Jack Star, retired journalist and current college student, has been promoting the benefits of CLEP testing for years now. A recent article in the Savannah Morning News discusses why Star is so adamant about having college students take these tests. “With the sharply increased costs of college, testing out of a full semester can save students thousands of dollars and can potentially cut their student loans in half,” said Star. A simple CLEP test may only cost $100, but tuition for the same credits would cost $500+. That’s why this is such a great option.

To help students get through their CLEP tests successfully, Star initiated FreeUniv.com back in 1997/ This site provides study materials and helpful tips that relate to different tests available through the College Board. All of the material is free to view, and it has helped countless students save money in college over the past 15 years. Star also has a sister site, ClepOutNow.com, which provides additional support for those in need.

Going through Star’s training program does not guarantee a good score on the CLEP test. Star is in no way affiliated with the College Board, and he cannot make any promises about what his program may do for a student. Nevertheless, this could be a great place to start your studying journey, even if you have to reach out to other resources. Being overly-prepared never hurt anyone.

Every AP test is hard, and that is for a good reason. It is supposed to see how prepared you are to get through a college level class about the same subject, so it has to challenge your mind. If you are worried about not doing well on this special test, there are some simple things you can do to improve your scores considerably. Here are some tips to help you improve your AP scores.

Sleep Well Beforehand

A good night of sleep will prepare you for the stress of the next day. It will let you think clearly about your test, and it will keep your mind rolling through the questions. If you try to stay up all night studying, you’re only going to hurt your potential scores. Snooze away, and you’ll do as well as you possibly can.

Answer Every Question

You will not be penalized for answering a question incorrectly, so you might as well give every one of them a try. If you can narrow down the answers to just a couple of them, your chances of getting the right one will improve tremendously. Guess if you have to, and you’ll at least have a shot of getting a high score.

Show Your Work

If you’re taking a test with math equations in it, make sure you show your work. You could receive partial credit for using the right process to achieve the wrong answer. You could also miss out on points for the right answer if you don’t explain how you got it. Explain yourself, and you will be much better off.

Study in Advance

Start studying at the beginning of the semester so you can remember the most information possible. This isn’t going to hurt you by any means, and it will ensure that you know what you need to from the beginning. Don’t wait until the last minute to crack down on the books. The sooner you start, the more you will know come test day.

Take Practice Tests

Try to take as many practice exams as you possibly can, and make sure you understand the way that they operate. Every test is different every year, so you should try to get familiar with as many of them as you can. Time yourself like you would on test day, and see what kinds of scores you get. Hopefully your practice will improve your results in the end.

AP tests can be great options for speeding up your college degree, but only if you pass them. Follow the tips above, and hopefully you’ll see an improvement in your scores.

The wait to take an AP or CLEP test can be incredibly nerve racking, but that is not necessarily the worst part of all. If you’re anything like me, you probably get more nervous right before receiving your test scores than you do whenever you’re waiting to take the test. I always hate that month or two when you have to wait for the scores to come in. It feels like Christmas and death row at the same time. Here are some tips to help you get through this stretch of time without driving yourself insane.

Find a New Hobby

I always try to immerse myself in new hobbies when I have to get my mind off something. The old hobbies may get a little repetitive and predictable, making them less stimulating for my mind. When I have something new to do though, I can get lost in that long enough to forget about these stupid test scores. Use this as a chance to explore an activity you have been wanting to try for a while, and hopefully the time will just fly by.

Avoid Discussions about the Test

Try not to talk to people about the test much because that will just get it going in your mind again. Reading this article has probably got your mind racing at the moment, and the same thing will happen with anyone that you talk to in person. If you can manage to divert your conversations to some other subject matter, you can make sure that your mind is not focused on the test. You may not be able to bypass this subject entirely, but you can at least avoid worrying about your scores as much as you may be worried right now.

Study for School

This may not sound like a fun task, but you could always try studying for school as a way to keep your mind off tests. When you think about it, the fact that the test is over could give you a perfect chance to study for your final exams for your current classes. You may have been focused on the test before, but now you can be focused on keeping up your grades. If the test scores happen to come back bad, at least this will allow you to use your good grades to succeed. Might as well make the most of the situation and work toward your MBA.

