I’m in the US and I’m going back to college after 15 years in the work force. I’d like to try to test out of some basic classes I have a lot of experience in, but no college credits. How does this work? Who runs this program, an accredited testing board or individual colleges? If you test out of a class, would that count as 3 (or equivalent) credit hours of college credit for other purposes such as professional licensure? Are there issues with acceptance by colleges of these types of tests? Thanks!
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Why go to college if you aren’t going to take the classes?
Sounds like you need to speak with your advisor.
In my limited experience with technical education, as it was explained to me, schools are actually more reluctant to let students test out of the “basic” classes, as that’s where most of the un-testable soft skills that are required for advanced classes are picked up.
100% and it varies on the institution. I was given test and transfer credit counting towards overall hours, but not replacing requirements for upper division courses. Often the mandatory lower division classes are “weed outs” to streamline the students who will major, since programs can’t handle more than a certain number.
Really proud of you for going back to school OP — best wishes.
If you have a specific institution in mind you’d like to attend, you’ll need to talk with some combination of their admissions, advising, and testing center staff.
A lot of (community) colleges do placement test, in my experience. I tested out of all my mathematics courses.
I’m pretty sure this is different at different schools, you’re going to have to ask. At my Uni (in the 90s) you could “challenge” 100 and 200 level courses for full credit. The prof had a bit of leeway on when, in the term, the test was offered and whether you’d be excused from attendance until then.
It was easier, in my case, to sign up for the same course at the local community college (which didn’t have any attendance requirements) for $30/credit (again in the 90s), just show up for tests, and then transfer the credits.
I did this. I’m starting in my final semester this fall, after going back for my degree at 38 and 8 years experience in my field. For my field, “testing out” wasn’t an actual test, it was displaying to the professor that I could show that I had done work very similar to the curriculum for that class and could speak the jargon of my field. They only let me out of a couple requirements though, and only made it so that I didn’t have to take those classes, no credit was given to me. Mostly, my experience has led to me having a serious foot up in a lot of my classes and being able to act as an unofficial TA in some of the hands on classes. And for the classes I really should have been allowed to test out of, I still generally learned enough new material to consider it worth my time and money.
What others have said - every school is different and you need to talk to an advisor. When i was in college (100 years ago) we took CLEP tests for specific classes that got you credit. My kids took AP exams and it was totally different at their school-if they passed a math AP they got 3 hours credit, but it was counted as a ‘math for non-math/science majors’ so there was no real way to test out of those.
I suggest you look at WGU. Fully online and is competency based. That means that you can just pass any class without doing homework and such—just do whatever the required tasks are to complete the course and you’re done and with credit.
CLEP exams let you test out of basic courses and get the course credits without taking the class. I did three classes that way a few years ago. I’d still recommend studying since the tests cover specific material. They’re not general knowledge/life experience exams, but you can study at your own pace and test out when you’re ready. clep.collegeboard.org
