. Schwab, the student must be of freshman or sophomore status and cannot have more than 30 credits between CLEP and AP exams. Along with these conditions the University bulletin also states that CLEP exam credit, is “awarded for particular courses or elective areas of study offered at Hofstra” and not for distribution or core courses.
After a student obtains Dr. Schwab’s approval they are free to take the exam. These exams are similar to AP exams and need to be studied for in order to ensure a passing score. Students who take CLEP exams are encouraged to purchase or rent specific subject books that will help ensure a passing score.