Just Wait

At the end of the day, you just need to be a little patient. I know this can be really tough to do when you have such an important set of scores coming in, but you just have to be willing to wait for time to pass. Use some of the tips above to calm your mind, and you might be able to forget about the scores long enough for them to come in. Then you can find out all of the information you have been waiting for without obsessively checking the mail every day. Master the art of patience, and you should be just fine.

College Board tests (AP and CLEP tests) are designed to give you a chance to get credit for college courses without actually taking them in college. The tests are formatted to cover general information that would be learned throughout a certain course. If you can prove that you know that information from beginning to end, you will be able to get college credit for your knowledge. In other words, if you can pass a test for a class, the College Board won’t make you retake it in school. There is just no point.

If you have been debating whether or not AP and CLEP tests are going to be worth your time, you may want to learn about all of the things they can do for you. Here is a list of benefits that often accompany College Board testing.

Financial Savings
The cost of a single AP or CLEP exam is significantly less than that of the class it represents. A super basic class in most colleges costs about $300 per credit hour just for tuition. That’s $900-$1500 in cost right there, and that doesn’t include the cost of books, fees, or school supplies. If you have to pay $75 to take an AP exam, you won’t have to worry about finding financial aid to cover that money. You will be able to get through life free of financial stress.

Of course, the money mentioned above will only seem like a savings if you actually pass the test the first time. If you have to take it five times over, you may feel like it is a waste of money. Study really hard before your CLEP or AP test so you can feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.

Time Savings
I was able to enter college as a sophomore because I had so many AP tests under my belt. I tested out of almost all of my basics, with the exception of Political Science. Because of all this, I would have been able to graduate from college a year early, had I stuck with my original degree. You can shave a ton of time off your degree program by testing out of your classes, and that will put you one step closer to your career.

Frustration Savings
Getting through the basics is a frustrating time in any college student’s life. All you want to do is learn about your career, but you’re stuck in a College Algebra class that has nothing to do with it. I wanted to get into my actual degree classes as soon as possible, and I did that through AP testing. You just have to make an effort to do the same.

If you are willing to study for a test or two, you could get a lot out of College Board exams. They may not be easy, but they are worth the study time you may put into them. Think about this before you bypass the tests completely because they could be just what you are looking for.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard someone blame a low test score on the idea of being a “bad test taker.” This, quite frankly, is an excuse to not make a strong effort on a test. If you go into your CLEP or AP exam for Argosy University online thinking that you are going to fail for a lack of test taking skills, you are never going to be able to do well on your tests. You’ll basically be psyching yourself out, which is never good to do for a test this important. Here are some tips to help you get past your supposedly bad test taking so you can succeed in the future.

Study Well in Advance

It seems to me that the people who claim to be bad test takers are often the ones that procrastinate with their studies until the very end. If you are planning to cram the night before your finals, you are inevitably going to fail when you go to take your exam. Thus it is always best to study well in advance for a test or presentation you have to be a part of in school. The more prepared you are, the easier it will be for you to react to the questions that come up in your tests.

Be Confident in Your Answers

Don’t second guess yourself when you answer questions on the test. Instead, be confident about your answers, even if they don’t turn out to be right in the end. If you have confidence in your ability to answer correctly, you will be able to trust your gut and recall information quickly. Confident answerers make logical decisions because they can clearly focus on the questions on their exams. Try not to panic every time you have to answer a question, and you should be better off in the long run.

Sleep Well the Night before

Try to get a good night of sleep the day that you have to take the test, just so you are clearheaded and energized. If you stay up all night studying, you won’t be able to think straight when you start to go through the test. This will make you score poorly, which may make you think you are a bad test taker. Make an effort to get a lot of rest the night before your test, and you will have the best chance possible of scoring well.

Answer Everything Easy First

In order to make the best use of your time in a test, try to answer all of the easy questions first. If you get stuck on an answer that you just can’t figure out, skip it and come back if there is time. If there isn’t time, at least you will have as many questions answered as you possibly could. It is better to get through 20 easy questions than it is to get through 5 hard questions. Keep that in mind as you start flipping the pages.

At the end of the day, you are the only person that can make yourself a “good” test taker. If you don’t make a strong effort to do well on your tests, you aren’t going to score well. If you tell yourself that you are going to do poorly from the start, you will lose the confidence you need to succeed. There is no such thing as a bad test taker, so quit using that as an excuse not to earn a high score. If you put forth the right effort, you should be able to do well on whatever test you have coming up in the future.

