You are right that credit-by-exam is a great way for students to get ahead in college. It is also definitely underutilized by most students. This is a great round-up of the options available to students. Students do need to understand that most will need to do some serious studying to prepare for the exams – some are fairly difficult. But they are a great way to not just skip a class, but to actually receive the college credit for the class.

The only thing I would argue with is your statement that the first year of college is mostly a review of high school. While this may be true for some students who are under-prepared and need to sharpen their skills, most college classes both take subjects to a different level and ask students to think about those subjects differently. In many cases it is a matter of working with the concepts more rather than memorizing information. Although the subjects may look the same as high school classes on the surface, the level of study should be different. Of course, as in all things, there are many individual variations. There are high school teachers who push students to deeper levels and college professors who let students slide on the surface.

If students have a mastery of some basic subjects coming into college, credit-by-exam programs are a great way to get a head start – and both save money and find new challenges. Thanks for reminding students about the options.