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Military service members now have greater access to examinations that can help them shorten the time it takes to earn a college degree with the online testing programs offered by CLEP (College-Level Examination Program) and DSST (DANTES Subject Standardized Test). What’s even better is that the exams are funded by DANTES and are, therefore, free to military service members.
The College-Level Examination Program is a credit-by-examination program, sponsored by College Board, which gives individuals the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of knowledge in introductory college-level courses and receive college credit for their knowledge. Except for the English Composition with Essay exam, the results of the examination are known immediately. 3500 colleges and universities grant credit for passing scores on CLEP and over 2000 accept DSST scores.
Students take CLEP for a variety of reasons. Some use CLEP to shorten the time it takes to earn a degree, thereby saving money on tuition and fees. Others take CLEP to move on to more advanced courses sooner, complete basic requirements in order to take more electives, get promoted, satisfy college requirements for commissioning programs, or open new career possibilities for themselves. More than 220,000 were administered last year, and increasingly, people are taking advantage of CLEP and DSST to shorten their path to a college degree.
Military service members can take CLEP and DSST exams without paying for the exam or the administration fees if taking the exam(s) on base. Service members taking a test off base have to pay a registration fee of $20.00 or more. San Diego City College District grants up to 30 cumulative units for successful scores on CLEP exams. The list of exams for which credit is granted and the required passing scores are on the Web site http://www.sdccd.edu. Once in the web site, click onto online college catalogs, pick the catalog of your choice, and look in Section 2.
For the military student who is willing to study on his/her own, CLEP and DSST tests give the opportunity to earn as much as a semester’s worth of credit in a matter of days. One military student, Christopher Morrell, earned 2 semesters of history in one day. Jacob Barton, over the course of one week, earned a whole semester of work with a combination of CLEP and DSST tests. Teleia Tollison’s (the Master Site Administrator) first DSST candidate, James Cicero, earned a semester’s worth of credit while waiting to separate from the Marine Corps and rejoin his family.
The National Test Center at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, run by San Diego City College Military Education is open four days a week and gives the complete battery of 35 CLEP tests and 37 DSST tests twice a day. For military servicemen in a hurry, computer based testing offers quick college credit with instant gratification. All CLEP and DSST tests are checked for academic rigor by the American Council on Education (ACE) which determines the appropriate scores for college credit. Almost every college accepts two or more of these standardized college tests; see if yours is one of them.
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