The goal behind taking an AP test is to get a good score so you can earn college credit for your efforts. This will help you bypass the basics in your online degree program so you can get through college faster. Getting a good score is about more than answering the right questions though. There are several parts of the scoring process that determine what you end up with for college. The article below is designed to shed some light on the AP test scoring process so you can figure out how to get the best score possible. Read on to see what you will have to do to earn your college credit.

Creating the Composite Score

Your composite score is basically the raw score that represents what you got right on the exam. A computer assesses the multiple choice sheets to calculate your scores, and then a review board goes over your free response questions to give you another score. These two score sets combine to form your composite score, which will later be used to determine the actual value of your test results. The more questions you answer correctly, the higher your composite score will be.

Converting to an AP Score

Once your composite score is calculated, the College Board will compare your score to the scores of other students to determine your AP score. The board sets up a range of numbers that each AP score will correspond to, and that range changes every year. You can see that in the example below, which I got directly from the College Board website:

As you can see, the composite ranges for different tests and different years changed, so it is hard to say exactly what the ranges are going to be for the year you take the test. All you can do is try your best and hope that you end up with a 4 or 5 on the test. If so, you should have no trouble at all getting college credit for your time.

What Happens After Scoring?

Once your scores are calculated, they are sent off to whatever school you selected before your test. If you did not select a school, they will be stored with the College Board until you request to see it. Whenever your college receives the scores, it will use them to assign course credit to your transcript. Then you can create your schedule to accommodate whatever classes you may be missing.

AP test scoring is not that hard to understand. As long as you can wrap your head around the conversion process, you should be able to figure out how scoring works. Take the time to read over the information above, and you’ll be an AP score expert in no time.

CLEP tests are designed to give you credit for college classes before you take them. These exams are great tools for people looking to graduate early from their degree programs because they allow the students to bypass some of the basics. If you have decided that you may want to take one of these exams in the future, you need to understand how scoring works. That way you can strive to get the highest score possible. Here is an overview of the process so you can get a better idea of how to excel on your CLEP test.

Step 1 – The Raw Score

The first step in calculating your CLEP test score is figuring out your raw score. This is simply the accumulation of all the questions you got right on your test. You get one point for every question you get right, and you don’t lose any points for getting a question wrong. You have to be careful about this, as there are some tests that will count against you for getting a question wrong. Luckily, the CLEP test isn’t one of them.

Step 2 – The Scaled Score

Once you have a raw score, the number will be adjusted through a process called equating. This gives a more even set of scores across the board by adjusting for difficulty differences. If you get a low raw score because you had a difficult form of the test, you may be able to receive a high score after equating. The College Board does this to ensure that every student receives a fair score compared to other test takers.

Step 3 – The Comparison

Once you have a scaled score, you can compare it to your college’s score requirements to see how much credit you can get, if any. Here are some tables from Pennsylvania College of Technology to give you an idea of what you need to make:

Business

Composition & Literature

Mathematics

Natural Sciences

Social Sciences & Humanities

If you find a way to succeed on your CLEP tests, you should have no problem getting into Boston University online or anywhere else for that matter. You just have to know what you are up against. Here is a look at how CLEP test scoring works so you can get the best score possible.

Any relatively smart person in high school knows about the Advanced Placement program, most likely because of the selection of “AP” classes at his or her school. If you have seen classes like that at your school, you may be wondering what the purpose of them is. Why should you talk these advanced courses if all of your friends are in regular classes? What is the point of the extra work that seems to come along with AP classes? That is what this article is all about. I will attempt to explain what the point of the Advanced Placement program is so you can determine if it is right for you.

The Main Goal of the AP Program

The AP program is designed to challenge the mind and really push high school students to learn as much as they can before college. AP classes are set up to be a lot harder than traditional classes, and they are usually worth a higher GPA. I believe I had a 4.67 GPA at one point in time because of my AP classes, which is obviously more than a 4.0. The reason they are worth more on a weighted scale is because they require a lot more dedication and commitment. You have to be willing to provide that if you are going to succeed in AP classes.

The Secondary Goal of the AP Program

Aside from just pushing students to be the best they can be, the AP program is designed to allow students to earn college credits while they are in high school. This works through AP tests, which are big exams at the end of the school year that test all of the knowledge you have learned in your AP classes. Since the AP classes are supposed to be college-level courses, the tests give you a chance to earn college credit as a result of all your hard work. Pass the tests and you may be able to bypass some of your basics in college.

