Excelsior College General Education Exams

Editorial Team / Moderator · Aug 11, 2009

Which classes do you need for your gen ed subjects? There are CLEP options for some that will save you money. Let us know what you're taking.

omojo · Aug 12, 2009

There are also some Gen ed courses you can get from DSST(DANTES) and are accepted by excelsior. CLEP and DSST courses are really cheap. all you have to do is study the course outline and test out. I didn't have to buy any textbook for the sociology and Biology I cleped. I used Library books. You'll be suprised at what you can find at the local library. Amazon.com is a wonderful site to buy used books. I got my A&P txt book for $8, what i would have got for about $120. What courses are you taking?

mhr2133 · Aug 14, 2009

I use Instacert. They are wonderful, they cost 20 a month and have flashcard that you study from, but the best part is that you get access to the specific exam seciton of the discussion forum, where the members leave comments after taking each exam,it is so worth the money.

As to study materials, go to the specific exam sheets for each test, be it a clep, dsst, or excelsior, at the end of the sheet it will list books you can use to study by -if it is an excelsior exam I just go over to the excelsior bookstore and get the reguired textbook name and author. I will go to albris books and find the textbook maybe one edition back (if they currently use edition 6 I will get edition 5) I've never paid more than $2 for them.

Using instacert and the general ed exams, cleps I'm going to have tested out of a full 4 year degree by the end of the year,I started with no college credit, this is very doable.

medicdadof2 · Aug 15, 2009

I'm going to take microbiology first. I have Anatomy and Physiology but I took it a long time ago and I hope it still counts, but another question where do you start when you do these types of tests? How does everyone do so well on these. Please give me your secrets to success.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Aug 16, 2009

Start by downloading the exam content guide from EC's website, and gather your study material. The secret to my success was spending nearly every ounce of free time with my nose in a book -- studying hard was the key for me.

EC is great about accepting older credits, by the way. Hopefully your A&P will be good!

KBPN · Sep 2, 2009

I always bought the older edition which was Much Cheaper and studied with that. An example was the Psych book called for edition 5 and I bought edition 4 for next to nothing. I don't think the material really changes much at all. Saved some money and every bit saved helps!