How I pass 5 CLEP exams
On Learning

How I studied for CLEP exams: Modern States to the rescue

I passed five CLEP exams in about two years. This post walks you through exactly how I did it: my studying journey for CLEP exams, what worked and what didn’t work. Luckily, I found Modern States and I’ve been using their platform ever since.

By the end you’ll know how to:

  • Exactly what wasn’t working when I first tried to study for CLEP exams.
  • How Modern States solved the “money and schedule” problem.
  • The no-frills study routine that got me through five exams (and 15 college credits) in about and
  • The exact steps you can swipe today to replicate what I did—without flash-cards, apps, or evening-class burnout.

Jump to: Steps ↓ | Quick Terms | Transcript

Watch the Walkthrough

Timestamps

  • 00:48 How I studied for CLEPs (my first attempts)
  • 03:35 Modern States overview
  • 07:01 How I studied for CLEPs with Modern States
  • 10:05 Studying
  • 11:56 Practice tests
  • 13:12 Taking the test
  • 16:08 Other tools

Quick Terms to Know

  • Modern States: A nonprofit platform offering 100% free, college-level courses—then pays for your CLEP exam.
  • CLEP: College-Level Examination Program. Pass the test, skip the (paid) class.
  • Voucher: A free exam coupon Modern States sends after you complete a course.
  • CLEP test center: usually a local community-college testing site; you schedule your exam directly with them. Private testing centers are also available, typically at a higher cost.
  • See the full glossary >>

How I started (before I heard of Modern States)

I was working full-time and running our household. At the time, my budget was super tight so spending money on evening classes meant three hours of lectures after work, when my brain is already tired. For me, that was a recipe on how to quickly lose $400+.

  • I bought the phone-book-thick official purple CLEP study guide (Amazon). A few hundred pages of good information, but no actual information on the material; it was only the questions. Months later, it was still brand-new on my bookshelf.
  • I did the random YouTube Roulette: I’d watch three testimonials, get inspired, but none of them told me where to get the class material to study for the test. No structure, lots of hype.
  • Finally, there was the vague goal setting: I would aim to pass the exam this year, next year. But that wasn’t a deadline. It was a procrastination loophole.

I searched online about how to study for CLEP exams and in a old-school forum, I learned about Modern States.

Why Modern States exists and who it’s for

Modern States is a free platform that gives you:

  • On-demand course videos that cover the material and PDFs for most CLEP exams.
  • Section quizzes drawn from the exact practice question bank the makers of CLEP provides.
  • A test-prep voucher that covers your actual exam fee (currently $93).

Perfect for: Adults finishing a bachelor’s/associate’s, traditional-age students saving tuition, or anyone whose schedule/money won’t allow a 13-week classroom course.

Step-by-step study workflow I followed

  1. Signed up at modernstates.org and pick the CLEP courses I felt the most familiar with first.
  2. Treated the courses like a podcast. I streamed lessons through headphones while dishes, jogging, cleaning—hitting “replay” whenever concepts felt fuzzy.
  3. Printed all the slides and condense everything. I merged every section slide PDF into one class mega-PDF.
    • Printed 6-slides-per-page, double-sided.
    • Numbered every slide in the margin for quick lookup.
    • Result: 300+ slides note-towered into a one-inch packet vs a brick of paper.
  4. Focused on really understanding and passing the end-of-chapter quizzes; they mirror official CLEP wording 1:1.

Mindset I kept in mind while studying: These aren’t “random free videos;” they’re professionally built course materials taught by real professors whose only job is to get you over the finish line. Respect the material, take handwritten notes, and you can knock out most exams in 4–6 weeks of solo study.

After I passed each class

  1. Uploaded a screenshot of my quiz results to claim my free exam voucher.
  2. Scheduled the test—I found out most community colleges offer the CLEP exams. Reimbursement for any proctor fee is still offered (as of recording).
  3. Test day: arrived early, reviewed notes until the last second, then took the test. Every exam so far has been 90 minutes pass/fail.

Extra resources I discovered mid-journey

Over the months, I did try to search for even more tools to study faster, and below are the two that I found. I did try them but I didn’t use them long-term. I kept coming back to Modern States, because the program was easier to follow as is than trying to add more to it.

  • Princeton Review flash-card app (cheap and drill-style).
  • Metro­Mix Learning Express: free with many college or county library cards after you create an online account.

What’s next: How to Start Your First Free College-Level Course on Modern States (CLEP Prep)

About Modern States

Modern States is a nonprofit education initiative offering free online courses that prepare students for CLEP exams and college credit. I was a 2024 Modern States Ambassador. Read more on what is Modern States.