The Obscure Goal of the AP Program

In some ways, AP classes are set up just so smart people could be in class with one another. That seems terrible to say, but it is true. I was never good at history, so I always took regular history courses. Even then though, I would be at the top of my class just because I gave a crap about my grades and education. 90% of the people in my regular classes were operating on the five brain cells they had left. AP classes provided me with a sanctuary of intelligence to turn to every day. This wasn’t the big goal of the classes, but it was something that happened over time. I ended up taking extra AP classes just to get through the year with my head on straight. If you enroll in AP classes, you’ll soon see the same effect.

Making Your Own Goals with AP Classes

When you start taking AP classes, you need to challenge yourself to be all that you can be and more. These classes can lead you to merit scholarships for college, and they can help you get through college faster. The effort that you put forth now will make a big difference in your education later on. It may even allow you to enter college as a sophomore if you plan your classes out correctly. Take the time to really devote yourself to your AP studies, and set your own goals that surpass those in the program. You will be incredibly proud of yourself when you do.

When it comes to taking an AP test, you could use all the study time you could get. The tests that you take in class are fine, but they may not be enough to really help you learn all you need to learn. If you want to push your education over the edge, you need to think about getting together with a group of friends for an AP study party. As dorky as this idea seems, it could make a big difference in your overall confidence with your test in the end. Here are some tips to help you set up the perfect study party from the start.

Get Practice Tests

The first thing you are going to need for your AP study party is a set of practice exams to use. You can get a lot of these from the College Board, or you could try to find some online. You could also ask your teacher if he or she has any you can use for your party. Instructors are usually more than happy to help students practice for their AP tests, and they sometimes have practice tests that you can no longer get from the College Board. Try to get a couple copies if you can, just in case you want to do more practicing in the future. Then you just have to make sure you have enough copies for everyone that is going to be at the party.

Find Party Guests

Obviously you will need some people to come to your study party. Otherwise it’s just a study session for you…all alone…by yourself. Talk to some of your friends from your AP classes and see if they would be interested in some extra study time. You can say that you have practice tests for them as a way to entice them to come, or you could just ask them if they would like to join you. Hopefully you get enough people to make a real party out of the event.

Pick a Time and Day

You will need to pick a time and a day to hold this little shindig, so talk to the other guests and see what will be good for them. You need to try to work something out that suits everyone’s schedule and still allows you to have a good time. Weekends may be best because that will give people time to come over in the middle of the day if they want to. Just talk to everyone and see when you would want to set the party up.

Hold the Party

With the time and day in place, all you have to do is wait for your guests to arrive. Meet up in a neutral place that is quiet enough for you to study in. Then you can take your practice test as a group. Make sure that someone keeps track of the time because you need to set up the same time limits as the ones you will experience on test day. If anyone has questions, get them out of the way at the beginning.

Grade the Tests

When everyone gets finished taking the test, you need to grade the tests as a group. You can either pass them to one another or have each person grade his or her own. When someone misses a question, he or she needs to ask the other people about the answer. That is where the “studying” comes in. You don’t have to learn how to become a teacher just to answer questions. You simply have to give feedback based on what you know. As long as everyone is willing to help the other people in the group out, you should be able to make your study party a success.

AP and CLEP tests are both timed, so you only have a certain amount of minutes to complete each one of them. The time limits vary by test, but they all create the same feeling of pressure and stress on exam day. If you are not used to being timed for your exams, you may want to take some time to practice your reactions to the limitations. That could make a big difference in your overall performance. Mastering time management will give you a chance to get through as much of your test as possible. Here are some tips to help you use every second of your test time to your advantage.

Skip What You Don’t Know

One of the best ways to use your time is to go over the entire test once and just answer the questions you know. Some people may make a corny joke here and say that they don’t know anything, but there has to be some parts of the test that you are familiar with. Otherwise, you really shouldn’t have signed up for the test in the first place. Skim over the whole thing and quickly answer anything you know without hesitation. Then you can come back to the harder questions when you are finished with the easy ones.

Understand the Value of Each Question

Some test questions are worth more than others based on their subject material and the way they are structured. It is important to prioritize your time according to question value, as well as mental easiness. If you know that the fill-in-the-blank questions are worth twice as much as the multiple choice questions, try to focus on those first. Then you can go back to the lesser valued questions. You still need to skip what you don’t know initially, but you also need to keep value in mind.

