When students enter business school, some feel as though they already have knowledge that can be put towards their degree. In order to officially receive credit for such knowledge, you can take part in the College-Level Examination program, or CLEP. The program helps students earn credit that’s applicable at almost 3,000 colleges throughout the United States, including many of the best business colleges online, by testing them in subjects they have already shown success in. Each school varies in how much credit they’ll grant to students who do well on CLEP exams, so make sure you determine what your chosen business school’s policy is ahead of time.

Taking CLEP exams can benefit you in a number of different ways. If nothing else, the exams will help you determine how ready you are for your college courses. An acceptable score on the exam administered through the program can provide you with as much credit as a student who took the course at one of the good business schools would receive. Because you’ll be receiving credit ahead of time, you may be able to skip introductory courses, take higher-level courses sooner, or finish your business degree sooner. This will in turn help you save money on tuition and other expenses associated with attending business school.

So what will it be like to take a CLEP exam? You must first pay a $77 fee to register for the exam. When it comes time to take your chosen test, the tests are administered by a computer and take an hour and half to complete. Many of them are made up of multiple-choice questions, except for exams covering subjects that are heavily concentrated on writing. For instance, the College Composition exam includes two essays in addition to the multiple-choice questions. A national board of college English professors grades the essays. The College Composition Modular exam is another test that contains an essay portion in addition to the multiple-choice questions, but it’s graded by the school you’re planning to attend. Both of these exams could exempt you from basic composition courses and allow you to focus on the core classes relevant to your business schools goals.

You’ll receive your score on the exam immediately after taking it since they are all computer-based. This will let you know right away whether or not you earned college credit to put towards your pursuit of a degree.

There are numerous CLEP exams within many different subjects, including Composition and Literature, History and Social Science, Science and Mathematics, and World Languages, which may all cover courses taken as part of the general education curriculum for all kinds of majors. As for the CLEP exams created for Business, there are currently 5 exams targeted specifically at subjects that are vital to a business degree. The exams are Financial Accounting, Information Systems and Computer Applications, Introductory Business Law, Principles of Management, and Principles of Marketing.