Today I wanted to share [and reshare] my top five favorite free sites that I have used to help me get my degree.

1. SOCRATES (via the Higher Education Recource Center)

This is probably one of the top sites I have discovered that I just feel… sad for?! Like, this is such an amazing resource, how does it not have a massive student base?! It’s one of those under-the-radar sites that deserves way more recognition.

This amazing group is a non-profit all about helping us students. They have a huge database of free and cheap resources to help you get discounted college credits all around, and even will help you put together possible degree plans and look at target schools/degrees! Tim Scoggins, founder of SOCRATES, has helped me personally with exploring all of the options I had to broach when trying to chart my course through this last year of school, and I’m so thankful!

2. Homeschooling for College Credit

This site is based around the concept of helping homeschool students earn college credit during high school, so if that’s you, here’s your gold mine. However, I didn’t discover this site/blog/Facebook group until the beginning of my Junior year (as a 20-year-old, not high school student), and the resources are just as good for anyone trying to earn a degree through alternative methods as homeschool students. All of my Harvard poetry classes I took to finish the upper level and concentration credits required for my degree (see my degree plan) I originally discovered through the Homeschooling for College Credit Facebook page!

3. Free CLEP Prep

I have been a big fan of Free CLEP Prep ever since my very first CLEP exam in summer of 2014 (picture for reference).

Free CLEP Prep has some free practice exams (in my opinion, very similar to the difficulty level of the actual CLEP exams), as well as breakdowns of each CLEP and DSST and good suggestions on how to study. There are also two lists, ranking CLEP and DSST exams in order of difficulty. These lists are biased of course, but I have found them pretty accurate, and I’m glad I started with exams on the easier side of the scale, and then worked my way up to studying for the more difficult ones. Strategically stacking exams so you don’t kill yourself with the most difficult ones when first starting helps with confidence and gives you time to hone your studying skills.

4. Modern States

I know I’ve mentioned this one other places here on the blog, but it deserves a place in my top 5. Not only is it a free CLEP prep program, but if you finish their full subject series, they’ll also pay for your CLEP exam and exam proctoring fee (about a $102 savings per exam). Every penny counts for me, so saving these extra hundreds of dollars on CLEP exams I was already going to take has really been a tremendous asset to my alternative degree plan. Many people have asked, and I will answer: no, I would not recommend using only Modern States in studying for CLEP exams. You should use a variety of study resources.

5. Quizlet

Everyone knows about Quizlet, but not everyone knows that Quizlet has a ton of CLEP quiz sets to study! Of course, some sets are more helpful than others, and some CLEP exams will have more info on there to practice than others, but it’s a good place to check. Quizlet sets on the American Government CLEP exam totally saved me, because I was struggling to memorize the amendments, articles of the constitution, etc. The Learn feature on Quizlet is probably my favorite way to study on there.

That’s it! My top 5!

The first two are more of general information and planning sites (completely awesome and helpful), while the latter three I would use in the trenches of studying for every CLEP exam. What would you add to this list?