The College Board and CLEP

In 1900, a few colleges and universities developed a partnership to form the College Board. The purpose of the partnership was to expand access to higher education and to facilitate the application process for students and admission offices. The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association representing more than 5,900 colleges, universities, and schools, and leads national and international efforts to improve access to and readiness for higher education.

In 1901, the members of the College Board developed the Standardized Admission Test (SAT). High School students who expect to apply for college take the SAT. The College Board also developed the College-level Examination Program (CLEP) to allow students to earn college credit by taking an exam. The CLEP program is widely accepted by numerous colleges and universities nationwide.

What is CLEP?

The College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) allows you to take a test and receive college credit for knowledge acquired through life experience by earning qualifying scores on exams. The tests are subject-matter tests that require a passing score to obtain transfer credit toward your degree. Bay Path University recognizes the College-level Examination Program of the College Board. The College-level Examination Program offers 33 different types of exams (see Appendix B). Exams vary in credit value from 3-12 college credits.

What is the Cost of CLEP?

The cost of a computer-based CLEP exam is $80 plus any administrative fee levied by the test site (check with the test site on additional fees). You can also take a pencil and paper exam. The cost of the pencil and paper exam is $122.00. The CLEP exam has only 14 paper exams of the 33 exams that are available and results are not available immediately.

Steps to Take

• Meet with your Advisor to determine the courses you could possibly complete through CLEP exams. You cannot take CLEP exams for courses you have already taken and applied toward your degree. Students will not receive credit for duplicate courses.
• Prior to taking the CLEP exam, the student fills out the CLEP pre-approval form, found on the Bay Path portal under the Students tab, Forms, Traditional Undergrad Students, CLEP Approval Form.
• The student must submit the CLEP approval form prior to starting class, but no more than 60 days.
• If the student does not receive a passing grade on CLEP, the student may attempt the exam again after a 6-month waiting period.
• Bay Path highly recommends that students do not take the exam within 4 months of graduating. This is because the student will want to reserve enough time to take the course should she not obtain a passing score on the exam.

You must arrange to take the CLEP exam and have an official score report sent to the Registrar’s Office at Bay Path University. You can access information about CLEP exams at the following website: https://clep.collegeboard.org/exams.

You can receive up to a maximum of 12 credits through CLEP examinations after enrolling at Bay Path University. Bay Path may accept CLEP exams taken before enrollment if students submit original scores to the Registrar’s Office on a timely basis. The Registrar’s Office makes the final determination for the acceptance of CLEP scores.