About Me

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I soon discovered college level examinations. I’ve always heard of people “testing out” or “CLEPPING out” of college courses, but I never thought of myself as being knowledgeable enough to take the challenge. You’d have to be a “wiz” at these subjects to be able to skip the courses by taking a test. Even so, I was curious and started digging deeper. I found that most of the courses I had taken my one year of college were available by credit examinations. I then discovered that there were over 100 courses that could be granted credit for through examination. I decided that I should at least try and see if I could catch up a little and get some more credits under my belt.

Always looking for the shortcut, I decided to start with an exam that would earn me six credits. There were many to choose from. I chose the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP. Why I picked this is beyond me. I knew nothing about analyzing literature. I have seen parts of the Romeo and Juliet movie and that about sums up my literature experience. I registered at the local community college to take the test and purchased one study guide specifically written for this exam. I read the guide and used nothing else. I was very nervous taking the test and felt lost through most of it. It was a timed exam and I didn’t even finish all the sections. At the end of the exam I thought I just blew $75 (the cost of the test and the study guide). The results would be mailed to me in two weeks, but I wasn’t holding my breath. I figured I better find another way to finish my degree. I all but forgot about the exam when in my mailbox arrived an envelope from the College Board. Inside I was informed that I had scored high enough to earn an A! I couldn’t believe it. With less than a week of study, and what I thought was very poor performance, I had just earned 6 credits. The same amount of credit that it took me three months of two courses a day, three days a week to earn while attending classes. Needless to say I was hooked.

I decided to pursue a Liberal Arts degree from Excelsior College since it would give me the broadest choices of exams pick from. Once I found the most flexible program, I set off to determine which exams I could use to fulfill the credit requirements. This was an intensive and time consuming task. I had to find which exams met the criteria for Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences. Then I had to choose electives that would meet both lower and upper level credit requirements. Once I had my blueprint in place I started registering for exams. I usually signed up for two at a time, sometimes three. Every exam brought doubts. I would leave every testing session less confident than the last that I had passed. Yet, every two weeks or so my mailbox would have a report with mostly As, but nothing less than a B.

I also learned that I could turn some of my computer certifications into 12 credits. That was almost another semester worth of credits. I continued on this path and five months later I found myself only 15 credits from enough to graduate. I couldn’t believe it. But then I was offered a job with a new dot com and my second child was born. Work and family consumed my life (I’m sorry to say mostly work) and I put my testing on hold. Seven months later the dot com went dot bomb and luckily I got my old job back. I knew I had to finish so I regained my momentum and within two months had completed the rest of my exams. It was unbelievable that in seven months of testing (subtracting my dot com distraction) I had completed three years worth of college credit and was filling out my graduation application.

My wife was very supportive during this time. I tried to convince her that she should finish her degree. She was much closer than I was with 70 credits already earned in traditional college. But she believed that I some kind of freakish gift to absorb information, or photographic memory that allowed me to plow through the exams like I did. I finally bugged her enough to give it a shot. Fast forward three months later and she was filling out her graduation application as well.

A few months after graduation I decided to pursue a masters degree. I took the GRE and did ok except for math (always my week point). I was accepted at every school that I applied which included West Texas A&M, Fort Hayes State University and University of Tx. I finally decided on Capitol College in Laurel, Maryland because they had an online program that was almost exactly parallel to my career. It wasn't cheap, about $1000 per course, but luckily I had an employer that would pay full tuition. That took a little over a year for me to complete and I graduated in May of 2003. It wasn't at my own pace. I had to attend online classes and lectures a few times a week. It definitely made me appreciate the opportunity I had to "test out" of my Bachelor Degree.

The reason I give you this story is that almost everyone that I have helped reach their goal of obtaining a college degree thinks that they can’t do it. Well, guess what? YOU can. I did it. A high school drop out with nothing more than determination and a lot of hours of research.

Please take advantage of the research that I put together. You owe it to yourself.