Originally Posted by Kelley

She will be going to a b&m college but I have already spoken to the advisors at the school she wants to attend and gotten their guidelines so we know which CLEP tests to take. That took quite a bit of work to get to the right person but worth the advise! They will allow any CLEPs that they have on a list that the have assigned a course equivalent to as long as it is in her degree plan. For her this will mean that she can test out of about 38 credits with 10 tests.

Originally Posted by LatinTea

Good to get to know you, Jennifer. Thanks for writing! It's helpful to have an encouraging hs mom; I mostly get looks like, 'are you nuts?'. My son, Riley, is, on the other hand, ready to get started.

Glad to hear that the books I have will work. The idea about building your curriculum around your students is exactly what I will be doing my son's senior year. He already has enough credits to graduate and I really wanted something cool to do, like British Lit with British History (yes, my son loves that stuff), but then found this route. I will take the main groups of tests (history, english, maybe math) and count it all under that one heading. It will just highlight that we have topped it all off with 'testing'. You know how they (the state authorities) love to know that you have 'tested'. It just brings smiles to their faces.

So far, here's the plan. Take US History II first. and use the REA book and IC. That will give him a good start. Then, take Analyzing Lit and US History I later. Also, good to know how to study for that one! I probably have some books around the house too that will work.

I read about the Sociology test last night and didn't think that was where we needed to be right now. It kinda looks a bit too much at this point. Thanks for the suggestion, though, to whoever it was, I will keep it in mind for a later test.

As for the SAT, I had thought about doing this, but around here (in MN) it's just hardly ever done. The ACT rules, as they say. And since he's not going into a b&m college, I figured why stress him out needlessly. But I will think more about it. He is set to retake the ACT in June to get a few more points, which I know he is capable of. It's funny, it was his first big test outside of the home and he did pretty well. He does well with algebra and geometry; it's just the time factor with the ACT. He ended up having to guess on a few math questions because of the time limitations. So, we'll probably start with the College Math CLEP first!

As for the foreign language one, we are going to attempt French this coming year, after 4 years of Latin. Wish they had a CLEP for Latin, but I guess there wouldn't be very many takers.

Yes, that DL book is a good one. Got me started on all this stuff. One of the people in there is a friend and currently a missionary. Her name is Heidi Caasi. Maybe you can give that info to your children and see if they can find her!

Did you ever check into CollegePlus? It's Brad Voeller's extension of his book. You probably know about it. We applied, but the cost is holding me back.

BTW, I am considering giving this all a go myself too! I have 18 credits from my previous life, B.H. (before homeschooling), but I am now almost 49 years old and this all looks terribly daunting. I keep telling myself that if I learned Latin, I can learn anything! I'm so impressed that you have pursued your dreams. Maybe we can PM more about this sometime.

I'm so excited to be on this board!

Have a great day,
Margo

Originally Posted by dmdean

PS
Someone told me recently that we shouldn't use our names on these forums because we are allowing ourselves the possibility of being 'googled'.

Originally Posted by Blue

Having graduated from a b&m university, I just have a few suggestions to add on to what everyone else has said. In addition to schools accepting or not accepting CLEPs, the amount of credits they accept (from both AP and CLEPs) varies. Therefore, you don't want to take more than allowed. I would suggest that you and your son decide which schools you guys are interested in applying before taking any exams. It would probably be more time-efficient if you worked your schedule around the schools' policies. It'll also help you narrow down which exams to take.

Also, if your son wants to do masters after attending a b&m university, I suggest taking CLEPs/AP exams to fulfill only "general education" requirements, but not requirements for your son's major. Masters programs tend to prefer that a student fulfill their major requirements with b&m classes if they attended a b&m university.

Hope everything works out with you and your son! =]