Remain Calm

If you start freaking out about the time you have left, you are going to lose focus on your exam. This will cause you to miss questions that you should have just known. The time is inevitably going to put pressure on you. That is what it is supposed to do. You just can’t let it get to you. Rather than freaking out about the amount of time you have left, you need to focus on getting as much done within that time frame as possible.

Practice under Pressure

If you really want to learn how to manage your time, you need to take all of your practice tests under the same time restraints you would have on test day. That will get you in the mindset early on. My English teacher used to do this in high school to prepare us for the AP exam. We all got a test form at the beginning of class, and we were timed for whatever the limits were back then to finish everything. It gave me a new appreciation for the value of a minute, and it really helped me see how the test was going to go. I would strongly recommend that you do the same.

Learning time management skills is an important part of life in general. If you manage to do this now, you will have much better results from your efforts on the exam and in the rest of your life. Don’t stress about the time limit. Embrace it and conquer it. Then you will truly feel accomplished when you come out of the exam room. With the right practice beforehand, you can easily get over your fear of the timer.

If you are planning to take a CLEP test in the near future, you need to make sure you have everything you need to actually go through with the exam. There are a few things you have to get ready before the big day. Without them, you won’t be able to take the test. I am the queen of being unprepared for a test, and it always seems like I forget the most important thing before I leave the house. Before you do what I usually do, you need to go through the checklist to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row. Here is a guide you can follow whenever your exam day comes.

Things to Learn before Exam Day

Here is a list of the information you need to look over before you take your test:

• Review the exam description so you have a clear understanding of the kinds of questions you will need to answer.
• Check the timing for the test because you will have a limit to abide by. Practice taking a test within that timeframe to make sure you are prepared for the pressure.
• Learn about the scoring process so you know what you have to get to pass. You can read What Your CLEP Score Means for more information.
• Find out the location of the exam room, and make sure you allot enough time to get there on test day.
• Write down your test time so you can get to the exam earlier enough to start when it starts.
• Look for possible subsections you will need to complete because those will eat away at your time.

Things to Bring to the Exam

Here is a list of materials you should bring with you to your CLEP exam:

• You will need two forms of ID to get into the exam, like a driver’s license or passport. Bring one primary form of identification and one secondary form.
• Bring a completed registration form to the testing center, along with any other paperwork your facility may require of you. Every location is a little different.
• Make sure you have all of the money you need to take your test. The exam itself will be $77, but you may also have to pay a fee to the testing center. That is usually around $10. You can call to find that out ahead of time.

What to Do with This Checklist

Now that you know what you need before you take your CLEP test, you need to make sure you have this checklist with you on the day of your exam. Stick it on your mirror or by your car keys the night before your exam, and refer back to it periodically before you take your test. That way you know for a fact that you are ready for the exam. You never can be too careful when you have your education on the line.

Make sure to talk to talk to your testing center before you go in for the exam to see what they need from you. If you do not know of any exam centers in your area, you can use the test center search tool on the CLEP website to find one. Speak to the administrative assistant in the office and make sure you are all set for your exam. Then you will be able to go through your exam with confidence.

AP exams usually don’t come out until May, which means that you may not be too worried about them right now in February. May is only a few months away though, so you might want to take this opportunity to get on the ball. I was always a procrastinator in high school, so I would put off studying until the week before the tests because I figured I could just fit everything in. That was almost never the case, and I think I could have done a lot better on the exams if I had actually studied early on. The tests are closer than you think people. The time to prepare is now!

AP Exam Dates

Just to give you a full perspective of the 2012 AP exam dates, here are the charts that offer the details – courtesy of CollegeBoard.org:

Prep Tips for New Test Takers

If the tables above have gotten you a little paranoid about time, you need to start preparing for your test as soon as possible. One great way to do this is to take practice tests from years before. You can set up the fake exam just like the real one, with a time limit and everything. If it is a multiple-choice test, you can immediately grade the exam on your own and see how you did. If it is an essay exam, you can turn it into an English teacher at your school and ask him or her to look over it. The tests change from year to year, but practice exams let you get a feel for the overall experience you will have for the big day. You can prepare your mind for the stress and types of questions it may go through at that time.

Another way to prepare for your AP exams is to study for them well in advance. Try to study a set of information right before you go to bed every night so that your mind has a chance to absorb it. If you do this enough times over, you’ll have a mind full of AP information just ready to unleash itself. Stop the procrastinating and get your head in the game right now. Your tests will be here before you know it.

