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To form the most complete picture possible of CLEP* pass rates, we have compiled three different sources of statistics for CLEP exam pass rates into a single table:
- Civilian CLEP pass rates
- Military CLEP pass rates
- InstantCert CLEP pass rates
NOTE: The most recent year that statistics are available for non-military students taking CLEP exams is from 2017. If you find more recent statistics, please let us know!
What are the CLEP Pass Rates?
Below is a table of pass rates for CLEP exams starting with the tests that have the highest pass rates (among the general public).
| CLEP Exam Title | 2017 Civilian Pass Rate | 2019 Military Pass Rate | 2019 InstantCert Pass Rate** |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish Language | 91% | 84% | N/A |
| College Composition Modular | 83% | 82% | 100% |
| College Composition | 81% | 74% | 94% |
| Introductory Sociology | 80% | 64% | 96% |
| Principles of Marketing | 79% | 54% | 100% |
| French Language | 78% | 69% | N/A |
| College Mathematics | 76% | 64% | 98% |
| Human Growth and Development | 75% | 34% | 95% |
| Analyzing and Interpreting Lit | 75% | 66% | 95% |
| Principles of Macroeconomics | 72% | 35% | 93% |
| Principles of Microeconomics | 72% | 32% | 92% |
| German Language | 72% | 57% | N/A |
| Information Systems and Computer Applications | 71% | 69% | 93% |
| Introductory Psychology | 70% | 36% | 90% |
| History of United States I | 69% | 50% | 96% |
| Humanities | 68% | 36% | 94% |
| Western Civilization I | 68% | 45% | 97% |
| Principles of Management | 67% | 33% | 95% |
| Precalculus | 63% | 38% | 100% |
| Social Sciences and History | 62% | 41% | N/A |
| Biology | 60% | 39% | 91% |
| English Literature | 60% | 29% | 91% |
| Intro to Educational Psych | 60% | 22% | 95% |
| Natural Sciences | 57% | 63% | N/A |
| History of United States II | 56% | 38% | 95% |
| Financial Accounting | 55% | 14% | 91% |
| Calculus | 53% | 34% | N/A |
| College Algebra | 52% | 24% | 87% |
| American Government | 52% | 50% | 92% |
| Introductory Business Law | 51% | 20% | 100% |
| American Literature | 51% | 16% | 83% |
| Western Civilization II | 48% | 37% | 88% |
| Chemistry | 39% | 23% | N/A |
How to Interpret These Pass Rates
We list out three separate pass rates for civilians (non-military test-takers), military, and InstantCert members because each statistic tells you something a bit different about each exam.
The civilian pass rate gives you a general idea of the pass rate for an exam, but you can't just blindly look at the pass rate to determine how hard an exam is. For example, the Spanish CLEP exam pass rate is heavily skewed by people who are native Spanish speakers taking the exam. For the average student who has just taken a couple of years of high school Spanish, that exam would be very challenging. In general, you can assume that the majority of the students in this category did some form of studying before taking their test, so we recommend thinking of the civilian pass rate as the percentage of students that pass after doing some studying.
The military pass rate probably gives you the best idea of the raw difficulty of an exam because military personnel can take CLEP exams for free. This means that the statistics are heavily skewed by people who go in and take the exams with little or no preparation. That being said, some of those test-takers are obviously studying since their pass rates for some subjects are similar to the pass rates for civilians.
The InstantCert pass rate gives you an idea of what a little bit of carefully-focused study can do for your chances of passing the exam. As we elaborate below, it is an imperfect measure of the difficulty of an exam (just like the other two sets of statistics) but it gives you more information about how difficult it can be to prepare for an exam and how casually or seriously you will want to approach your test prep.
**About the InstantCert Pass Rates
These statistics may vary from what you see on InstantCert's individual product pages since the InstantCert pass rates on this page are calculated using ONLY 2019 test results (versus the cumulative results posted on the individual product pages).
Also, since these statistics are based on a more limited pool of data -- just the test results voluntarily submitted by our students in 2019 -- you should take them with a grain of salt. A 100% pass rate does not mean it is impossible to fail after using our flashcards or that the exam is a breeze.
That being said, YOUR pass rate on all exams you study for with us can be 100%, if you use all of our resources to make sure you are well-prepared! Many of the students that contributed to the pass rates listed above did the bare minimum; they went through our flashcards and then went in and took the exam.
InstantCert is the ONLY resource that offers you a ton of extra resources including insider tips, advice and notes posted by other students if you want to absolutely guarantee a pass. For more information on customizing your study plan, check out our article How to Customize your CLEP study plan.
Steven Gloer
InstantCert Co-Founder
Steven is one of the co-founders of InstantCert and is constantly looking for new ways to leverage technology to make learning more efficient and productive. Reach out to him with your ideas, stories, and questions by sending an email to [email protected].
* CLEP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
