CLEP question: What does this mean? Judahsma, please help me.

Question

Judahsma, if you're out there, please help me since you answer a lot of CLEP questions..

K I'm planning on taking some CLEPs at my community college in AZ. But I was thinking of transferring to ASU, but ASU's policy about CLEPS says:

CLEP examination credit is not given where it duplicates credit previously earned by the student at the university or accepted by the university for work done elsewhere.

What does that mean? That they won't accept my CLEP credit at my CC? Its right over here at.. http://catalog.asu.edu/node/624

Answer 1

Hi Jaimie D.,

I received your email.  This is Judahsma, but I changed my profile name.  What that is saying is that they will not grant you CLEP credit for a subject that you already took a class for.  For example, if you take a Biology class (either at your current school or any school previously) and you passed that class, then you try to take the Biology CLEP because you didn't like your grade in the class, they won't give you credit for the CLEP.  The grade from the class would stand and they would disregard the CLEP test score.  So you can't take a CLEP because you took a class, passed the class, but weren't happy with your grade (let's say you got a C).  Some people might then try to take the CLEP since it's pass/fail in the hopes that that C in Biology won't be on their record.  

That doesn't mean that they won't give you credit for CLEPs taken while you were at this school.  CLEP keeps a record of scores for 20 years or something like that.  When you transfer to the new school, you would request a transcript from College Board (http://www.collegeboard.com), which they will send to the new college.  From the wording of the info on their website, it doesn't sound like you should have any problems.  Please do yourself a favor though...since all colleges CLEP policies are a little different, it would be a very good idea for you to contact the new college BEFORE you take any CLEP tests to be sure that you won't have a problem transfering those credits.  Every college's CLEP acceptance policy is slightly different, and it's better to have to spent 5 minutes on the phone with them confirming that, than to take CLEPs only to find out after the fact that you can't tranfer them!  

Good luck!