Financial Accounting CLEP

Number of Questions: 75

Time Limit: 90 Minutes

ACE Recommended Passing Score: 50

Practice Test Available?: Yes -

Cost: $80 + Sitting Fee (Usually no more than $20) at your testing site. Military can take CLEPs for free with Tuition Assistance. Check with your Educational Officer!

Difficulty 1-5 : 4
(One being the easiest, and five being the hardest)

Alternatives:

Exam Description:

The Financial Accounting CLEP covers the knowledge you would learn in a semester at a typical college Financial Accounting course. You will need to be familiar with accounting concepts, terminology, and the reasons behind common accounting procedures.

You will also need to have an understanding in the use and analysis of financial reports and the data on those reports. Finally, you will be given scenarios and problems to solve which will test your mastery of accounting techniques

Personal Thoughts:

In days past, there was a single Principles of Accounting CLEP exam that covered both Financial and Managerial accounting. College Board did away with that exam and replaced it with this. In order to satisfy a Managerial Accounting requirement, you're going to need to look elsewhere. This exam will however satisfy the Financial Accounting requirement for most school's Business degrees.

If you have any experience with accounting or bookkeeping, then most of the information here should look familiar. If you don't, then you'll need to dedicate some time to this one.

Exam breakdown:

According to the College Board, the Financial Accounting CLEP exam is broken down as follows:

Areas of Study

Stop right there!

If you know nothing about accounting and are only studying with free resources, then don't even bother reading the below list. What you need to do instead is go here:

and start at the top and read all of the lessons from top to bottom. It will take you a day or two, but you will cover practically everything you need for the Financial Accounting CLEP. Only then should you use the following list to refresh the specifics on the exam.

I'm not kidding.. I've included the following list only to use as a refresh of specific terms, but if you're walking into this cold, then click on the above link and start reading. Once you've done that, you can take the quizzes and practice tests on the Accounting Coach website and hit the areas you need work on again.

If you don't mind spending a bit of money and $60 (total) fits in your budget, then see my three recommended purchases at the very bottom. Those are what I used for this one. Accounting is not a favorite subject of mine, but those three resources saw me through it.

Recommended bargain-priced study resources

Always check your library first! You may be able to find some of these for free. You don't have to buy the officially recommended resources all the time. If you're the type of person that prefers to study from a textbook source however, then please see below.

- Simple to understand an comes with some great quizzes. This one almost made accounting enjoyable. :P

- If accounting makes you break into a cold sweat, then this book is for you!

- I bought this on the recommendation of a fellow Instant Cert member, and haven't regretted it. It's now sitting on my desk at work, and I've pulled it out quite a few times to use as a reference. Definitely got my money's worth out of this one.