One Step

Have heard of CLEP exams before? If yes, what was your experience studying for them? If not, have you been looking for other ways to get college credit besides traditional school? Leave a comment.

Finish Line

Pick one test today and you could shave an entire college course—and a three-to-four-figure tuition bill—off of your degree. Drop your course title in the comments when you’re ready to cheer each other on.

Related Blog Posts

Questions?

X/Tweet @tracyaltheide #moveupfam. If there’s enough questions, I’ll add an FAQ section here or add a related post.

Transcript

Okay, so this is going to be a low-production video—low production. This is it. You’re getting a squeaky marker, a little chalkboard, and…

(Full transcript continues—toggle open arrow on the left)

Okay, so this is going to be a low-production video—low production. This is it. You’re getting a squeaky marker, a little chalkboard, and a baby in the background making beautiful baby sounds. Hopefully they’re all beautiful—I don’t know. Let’s get started.

In this video I’m going to tell you how I studied to pass my first five CLEP exams. The first five that I passed—I do have one prop, and that’s my notes from one of my CLEP exams. After I take a few more tests, maybe I’ll let you know what I’ve changed and create an updated video.

This is how I started trying to study before I knew about Modern States. Everything felt very vague. I went to the official CLEP website and looked around online. I checked different videos about CLEP exams and the official process. I also watched a couple of testimonials, but nobody was really mentioning Modern States specifically. They were talking about other study tools—the credential process and all that stuff.

I also bought the official CLEP standard test book. It’s purple and gigantic—almost phone-book thick if you know what a phone book is. It has some really good practice exams, but I didn’t really understand how to use it on my own. I hate to admit that, because now it all seems pretty straightforward. If you’d like me to do a separate video on how to use this book, comment below. If there’s enough interest, I’ll create that video. At the time it just sat in my bookcase forever.

Now let’s talk briefly about Modern States and why it’s such a great organization. If you’re looking to finish a college degree—bachelor’s or even associate’s—Modern States might be for you. It’s also for you if you’re seventeen or eighteen and want to get a head start while saving on college costs. Modern States provides online resources and courses so you can study and test for a CLEP exam.

A CLEP exam is competency-based. It covers all the requirements you’d learn in a typical 13-week college course. By studying on your own, you can complete it in two months—maybe even more than thirteen weeks, depending on your pace and budget. Modern States offers an economical, flexible option.

How Modern States works:

  1. Sign up online.
  2. Select a course to study on your own time.
  3. Watch the provided videos and review the PDFs.
  4. Pass the series of quizzes.
  5. Submit your results and receive a voucher for the CLEP exam.
  6. Schedule at a community college or CLEP testing center and take the 90-minute test.
  7. Submit your scores to your college or university for credit.They also have links that explain exactly how the program works. They cover AP exams too, though I haven’t personally used that path.

I’ve taken five CLEP exams so far and I’m currently studying for another one. The process has been straightforward. Modern States has been wonderful—I hope you’ll give it a shot.

After I discovered Modern States, I registered online, looked through all the different options, and picked a couple of courses. You can stop right here and get what you need from the site—you don’t have to do any extra work. Personally, I retain information better when I write it down. I printed key PDFs:

  • I converted slides to a single PDF.
  • Combined them into one document.
  • Annotated each slide with a number so I could follow along.

Tip: If the text is small, print four or two slides per page, double-sided.

Result: All the slides condensed down to about an inch of paper.

Next steps:

  • Study like it’s a podcast while doing dishes, walking, jogging, or driving.
  • Treat the courses as if the professors are right beside you—they created these slides for you to pass the test.

Then move to practice tests.

Practice tests:

  • At the end of every section there’s a quiz.
  • These tests are from the CLEP question bank—the same questions you’ll see on the exam day.
  • After passing the quizzes, submit a screenshot to receive your voucher.

Scheduling the exam:

  • Find a CLEP-approved testing center—usually a community college.
  • Note: testing centers may charge a fee; at the time of recording Modern States offers reimbursement.
  • Some locations test for free—always double-check.

The night before the exam: sleep well, eat well, review every note until test time. Wake up early, review your notes onsite, and take the test. I’ve always started nervous but generally left feeling confident—there are only one or two tests I walked away thinking, “I passed, but could have done better.”

Hope this was helpful. I kept it simple and casual. Plenty of products cost a lot or hide behind paywalls; the key was taking notes. If there’s a Princeton Review flash-card system, I’ll see if I can link it below. Libraries with Metromix access might also give you free resources—check your local or college library. All right—see you in the next video.

^Top

Tracy helps self-starters and project finishers find the tools, strategies, and confidence to complete the work that matters most. She shares actionable tips, book notes, reviews, and personal experiments to help you start strong and finish well.