Through a process of trial, error and sharing, many homeschooling families have the approach to combining secondary school education and planning for university-level examinations down to a science. There are two basic approaches to earning higher education credit while simultaneously completing secondary school.
1. If a college student has acquired knowledge that aligns to a credit by exam check, they would get a research guide and take a practice exam to see if they know enough to complete the check. If they feel confident, they would take the credit by exam check and if they complete it, they have gained higher education credits according to the DSST, CLEP, or AP programs. The parent will also award the college student high school credit on the home school transcript.
2. When a homeschooler is ready for high school work, sometimes as early as junior high school age, the parent and kid will choose his or her course of study. To gain higher education and secondary university credit simultaneously, they will match-up what they want to study with a credit by exam check. The home school student might decide to research US History 1 for 9th grade and after learning the information from a textbook and spending a few weeks reviewing CLEP planning materials, he or she will take the CLEP evaluation. If the kid passes the test, they will have gained both secondary school and higher education credit from studying the same material. If the kid does not pass the test, he or she will have still gained secondary school credit from doing the work. The kid can then earn even more higher education credits by following the US History 1 CLEP with the Civil War and Reconstruction DSST evaluation, as the examinations have overlapping information.
The most apparent benefit to making college credits in secondary school is to speed up the degree process. This can be a considerable benefit from a tuition viewpoint, as well as placing you on a fast-track to profession income.