If you want to do really well on your CLEP or AP test, you are going to need to study hard for it. This is not always easy to do on your own, but it is definitely something that you can do with a study group. I’m not a huge fan of study groups because I usually end up doing more teaching in them than learning, but some people benefit a lot from having others to test their knowledge. If you want to set up a study group to help you with your test, you may be surprised by how easy the process is. Here is a brief guide explaining what you could do you get an active study group going.

Plan the Study Subjects

Before you can set up a study group, you need to figure out what the overall purpose of the group is going to be. Which test do you want to study for? What sort of information do you want to study? This is something you may be able t discuss as a group, but you need to at least have a pre-plan established so you can tell people about it. If people know what they are getting into, they are more likely to want to participate.

Gather the Studiers

The next step in setting up a study group is to get people together that would want to study with you. The easiest way to do this would be to gather people from your AP class to work with you, but that may not be an option for a CLEP test in college. You can try to talk to people in your regular software development courses to see if they want to take the same tests as you. Then you can propose the idea of the study group. You can blast this all over Facebook, Twitter, and even your college campus. It’s up to you as to how you market your study group.

Pick a Meeting Space

You need to have a place where everyone in the study group can meet up. This could be a local café, the library, someone’s house – it really doesn’t matter. If you don’t know the people you are studying with very well, you may want to stick to a public space at first. Then you can move to one another’s homes once everyone has a certain level of trust for the other group members. Just make sure you pick a spot with enough seating for everyone and some peace and quiet for studying. That will make all the difference.

Make a Schedule

You need to set up study times that are going to work well for everyone in your group. That will most likely be later on in the day because that is the time people are off work and out of class. You can talk to the other studiers and see what their schedules look like. Then you can try to plan your meetings accordingly. Hopefully you can find a time that works for everyone.

Meet with the Group

The only thing that you have left to do is put all of your plans into action. Once you have a time to meet, you just have to go to the meeting place and hope everyone else shows up. You will most likely get a few no-shows, but most people will want to work with you to study for the tests. If everything goes well, you can schedule more events like this in the near future. Then you will be able to study your way to success.

Most people take AP tests because they don’t want to have to take a certain course in college, but that is not always the case. For some people, an AP test is really nothing more than a source of bragging rights. I was one of those dorks in school that took as many AP classes as I logically could just so I could improve my GPA. Once I got to college, I still wanted to take some of the courses I had credit for – just so I could get the education. If you are in the same boat as I was in, you should be pleased to know that you can in fact take college courses after you receive AP or CLEP credit for them. Here is a look at how that process works.

Reasons to Retake Classes

Some of you are probably thinking, “Why on earth would anyone want to take classes that he already has credit for? Wouldn’t that slow down the process?” Doing this may not be necessary, but there are some benefits that come along with it. For me, it was a matter of obtaining a college level education that I didn’t think I received in high school. I AP-ed out of all of my basics, but I at least wanted to take an English course to learn how to properly write for college. If you feel that you are missing out on a certain aspect of your education, you may want to take a class in college just to get the information.

Another reason why you may want to take a college class you already have credit for is because it allows you to get an actual grade for the class. When you pass an AP or CLEP test, you just get a passing credit on your transcript. It doesn’t influence your GPA either way. If you actually take the class in college though, you can get the grade you want to hopefully improve your GPA. There is always a chance that you will actually hurt your GPA doing this, but at least you don’t have to worry about getting credit for the course. If you have to drop it with a “W” towards the end of the semester, you still have the credit you need from your other efforts.

You may want to take classes like this just to get an easy schedule-filler. You have already made it through the class through the test, so there is no pressure to pass it now. Since you should know most of the material before you get into class, you will be well ahead of your classmates. This is one of the easiest ways to relieve stress in college, even if it is a little unconventional.

Taking the Class without the Credit

If you just want to take a class for information and not for a grade, you could see if you could audit the class. This involves you sitting in on lectures and seeing everything like a normal student would, but your grades don’t count towards anything. If you want to skip out on the assignments and just watch the lectures, you could do that. If you want to participate like a normal student, you could do that too. You will still have to pay tuition for this, but you won’t have to panic about getting a good grade. This could be the best of both worlds for you. Ask an academic adviser about your options so you can plan out your class schedule accordingly.

