General Information
- CLEP and DSST are tests developed to allow students to earn college credit acquired outside of a traditional course. USF will award credit for 26 different CLEP tests and 36 DSST tests. On the day of the exam, you must request to have an official transcript sent to USF. There is no charge to post the credit on your USF transcript.
- Testing is conducted by the Academic Advising Center at USF’s Main Campus, Tower Hall, N320. Contact the advising center at 815-740-3590 for more information.
- A maximum of 33 semester hours may be earned and includes credit for CLEP, DANTES, Military Credit and other approved forms of credit.
- With noted exceptions, college credit is awarded as elective credit and are not used in lieu of a specific course at The University of St. Francis.
- There is an administrative fee as well as a test cost for each test taken. The test cost for CLEP and DSST is $89 per test. For USF students, the administrative fee is $15 per test. For non-students, the administrative fee is $25 per test.
- Study Guides and Resources
- Online resources are available at
- CLEP
- DSST
- Many published study guides exist for both CLEP and DSST exams. Note that tests are occasionally updated so a published study guide may be outdated. The USF library has a variety of test resources in the Career Collection by the reading area, next to the Reference Desk.
- There is a minimum 3 month wait between attempts to “pass” a single test.
- Online resources are available at
CLEP
| CLEP Subject Examinations | USF Course | Minimum Score | Hours Awarded |
| American Government | POLI 105 | 50 | 3 |
| American Literature | General Education | 50 | 3 |
| Analyzing and Interpreting Literature | General Education | 50 | 3 |
| Calculus with Elementary Functions | MATH 170 | 50 | 4 |
| Calculus with Elementary Functions | MATH 181 | 60 | 5 |
| College Algebra | MATH 111 | 50 | 3 |
| College Composition | General Education | 50 | 3 |
| College French I | FREN 101 | 50 | 3 |
| College French II | FREN 102 | 59 | 3 |
| College German – Level 1 | FORL 194 | 50 | 3 |
| College German – Level 2 | FORL 194 | 60 | 3 |
| College Spanish – Level 1 | SPAN 101 | 50 | 3 |
| College Spanish – Level 2 | SPAN 102 | 63 | 3 |
| English Composition w/Essay | General Education | 50 | 3 |
| English Literature | General Education | 50 | 3 |
| Financial Accounting | ACCT 125 | 50 | 3 |
| General Biology | BIOL 124/126 | 50 | 6 |
| General Chemistry | CHEM 120 | 50 | 4 |
| History of the United States I | HIST 121 | 50 | 3 |
| History of the United States II | HIST 122 | 50 | 3 |
| Human Growth and Development | PSYC 240 | 50 | 3 |
| Humanities + | Elective + | 50 | 3 |
| Intro to Educational Psychology * | EDUC 220 * | 50 | 3 |
| Introductory Business Law | BSAD 201 | 50 | 3 |
| Introductory Psychology | PSYC 111 | 50 | 3 |
| Introductory Sociology | SOCI 111 | 50 | 3 |
| Natural Sciences | General Education | 60 | 4 |
| Pre-calculus | MATH 125 | 50 | 3 |
| Principles of Macroeconomics | ECON 101 | 50 | 3 |
| Principles of Management | MGMT 150 | 50 | 3 |
| Principles of Marketing | MKTG 150 | 50 | 3 |
| Principles of Microeconomics | ECON 102 | 50 | 3 |
| Social Science and History + | Elective + | 50 | 3 |
| Western Civilization I + | Elective + | 50 | 3 |
| Western Civilization II + | Elective + | 50 | 3 |
+ These CLEP scores will be accepted for elective credit only; they will not meet general education requirements
* CLEP scores in Educational Psychology will be accepted from students who are not seeking teaching certification. CLEP scores in Educational Psychology will not be accepted from students going through one of the USF approved education programs
DSST
DSST (DANTES Subjects Standardized Tests) exams were developed to allow students to be granted college credit for current knowledge without having to take the coursework.
The University of St. Francis administers all of the DSST tests except the Principles of Public Speaking. The full list of tests as of January 29, 2018 is listed below.
- A History of the Vietnam War
- Art of the Western World
- Astronomy
- Business Ethics and Society
- Business Mathematics
- Civil War and Reconstruction
- Computing and Information Technology
- Criminal Justice
- Environment and Humanity: The Race to Save the Planet
- Ethics in America
- Foundations of Education (only accepted for credit for students not enrolled in the College of Education)
- Fundamentals of College Algebra
- Fundamentals of Counseling
- Fundamentals of Cybersecurity
- General Anthropology
- Health & Human Development
- History of the Soviet Union
- Human Resource Management
- Human/Cultural Geography
- Introduction to Business
- Introduction to Law Enforcement
- Introduction to World Religions
- Lifespan Developmental Psychology
- Management Information Systems
- Math for Liberal Arts
- Money and Banking
- Organizational Behavior
- Personal Finance
- Principles of Advanced English Composition
- Principles of Finance
- Principles of Physical Science I
- Principles of Statistics
- Principles of Supervision
- Substance Abuse
- Technical Writing
Minimum DSST Score
If a score of 400 or above is achieved on the test, USF will accept the score as three undergraduate credit hours.
Note that the DSST test results do not transfer in as specific courses as they are considered elective credit. If a USF student needs a course articulation to a specific USF course, requests should be made through the USF Advising Center. Scores are not translated into letter grades and therefore are not used in GPA calculations.
For information regarding specific test content visit http://getcollegecredit.com/exam_fact_sheets
