Start with the coursework you already have. Check my credits Make sense of exams, college courses, and other credit pathways. Start with how each works, then check the fit with your goals.
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Yes, AP exams can earn college credit: most U.S. colleges give credit, advanced placement or both for qualifying scores, usually a 3, 4 or 5 on the College Board's 1–5 scale. Each exam costs $99 in the U.S. for 2026-27 and is given in May. The college you attend, not the College Board, decides the minimum score and which course the credit replaces.
CLEP lets you earn college credit by passing one of 34 College Board exams instead of taking the course. Each exam costs $97, plus any test center or remote proctoring fee. Scores run from 20 to 80, and the American Council on Education recommends credit for a 50 or higher. You can test without taking a class, but each college sets its own CLEP rules.
DSST exams are credit-by-exam tests owned by Prometric: more than 30 titles, $100 each plus any testing-site fee, and a 30-day wait before a retest. ACE has recommended college credit for every DSST exam, and DSST says over 1,500 colleges award credit for passing scores. Fewer colleges publish DSST rules than AP or CLEP rules, so check first.
Dual enrollment means taking real college courses while still in high school, usually earning high school and college credit at the same time. About a third of students (34 percent) in a federal study took a course for college credit in high school. Rules, costs and eligibility are set by each state and college, and the grades stay on a permanent college transcript.
IB exams can earn college credit, most often for higher level (HL) subjects graded 5, 6 or 7 on the IB's 1–7 scale. The International Baccalaureate grades each Diploma Programme subject, and the full diploma is scored out of 45 points. Colleges decide which subjects, levels and grades earn credit; many give little or none for standard level (SL) exams.
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