Credit by Exam can offer a quicker path to college graduation—and Lori Payne is on a mission to educate more Georgia Perimeter College students about the program and its benefits.

Payne, Dunwoody Campus testing coordinator, encourages students with solid competency in any subject area to explore the option of “testing out” of that particular class.

At Georgia Perimeter, this most often is done through the College-Level Examination Program, or CLEP. It’s open to GPC and non-GPC students like Shane Gary. Last year, Gary became a literal poster child for CLEP after earning a substantial amount of college credit through Credit by Exam.

“After taking a sabbatical with IBM, Shane decided to pursue his bachelor’s degree to better his career aspirations,” Payne recalls.

Gary learned that he could take a single test, and if he scored high enough, he could receive full course credit in subjects including biology, algebra and foreign languages. He then used the Dunwoody Testing Center to sit for 14 CLEP exams and another 12 through Dante’s Standardized Subject Exam, or DSST. Gary’s achievement on the Credit by Exam tests led to him receiving a bachelor’s degree from the online school Excelsior College. It also meant a lot of excitement for Payne and her testing center colleagues.

“It’s invigorating when that student receives a passing grade, then stands up and turns around and looks at you and says ‘Yes! This is all I needed to graduate,’” Payne says. 

Each Georgia Perimeter campus administers CLEP exams, while only Dunwoody offers DSST—although GPC doesn’t accept credits from this particular exam. Last year, GPC campuses administered a total of 306 Credit by Exam tests that are offered and managed by College Board, the same company that owns the SAT exam.  

With 2,700 colleges and universities accepting CLEP credits, Payne says Georgia Perimeter frequently ranks in the top 10 for schools administering the most CLEP exams. Spanish, French and college algebra are among the subjects students sit for most often.

Georgia Perimeter students interested in receiving Credit by Exam are first required to meet with an academic advisor to determine if CLEP is appropriate for them, because they must score in the 50th or above percentile to receive credit. In addition, there’s an $80 exam fee, payable to the College Board. An extra $25 administrative charge goes to Georgia Perimeter. This no doubt can add up, but Chris Rednour, GPC director of testing and learning support services, believes it’s still a good deal.

“It’s an expensive test but it’s a lot less than taking a three-hour course,” he says.

On average it takes about 90 minutes to take each CLEP exam, and experts like Payne advise against students taking any, unless they’re fairly certain of their subject matter competency. 

Zachary Klempf took four Credit by Exam tests before graduating from Georgia Perimeter a few years ago. He later transferred to Emory University where he received a bachelor’s in film and media management. Klempf’s strategy was to study hard for a week and then sit for the exam. “The calculus ones, the harder ones, you might want to study two weeks,” he stresses. “If you already have the full knowledge for a class, I’d say CLEP it.”

Rednour agrees, while also recommending CLEP for students like him when he was in college: those who may have done well in a high school AP class but never took the end-of-course exam in order to receive college credit.

“It’s a tool that can be used to get a person to graduation,” he says.

Rednour encourages interested students to learn more about the CLEP program at Georgia Perimeter.