It seems like you can do just about everything online nowadays. You can pay your bills online, talk to friends online, take paralegal courses online, and do just about everything else you need to do in life. When it comes to CLEP tests though, the College Board asks that you take your tests in an actual testing facility. This is not always convenient for people to do, which got me thinking…Should the College Board offer CLEP and AP tests online? What would the pros and cons be of that sort of setup? In this article, I will examine some of the good and bad traits that would come along with this idea to see if it is something the College Board should consider for the future.

The Benefits of Online Testing

One of the biggest benefits that could come along with offering CLEP tests online is giving more people a chance to take the tests. People with complicated schedules or limited mobility would still have a chance to access the tests by way of their computers. This would also cut down on the cost of materials because there would be no paperwork to worry about. I’m not sure how much money that could save in the end, but I know it would be significant. The College Board also wouldn’t have to pay for proctors, which could help them save money for other expenses. It seems like the benefits would start stacking up pretty quickly.

The Downsides to Online Testing

While online CLEP testing may seem great at first, I don’t know how effective it would be. There would be no way to tell if people were cheating on their tests if they took them on the internet, so we may end up with a ton of passed tests that should have never been passed. Unless you offer the tests at the same time for everyone, there would be no way to prevent one student from telling the next about what to expect on the test. One test taker could complete the exam and then call another one to help him prepare for his. This is cheating at its finest, but it would most likely happen.

Finding a Balance

I don’t think that the College Board should issue CLEP and AP tests online entirely, but I do think that the concept as a whole is a good one. Perhaps they could make web-based versions of the tests and then allow students to take them in testing facilities. That way people who type faster than they write could actually take their exams in a way that makes them feel comfortable. In the case of writing exams, it would give students a chance to go back and delete something they wrote and didn’t like, rather than having them scribble it out by hand. There is potential in this idea. We just need to find a way to execute it properly.

For now, you can at least access sample tests and learning materials on the web through the College Board’s website. That may not be quite as convenient as the idea of having a test right on your computer, but it is something you can look forward to. I think the board is making a strong effort at keeping CLEP tests as convenient as possible. We just have to abide by what their options are at the time. Try to find a time to take your exam(s) that is most convenient for you, and you will be on your way to earning college credit in no time.

A lot of students take AP classes just because they want to be in a class with some of the smartest people in school. I once took AP Environmental Science not because I planned to take the test, but because I knew that a regular science class would be half full of people making paper airplanes out of burger wrappers. If you are thinking about doing what I did, you may be wondering if you have to take an AP test if you take the class that it corresponds to. Let’s examine this idea a little further to find out the answer…

Do You Have to Take an AP Test If You Take an AP Class?

The short answer to that question is no. You don’t have to take the AP test that corresponds to the class that you attend. If you just want to get the weighted GPA or the higher education, you can do that. At least that way, you don’t have the pressure of the test weighing you down. Nevertheless, you may not want to skip out on the test at the end of the year. You have the opportunity to take it, so you might as well give it a try. Listed below are a few reasons why you may want to think twice about missing an AP test.

Reasons to Take the AP Test

Before you give up on taking an AP test for good, keep these things in mind:

• You already spent the time to take all of the exams and do all the homework for the class. What would it hurt to at least try on the test and see if you could pass it?
• If you happen to pass the test, you could get credit for college. That will get you through your degree program faster, and it will allow you to bypass some of the basics in your higher education.
• You may regret all of the stress you put yourself through in high school if you choose not to use it to get college credit.
• If you can get a good score on your AP test, your transcripts will look better for the colleges you are applying to.
• Taking the test would get you out of class for part of the day…Just saying.

There are plenty of other benefits that come along with taking an AP exam, so you might as well make a positive effort on the test. AP classes can be incredibly fast paced, time consuming, and stressful. If you don’t take the test when those classes are done, you may be overworking yourself for nothing. Again, you don’t have to take the test. I didn’t do that for a couple of the AP classes I took. Nevertheless, I ended up regretting not taking the tests after I got out of school. I don’t want anyone else to end up doing the same.

Final Thoughts

There is still plenty of time in the school year to figure out if you want to take the AP test or not, so think it over carefully. If you decide that you do in fact want to take the test, you might as well start studying now. It can’t hurt to be overly prepared for the exam, especially if you end up getting college credit for it. Put forth the right effort now, and it will all be worth it in the end.

