Earn free or low-cost college credit before college.

Create a free account (age 13+), complete all course modules, and score 75% or better on the quizzes and final exam. A voucher-request button then appears in the course. Use the code when registering for the matching CLEP exam at College Board. Test centers may charge a separate administration fee (often $15–30); Modern States has a reimbursement program for that too; check their current policy.

Video lectures by university professors, broken into short sections with a quiz after each, plus suggested supplemental readings if a topic needs reinforcing. Everything is self-paced with no deadlines: a motivated student can finish a course in a few weeks, or stretch it across a semester alongside other work. Because quizzes gate your progress, you get a running signal of whether the student is actually CLEP-ready before any exam is scheduled.

A completed Modern States course is a defensible entry on the homeschool transcript in its own right: a structured, college-level curriculum with graded assessments. Pair it with the CLEP pass and you've documented one effort twice: high school credit on the transcript, college credit at the destination. (See page two for how to record it.)

About 90 minutes, computerized, mostly multiple choice. Scores for most exams appear immediately. If your student doesn't pass, they can retake after a three-month waiting period. College Board no longer includes failing scores on CLEP transcripts, so an unpassed exam is never reported to colleges and the downside risk is nearly zero.

Start with Modern States (above): it exists precisely to prepare students for CLEP, and finishing its course earns the voucher that makes the exam free. Beyond that, plenty of tools can round out prep: College Board's own official study guides and practice questions, REA's CLEP prep books, Peterson's practice tests, and Khan Academy for shoring up the underlying subject. A timed practice exam is the best readiness signal; when your student is comfortably clearing the passing threshold at home, schedule the real thing.

At a test center (many community colleges host one) is the simple path: show up with ID, they handle the technology. Remote proctoring at home is legitimate but noticeably fussier. At the time of writing it requires a Windows laptop meeting College Board's specs, a quiet and tidy room you can 360°-scan on camera, a government ID check, and your phone positioned as a second monitoring camera for the whole session. None of it is hard, but it's not "click and go," so read the current requirements well before exam day. If a test center is within reasonable driving distance, it's usually the lower-stress choice.

When your student registers, they can designate a college to receive the score at no charge; additional score transcripts later cost a fee. If the destination is undecided, it's fine to send nowhere and transmit later; College Board keeps scores on file for 20 years.

Also know that some colleges cap total credit-by-exam credits, e.g., "no more than 30 hours by examination toward a degree." The cap lives in the academic catalog, and it's one more thing to confirm with the registrar before planning a big exam stack.

File the FAFSA; have a Student Aid Index (SAI) of $20,000 or below; enroll at least half-time in a program on the state's high-demand jobs list right after completing your homeschool program (or at age 20+). The program list is the big constraint: it's built around workforce needs (healthcare, IT, trades), not general transfer degrees, and it changes year to year. Books and program supplies aren't covered.

The current list leans heavily toward: healthcare (nursing, EMS/paramedic, dental assisting, radiologic technology), information technology (networking, cybersecurity, software development), skilled trades (welding, HVAC, electrical, automotive and diesel technology, construction), agriculture, early childhood education, and select business/accounting programs. Each community college maps the state list to its own programs, and the list changes year to year, so check the current one at your college before planning around it.

You don't necessarily have to live near the campus: some Iowa community colleges offer eligible programs fully online; Northwest Iowa Community College (NCC), for example, is known for its remote programs. For a rural family, that can mean a nearly tuition-free, in-demand credential earned from the kitchen table. Ask each college which of its Last-Dollar-eligible programs can be completed remotely.

CLEP proves knowledge with one exam; dual enrollment produces actual college grades on an actual college transcript. Some colleges that are stingy with exam credit take transfer coursework readily, and a strong DE grade also doubles as evidence for your homeschool transcript. The tradeoff is cost and a semester of committed time. Budget for course fees and textbooks on top of the per-credit rate, and buy used where you can: ThriftBooks, AbeBooks, and campus buy/sell boards can cut textbook costs substantially.

Colleges typically open dual enrollment to juniors and seniors, and some allow younger students by permission; each school sets its own floor, so ask. But there's no rule anywhere capping how early college credit can be earned, and CLEP has no minimum age at all. Some families start a capable middle schooler on a Modern States course and let them take the CLEP whenever they're ready. If your student can do the work, starting early spreads the load across more years and takes all the pressure off senior year.

FBBC has offered a $99 dual-enrollment class special in the fall: a complete college course for less than most textbooks, making it one of the cheapest real college credits available anywhere. Beyond the credit, it buys a genuine college experience, even in the online format: a professor, deadlines, classmates, and a transcript. It isn't guaranteed every year, so check with admissions in late summer, and take advantage if it's running.

Course recommendation: The Family. Worth taking even if your student will never attend Faith: a Biblically grounded course on marriage, family, and the household that serves a young person for life, whatever their degree ends up being.

Iowa families can access tuition-free dual/concurrent enrollment through their local public school district (Senior Year Plus), and some homeschool families use it. Before you do, weigh the whole ledger, not just the tuition line.

If your family homeschools so your children are formed by a Biblical worldview rather than the prevailing one, remember that the formation happening in a secular classroom doesn't pause because a student is only there for dual credit. High schoolers are still very much in formation. Free credits are a poor trade for a shipwrecked faith. As Voddie Baucham has put it, we cannot keep sending our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.

That doesn't automatically rule out every public option: a single online course with parents engaged and reading alongside is a different exposure than full-time immersion, and families land in different places here. The point is that the worldview question belongs in the decision at full weight, right next to the price tag. Options like FBBC exist so the choice isn't "free but formative in the wrong direction" versus "nothing."

FBBC isn't the only option. Cedarville University, Bob Jones University, Colorado Christian University, and Grand Canyon University all run online dual-enrollment programs with solid reputations among homeschoolers, and many denominational colleges quietly offer one too; it's worth asking any Christian college on your student's radar. Compare per-credit rates, course selection, and (as always) how the credits will transfer to the likely destination.

CLI has a formal partnership with Liberty University: CLI credits can transfer into Liberty's online bachelor's programs (their flexible B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies is a flexible landing spot), and CLI degree-holders can use them for Liberty graduate admissions. Liberty permits a large share of a bachelor's degree to arrive as transfer credit, so families stack cheap CLI credits and finish an accredited degree at a fraction of sticker price. Credits must still meet Liberty's normal transfer rules: grade, content, fit with the degree.

Honest caveat: outside CLI's partner schools, transferability is limited. Treat CLI as a targeted play: great if Liberty or another partner is the destination, not a universal credit bank.

ACE-recommended credit is not the same as accredited coursework; colleges choose whether to honor it, and many traditional campuses don't. Both publish lists of partner schools with guaranteed acceptance, and transfer-friendly online schools (including the degree-by-exam "Big Three" below) take them readily. If your student's destination honors ACE credit, these are among the cheapest credits available anywhere; if not, skip them. Study.com is another subscription player in this same space.

Use DSST when the subject your student has already mastered simply isn't in CLEP's catalog, or when a college's equivalency table happens to be more generous on the DSST side. Fewer colleges accept DSST than CLEP, so the registrar check matters even more here. Military families: DANTES funds the exam fee for service members.