How to Pass Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam in High School

If your high school student follows a dual-credit path and earns both high school and college credits at the same time, Principles of Marketing may be one of the CLEP exams they will choose to take.

Our family has been following the dual-credit path for a couple years now and this particular CLEP was number eight in my son’s endeavor to collect college credits. We picked this one as a “light” study for the summer. We were not disappointed. The preparation course was shorter than the ones for other exams and with many of the marketing principles being a “common sense” rather than overwhelming new information.

Before we dive into the actual exam, let us look at how it meets your high school student’s credit requirements.

How to Record Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam in Your Student’s High School Transcript

When assigning high school credits for this CLEP, consider the following:

Marketing is not a mandatory class in high school and therefore it falls into a category of “Electives.”
Having at least one “elective” in each of the four years of study is a high school requirement so Marketing fulfills this need.
Unless studied in depth for other purposes but CLEP, Marketing, in general, is a one-semester subject, which would grant your student 0.5 high school credits.
If you combine Principles of Marketing CLEP with Principles of Management, your student will achieve one whole credit for these two electives.

Please note that the above high school credit assignments are solely based on my research and our own experience when comparing different subjects studied in high school. My main thought behind giving credits to my student has always been, “How much effort is required to study this subject.” To contrast the above credits for Marketing and Management, we have opted to give one whole credit for Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP even though it is considered a one-semester exam. Why? We spent an entire year in preparation including various projects, reading additional books, etc. Therefore the effort given to this exam was more than the expected one semester.

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Is Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam Hard?

This exam is officially given point two difficulty on a scale of 1-5 (one being the easiest and five being the hardest), which makes it one of the easier exams to pass.

What Is the Passing Rate for Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam?

The exam answers are transferred to a scaled score. In order to pass the exam, the score of 50 must be achieved, which is equivalent of receiving C in a similar college course. (The maximum score is 80.)

In 2017 (the latest possible statistics available at the time of writing this article) 79% of civilian students taking this CLEP test achieved a passing score.

However, in order to better understand the actual difficulty of the exam, we have to examine the military passing rate. As military personnel get an opportunity to take CLEP exams for free, not all of them prepare for the tests properly thus altering the overall military passing rates. Therefore, looking at the military passing rate of 54% in 2019 gives us a clearer idea of the difficulty of the exam.

What Does This Exam Include?

Following are a few particulars:

This exam covers the material one would find in a one semester introductory course in marketing.
This exam’s questions deal with the role of marketing in society and within a firm, understanding consumer and organizational markets, marketing strategy planning, the marketing mix, marketing institutions, and other selected topics, such as international marketing, ethics, marketing research, services, and not-for-profit marketing.

How Long Is Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam?

This exam consists of 100 multiple-choice questions which have to be answered within 90 minutes. You will receive 3 college credits for this exam and 0.5 credits for a high school course.

How to Prepare for Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam?

There are many ways to study for this exam and the best option for you personally will depend on both your student’s learning style and your budget. However, let me share with you how my son studied for this CLEP at the age of 16. As this was a slightly easier subject than, for example, biology, he didn’t spend much time in preparation nor did he cover much material as with some other exams. Following are the steps he took:

1. He took an online course at ModernStates.org and received the following:

FREE video and test preparation materials.
FREE online test questions similar to those in the actual test.
FREE CLEP exam voucher.
REIMBURSEMENT for the college test center fee.

Please note that Modern States have very specific conditions under which you can receive their FREE voucher:

You must watch their training videos and read their study materials.
You must pass all their practice tests.

The Modern States course gave him a general overview of the areas required for passing this exam. However, we highly recommend adding other study materials to these. Even though my son enjoyed the lectures and sample test questions, they were not sufficient to make him fully prepared for the exam. Nevertheless, the FREE CLEP VOUCHER is worth adding these study materials to your list.

2. We purchased one month of InstantCert.com membership in order to get more preparation practice, which proved to be invaluable.

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Which Materials Should I Use to Prepare for Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam?

In general, unless your student is very interested in marketing and plans on studying it further in the future, I would not recommend dedicating more than the required minimum time for passing the exam. We live in a marketing society and many of the questions in the test are intuitive. You can then dedicate the time saved to other mandatory high school subjects and CLEP exams.

The actual preparation for the exam and the resources used primarily depend on three basic factors:

How much practice does your child need for this particular exam?
Will you pay for the exam yourself or will you opt for free Modern States voucher?
How many CLEP exams has your student already taken and how confident are they in their preparation?

After considering these points, you will be able to determine which study materials to use in preparation for Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam. There are many textbooks and online courses available for this exam.

How Much Does It Cost to Take Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam?

Depending on how you decide to sign up for the exam, your expenses may look similar to the following two scenarios:

Option 1: You choose to pay for the exam yourself:

CLEP exam registration fee: $89
College testing center fee: $25 to $40 (Depending on which college you choose to take the exam at.)

Option 2: You choose to enroll in Modern States: $0 (Modern States reimburses you even for the testing center fee.)

Principles of Marketing CLEP Exam is one of the easier exams to take and pass in high school. But remember, it still requires diligent preparation. Study hard and enjoy the journey too!

Have you found this article helpful? Please let us know how your student has prepared for their exam. Also, if you would like more information about other CLEP exams, please leave a comment below.