When it comes to taking AP tests, a lot of students are tempted to take as many as they can possibly take. While there is nothing wrong with taking a whole bunch of AP tests in one year, I can personally vouch for the fact that that isn’t always beneficial. In a lot of ways, less is more in the world of AP tests, meaning that you can get more use out of a small set of them than you would out of a large set. Sure you won’t get as many college credits, but you may get a better education this way in the end. Let me explain…

Fewer Tests = Less Studying

When you have a smaller amount of tests to study for, you can devote your focus to the ones that you really care about. That will give you a chance to study more for those specific tests so you can get the highest score possible. I had a really time studying for all of my AP exams when it came testing time, mainly because I just had too many of them to handle. If you can keep the number down to a manageable level, you will have a better chance of doing well on each test individually.

Less Studying = Less Stress

I can’t tell you how stressed out I was my senior year because I had so many AP exams to study for. I basically spent the entire second semester freaking out about the scores I was going to get. If you can take away that sort of stress from your body and lifestyle, you will feel better, look better, and ultimately do better on your tests. You just have to take the time to breathe a little bit and enjoy life as a high school student. The lacking responsibility you get here won’t last long.

Less Stress = Better Scores

When you can focus on a small amount of tests to study for, your scores are going to go up. That will give you a chance to get the most possible credit for classes at Argosy University Online because you can sometimes get two class credits for getting a really high score. If you get a 4 or above on the lower level English AP test, you can usually get enough college credit to bypass freshman comp completely. That is why it is important to get the best score possible.

Better Scores = Better Colleges

If you can get a set of really high scores on your AP exams, you will have a better chance of getting into an elite college. If your goal is to go to a high-end school in the near future, you may not be able to do that with sub-par test scores. Take a small amount of tests, and you will be able to focus all of your attention on doing well for those tests. Then you can get into the school that you truly want to attend.

I could keep going from there, but I think you get the idea. Better colleges = better jobs. Better jobs = better pay. Better pay = better life…all because you chose to reduce the amount of AP tests you take. If you focus in on the tests that are going to best suit your college degree, you will have the best chance of being a success in the future. Be selective in your choices until you find the right set of AP exams for your goals in the coming years.

If you have more than one AP test to take this year, you may be struggling to figure out which tests you need to study for first. Most of the tests happen within the same week of one another, so you may have a lot of studying to do in a short period of time. This is no reason to panic though. You just need to figure out how to prioritize your AP tests so you can effectively study from the start. Here are some tips to help you sort your tests out and put your time in where it will be best used.

Prioritize by Time

One of the easiest ways to prioritize your AP tests is to sort them by the time you have to take them. If you take the English test on Tuesday and the Calc test on Friday, you would study for the English test first. Then you would have the rest of the week to study for your Calc test. This isn’t always an ideal solution if you tests occur back to back, but it is something to keep in mind. Just make sure you leave a little extra time to study for your second test and beyond if you decide to prioritize this way.

Prioritize by Difficulty

Another way to prioritize your study time is to devote the most time to the hardest subject. I was a whiz at Calculus, but I always struggled with Chemistry. Thus I had to focus most of my studying on my Chemistry test and just lightly study for Calc. Even after all that, I still got a 3 on my Chem test and a 5 on my Calc test. Nevertheless, I don’t think I would have been able to pass the Chemistry test at all had I not put it on the top of my priority list. You have to think about the tests you need to focus the most effort on and try to devote as much time as possible to that test.

Prioritize by Knowledge

If you happen to know more about one subject than you do about another, you may want to put that one on the backburner. There is nothing wrong with reviewing information for a test you already know a lot about, but you may not want to spend a ton of time on that. Just studying enough to refresh your mind, and then you can focus on the class you need to study a lot for. My AP Environmental Science teacher didn’t teach us a damn thing in high school, so I had to devote a ton of time to studying to feel competent enough to take the test. Even then, I opted not to take it because I didn’t feel ready for it. You have to do everything you can to get yourself ready for all of your tests if you want to get a good score on them.

Balancing Your Priorities

Prioritizing your AP tests does not mean that you need to forget about some of them completely. You just have to devote more time to some of them than you do for others. If you forget about one of your tests completely though, you may not pass much of anything. Try to balance out your study time so that you are fully prepared for the tests at hand. That way you will be able to get the best scores possible for everything you take. With the right time in the right areas, you will be on your way to a 5 streak in no time.