Should you take an exam before getting approval?

[Lindagerr]

My niece is trying to get approval from Coastal Carolina University to take some CLEP's. She looked on their web site and they do say what exams they accept for what credits. 

The problem is she does not have her orientation until July 17th, then she can talk to her adviser and put in a request for permission to take a CLEP to replace a course. Once she gets the OK from the DEAN of her department then she can schedule the exam. By the time all of this is done the summer will be mostly over. She has been out of school since June 1st and wanted to get as many CLEP as possible done over the summer. So I am wondering if she should just go take the College Mathmatics CLEP witch should be easy for her and get it over with then see if she can get it approved after the fact.

Has anyone ever tried taking an exam before getting permission from a school like this? 

My other feeling is she should just take it to get familiar with taking CLEP and the testing center even if they wont take this exam she can still take the Precalc exam later.

[Jimmy999]

you do not need permission to take a CLEP test. Take as many as you want and just have the results sent to the school when you register

[Lindagerr]

Since she is already enrolled for the fall semester they do not allow her to take exams until it is approved by the Dean of her department. She can go to the testing center and take an exam as a non student but then she would have to get the results sent to a different school or no school.

Does anyone know if there is a number to use to send your CLEP directly to the ACE registry?

[Jimmy999]

trust me the college board lets you select whatever college you want the results sent to and sometimes it can take upto 2 weeks for the results to get sent and logged at the school. Cleps are good for 20 years. it WILL NOT be an issue, trust me

[davewill]

All your questions are subject to the school's policies. You can take the exam, and send the scores whenever you like, but the school doesn't have to accept them. They could possibly be sticky about the student taking the exam before the approval, but that would be very surprising.

[alexf.1990]

My niece is trying to get approval from Coastal Carolina University to take some CLEP's. She looked on their web site and they do say what exams they accept for what credits. 

The problem is she does not have her orientation until July 17th, then she can talk to her adviser and put in a request for permission to take a CLEP to replace a course. Once she gets the OK from the DEAN of her department then she can schedule the exam. By the time all of this is done the summer will be mostly over. She has been out of school since June 1st and wanted to get as many CLEP as possible done over the summer. So I am wondering if she should just go take the College Mathmatics CLEP witch should be easy for her and get it over with then see if she can get it approved after the fact.

Has anyone ever tried taking an exam before getting permission from a school like this? 

My other feeling is she should just take it to get familiar with taking CLEP and the testing center even if they wont take this exam she can still take the Precalc exam later.

This appears to be their policy on it:  https://www.coastal.edu/registrar/docume...ure_12.pdf

It's quite odd that they require written permission from the dean of the student's major. Personally, I would ignore this requirement. Make sure you meet the other requirements and you'll be fine. If they ask, just plead ignorance. I can't think of any reason why they would require a school's dean to approve such a routine exam. If they want to make sure the other requirements are being met, someone as low as a counselor could help students with this. It just seems like a petty bureaucratic barrier put in place to prevent students from taking CLEP exams.

[allvia]

I would wait until the advising meeting on the 17th - it is less than two weeks away, and your niece could use that time to prep for the subjects she wants to CLEP out (include https://modernstates.org/ and get to take the tests for free).  If she is ready to take the CLEPS today she'll be ready in 2 weeks - this is all well before the fall semester begins in late August

[dfrecore]

I helped a friend's daughter with trying to get CLEP/DSST exams accepted at her school (they have a policy of accepting them), the advisor/counselor was a gigantic pain in the butt about it.

I THINK personally, in this instance, that I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission.

If I was advising her, I would tell her to do the Modern States course to get the free voucher, so that she's not out any money for the exams.   She could send the scores to the school, at which point the school can decide.  But it seems silly to try to go through their process if they accept CLEP exams, and tell you what they'll work for.

Also, just looked at the link, and it does say that:
   • Students must be currently enrolled in classes at Coastal Carolina University
I'm going to guess that if she has an advising appointment on 7/17, that she's not currently enrolled in classes - so the part about getting the dean's approval may not apply.  I'd probably plead ignorance since she's not a student yet.

[Lindagerr]

I called the school, it is very confusing, but if she puts CCU as the school to report her scores to then the testing center can not let her take the exam without the deans permission. as she is Enrolled and accepted at the school.

She is not comfortable with testing because she did not do great on the paper and pencil ACT exam twice. I tried to tell her to take the SAT then but she was stubborn. Now she wants to get as many exams done as possible before she enrolls in classes that she can CLEP out of. On July 17 they are going to expect her to sign up and pay for classes.

So it basically we take CLEP, but we are going to make it as difficult as possible to do that.

She was always very good in math and I want her to see what a CLEP is like so I will pay for this one out of my own pocket. Later we will see if the school will take it. I just want her to see how much easier these exams are then the ACT was. She also did well on the ACT in math it was the literature part that she was poor at and made her score 1 point to low for a scholarship.

I also don't want to wait until the 17th because then she will just see what classes they want her to take now then she can submit a request to the Dean which can take 1-2 weeks for approval then she can order her exam and then schedule it at the testing center. At the rate this is moving it will be at least August before the school will let her take an exam. That leaves only a couple of weeks to fit in as many exams as she can get approved.

[dfrecore]

I called the school, it is very confusing, but if she puts CCU as the school to report her scores to then the testing center can not let her take the exam without the deans permission. as she is Enrolled and accepted at the school.

She is not comfortable with testing because she did not do great on the paper and pencil ACT exam twice. I tried to tell her to take the SAT then but she was stubborn. Now she wants to get as many exams done as possible before she enrolls in classes that she can CLEP out of. On July 17 they are going to expect her to sign up and pay for classes.

So it basically we take CLEP, but we are going to make it as difficult as possible to do that.

She was always very good in math and I want her to see what a CLEP is like so I will pay for this one out of my own pocket. Later we will see if the school will take it.  I just want her to see how much easier these exams are then the ACT was. She also did well on the ACT in math it was the literature part that she was poor at and made her score 1 point to low for a scholarship.

I also don't want to wait until the 17th because then she will just see what classes they want her to take now then she can submit a request to the Dean which can take 1-2 weeks for approval then she can order her exam and then schedule it at the testing center. At the rate this is moving it will be at least August before the school will let her take an exam. That leaves only a couple of weeks to fit in as many exams as she can get approved.

Is there another testing center she can go to?  Here where I live, there are about 6 within an hour.

And just an FYI, but I've read that the ACT and SAT are very similar now in terms of the material - but the time management for the ACT is insane.  You have to be a VERY good test taker to do well on this new style that they're doing.  A lot of kids struggle with that part of the test, but may still do well on the SAT.