Credit by Exam from Community Colleges

[barcotta]

In my very first post in this forum back on February 4th of this year, I had about 22 old community college credits and I was trying to obtain an AAS from Excelsior. Four months later I have a total of about 86 credits and am only a few credits shy of becoming a senior in college. I averaged 16 credits per month over the last four months. It's no BA in 4 weeks--but I was moving at a pretty good clip. Also in my first post, I asked if there was anyone who had any advice re. credit by exam from community colleges. Turns out, no one did--but our fearless leader, Steve, replied saying that it sounded like an interesting approach and asked me to follow up with the results. Well, I spent the last three days testing out of five (5) classes for a total of twelve (12) credits. You can check my signature for details--but suffice to say that I'm a life-long musician and they were all music classes. Rather than make an impossibly long post (as I'm want to do) I'll just highlight the aspects of this experience that I think are either interesting or helpful.

-Work with your counselor and fill out all the paperwork first. Everyone at my college seemed inclined to help--BUT NO ONE ASKS THEM FOR CREDIT BY EXAM so they often didn't know what to do. So, if my experience is typical, you may be breaking new ground and leading the way.

-Ask nicely and explain your goal. One of the teachers said he agreed to let me test out of two of his classes primarily because of my email describing my goals.

-Be prepared for some resentment. A couple of the teachers appeared to resent the concept that their class was so easy/unimportant/inconsequential that I thought I could just take a test and should get full credit. Again, explaining your goal helps here.

-I had to fill out a form for each class. Each form required approval by the dean of the arts, the department head, the instructor, the admissions office and the counseling office. I should've received at least a couple of credits for advanced signature gathering.

-One teacher initially told me he couldn't help because he was only part-time and was only compensated for his regular classes and nothing beyond. I told him that I would like him to reconsider and that I would compensate him if that would help. Now, this was via email and the department head was copied on both emails. The teacher then replied to me only--saying that he would do it but I would have to buy a CD for the class for $15. Well, I showed up and he gave me the Guitar Studies I final exam for a total of less than five minutes. Then, he got up and got his CD OF HIM PLAYING HIS GUITAR--SOFT JAZZ and shamelessly charged me $15 for it. I considered running it over in the parking lot--but my mom always said that two wrongs don't make a right.

-I ended up doing it when everyone was taking finals, which was helpful, but I did have to take two full days off of work to do it.

To give you an idea of what this functionally entailed, here's a class by class description:

Society and Rock & Roll
The teacher made me take the final which was five (5) essay questions in one hour. My hand was killing me when I was done. He also made me take the mid-term which was ten (10) essay questions in a little over an hour. He told me the book they used in the class and I quickly reviewed it before the exam.

Fundamentals of Music
I took a one and a half page final which took about twenty minutes. Then the teacher, who spoke little English, started suggesting that she couldn't give me an A in the class--despite receiving a 96 on the final, because I hadn't completed classwork. I explained the concept of credit by exam to her and then she decided that if I composed an eight bar song, she could do it. So I sat there for another twenty minutes and composed an eight bar song (a hit I'm sure!) and she gave me an A for the course.

Guitar Studies I and II
Guitar Studies I was the teacher that made me buy his CD. Final exam consisted of some note sight-reading and some chords. Took about five minutes......and $15. Got an A for my money anyway. Guitar Studies II I took the final which consisted mostly of building guitar chords on paper and....no playing. Got 100% on the test and an A for the course.

Bass Guitar Studies I
This guy was tough. He made me play bass to Autumn Leaves in a variety of styles and wanted me to play the altered tones and everything. THEN, he had me read a pretty tough bass chart. I'm a guitar player so I have to transpose in my head when playing bass. I don't know what grade he gave me but I know I passed.

My school charged an extra $9 per credit for this--so the tests were $29 per credit instead of $20. Still ended up costing almost exactly what the CLEP tests cost per exam. My advice for anyone that wants to try this is to closely follow the instructions on the form and the advice of the counseling office. Be polite and grateful. Know that there are people in the process that likely have never done this before. Don't take no for an answer. Politely state your case and be persistent.

These 12 credits qualify as Humanities towards my BGB degree. If anyone has any questions regarding the process, please feel free to reply and I'll do my best to answer.

[fiveninerzero]

An interesting way to do it.

[sgloer]

Wow, sounds like a lot of work that paid off. Thanks for the write-up!