CLEP Out

CLEP today

Checked against the College Board’s CLEP site and Campbell University’s pages on October 12, 2026. Prices and rules change, so confirm before you register.

The 34 CLEP exams

What happened to the exams on Campbell’s 2005–06 list

• Same exams, other names: Campbell’s list used older or shorter names for some exams, and a few have been renamed since. Today they are Analyzing and Interpreting Literature (Analysis & Interpretation of Literature on the list), Biology (General Biology), Chemistry (General Chemistry), Information Systems (Information Systems & Computer Applications), College Mathematics (Mathematics), and French, German and Spanish Language: Levels 1 and 2.
• Replaced: College Algebra/Trigonometry and Trigonometry gave way to Precalculus in 2006. Introductory Accounting, a two-semester exam, gave way to the one-semester Financial Accounting in 2007. Freshman College Composition and the general English Composition exam became College Composition Modular in 2010, and English Composition with Essay became College Composition, which has two essays.
• New since then: Spanish with Writing, a Spanish exam with two writing tasks.
• Scores and credits: since 2001 every CLEP exam is scored from 20 to 80, so the 420 and 520 minimums the list gives the general exams come from an older scale. For Level 2 of the languages the recommended score has dropped (59 for French, from 62; 60 for German, from 63; 63 for Spanish, from 66), and Level 2 now earns 9 credits, not 12.
• Still offered: everything else on the list, some under longer names, like History of the United States I: Early Colonization to 1877.

How CLEP works now

• Cost. $97 per exam, plus either the test center’s own administration fee (each center sets it, so ask; Modern States says most charge $20 to $30) or a $30 fee to take it at home with remote proctoring.
• At home. All 34 exams can be taken at home, watched by a live proctor over video. You need to be 13 or older (18 in Illinois) and live in the U.S., not counting the territories, unless the military’s DANTES program pays for your exam. You also need a Windows 10 or 11 PC you have administrator rights on, with Chrome, a camera, a microphone, a speaker and a wired keyboard and mouse (no Macs, tablets or Chromebooks), plus a smartphone as a second camera. Check the full requirements before you pay.
• Test centers. There are more than 2,000, and exams run year-round with no set test dates: you buy the exam online, then book a time with a center. Some centers test only their own students, so check first. A paid exam has to be used within six months (by June 30 if a voucher paid for it), and you can get a refund only within seven days of buying it.
• Scores. Every exam is scored from 20 to 80, and ACE recommends credit at 50, the equal of a C in the course (higher for Level 2 of the languages). Wrong answers cost nothing, so answer every question. Your score shows on the screen as soon as you finish, except for College Composition and Spanish with Writing, which take two to three weeks because people grade the writing.
• Canceling and retakes. You can still cancel a score at the end of the exam, but only before you see it; the fee isn’t refunded. You have to wait three months to retake the same exam, whether you canceled or didn’t pass.
• Sending scores. Sending them to two colleges is free when you register; after that each transcript is $20. Scores from exams taken since July 1, 2022 are kept for 10 years, and older ones for 20, so scores from when this post was written are reaching that limit now: send them soon if you still need them.
• Credit. More than 2,900 colleges give CLEP credit, and each one sets its own scores and credits. Look yours up with the College Board’s CLEP College Credit Policy Search, then confirm in the college’s own catalog: the College Board says some colleges don’t keep their listing current. Some colleges won’t give credit for an exam if you’ve already taken a similar course.
• Studying. The College Board sells a $10 exam guide for each exam, and each exam’s page has free sample questions and a study plan. The nonprofit Modern States offers 32 free online courses for CLEP exams.
• Free exams. For service members (and some military spouses and Air Force civilian employees), DANTES pays for the first try at each exam, and on-base test centers waive their fee for them (military benefits). Veterans with GI Bill benefits can be paid back, but it uses up some of their GI Bill entitlement. Modern States gives a free voucher to anyone 13 or older who finishes one of its courses and scores at least 75% on its final; the voucher covers the exam fee and the at-home fee, and Modern States pays back a test center’s fee if you claim it within a year. Get the voucher before you register: Modern States won’t pay for an exam you already bought.

At Campbell today

• Campbell still gives credit for CLEP: under its 2026–2027 catalog it may grant credit for scores of 50 or higher, as ACE recommends. The credit shows as “CR” on your transcript and doesn’t count in your GPA. Send an official score report to the Registrar (Campbell’s CLEP code is 5100).
• Credit for core-curriculum courses has to reach Campbell before the end of your first semester there. CLEP counts toward the 90 credits you can bring in from outside, your last 32 hours have to be at Campbell, and you can’t get credit twice for the same course, so College Algebra and College Mathematics, Western Civilization I and Social Sciences and History, or the two composition exams overlap.
• Campbell’s current CLEP list (its 2025 guide, though the footer still says 2019) mostly follows ACE, with a few differences: it doesn’t accept Introduction to Educational Psychology; Biology and Chemistry earn 4 credits each; English Literature earns 3 and College Mathematics 6; and for French, German and Spanish, Level 2 credit starts at a score of 66, with 71 or higher covering 201 and 202. Its testing center links a March 2025 brochure that differs (Biology 6 credits, ACE’s language scores), so ask the Registrar which applies.
• The College Board’s own listing for Campbell is out of date (it still shows Introduction to Educational Psychology for credit), so go by Campbell’s current list (linked above), not the 2005–06 one on this page, and check with the Registrar.
• Campbell’s National Testing Center gives CLEP exams at Fort Bragg and Pope, both on base, so civilians need clearance to get in. Testing there is free for Campbell students and active-duty service members and $15 an hour for anyone else; that’s the center’s fee, and the $97 exam fee still applies unless DANTES pays it.