How to finish your American college education faster and cheaper

So the college education costs around $10,000-30,000 a year. If you're lucky, you can get scholarships and/or grants that can help you pay for them.

However, there are some unlucky few among you who have to pay twice the in-state tuition simply because you come from out-of-state or even from a foreign country.

Whether or not you pay a lot for your college education, you still want to graduate as soon as possible, right?

Then CLEP is the solution for you.

CLEP, which stands for College Level Examination Program, is a group of tests that assess college-level knowledge in several subject areas that are administered at more than 1,700 colleges and universities across the United States created by the College Board.

So for example, if you take a CLEP for Macroeconomics, and you pass that CLEP, you will be given 3 credit hours for that Macroeconomics class (without having taken the class at all).

What kind of CLEP tests are offered?

Almost every General Education classes are offered! General Education classes are the very basic classes that every American college student have to take, regardless of major. These include Algebra, English, History, and some Science classes.

Some colleges also offer major-specific classes such as Psychology, Business, and Nursing.

How do you study for CLEP?

There are two free websites that can help you with that:

1. Education-Portal (no registration needed)
2. Coursera  (registration needed, but all classes are free)

Other things you need to know about CLEP...

Be aware that not all colleges accept or even administer the CLEP tests. You need to find out for yourself by asking your college staff or advisers whether or not CLEP tests are accepted for college credits.

Also, CLEP tests are not free. From what I have seen in several college campuses, it ranges from $80 to $150... However, since it is still much cheaper than tuition for an actual class, I still suggest you take it.

Formats are different for each CLEP tests, but you can be rest assured that each CLEP test carries mostly multiple-choice questions with only a few short-phrase sentences (with the exception of language class CLEP tests where there are some essay questions).

For one, I regretted having taken Algebra class in my community college. I had to come and sit in class for Algebra which was too easy simply because I have learned it long ago in my high school in Singapore. The class was so shockingly easy and so useless that I had to spend my class time reading manga. If I had taken CLEP for Algebra, I could have just bypassed the class altogether and get 3 college credits automatically.

Colleges put the cap of taking as many as 40 to 50 CLEP credits for 4-year undergraduate students, which means that if you take around 40 CLEP credits before the end of your first three semesters, you could graduate with a Bachelor's degree in as fast as five semesters!

So...what do you think? Let me know if this tip is helpful!