CLEP tests modernize, computerize

    The College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) has changed to computers this year in order to provide more benefits to the student, according to Dr. Seldon Mapel, NE coordinator of testing.
One advantage of the computerized exam for students is a more flexible test schedule. Students who may have found it difficult in the past to find time to take the exam now have some options.

    Also new to the computerized version of the CLEP is instantaneous scoring and credit-granting decisions. Students will learn their scores and whether they will receive credit for a particular course.

    Beginning in July 2001, five or six courses were used as a pilot test to get the “bugs” out, Mapel said.

    “I believe NE campus was the only one out of the district to participate in the pilot testing,” he said.

    TCC now offers all 34 courses and subject areas through the computerized CLEP. The number of courses offered has not changed from the written version, equaling approximately 60 hours of credit.

    The standards of the test are the same, but the credit-granting score has changed. Now 50 represents course mastery.

    The cost of the exam is $58, including the $46 charged by CLEP and a $12 administration fee charged by TCC.

    Courses offered for credit by taking the exam are in business, composition and literature, science and mathematics, foreign languages, history and social sciences.

    For more information, contact the testing office on any campus.