Frequently Asked Questions

Get your Dual Credit at Home questions answered.

FAQs

“Dual credit” means your student is awarded both high school and college credit for the same course of study.

Dual Credit at Home gives high schoolers the opportunity to earn both high school and college credits at the same time!

Our daily Study Plans guide students in taking accredited exams for college credit. High school credit is also awarded by parents for the teen’s study of the subject.

The program consists of weekly emails that contain two PDF downloads – a weekly Study Plan and the week’s optional Extra-Mile Assignments. The Study Plans are the lesson plans Becky Muldrow used with her teens who have earned their accredited bachelor’s degrees during high school. She put the lesson plans into an easy-to-follow format (called “Study Plans”) in response to so many requests by parents wanting a written plan to follow.

You can learn more about Dual Credit at Home by visiting our Study Plans page, watching our free online workshop, or reading our free e-book.

We selected these particular exams because they completely fulfill the General Education requirements for Charter Oak State College and are also compatible with many other colleges’ core requirements.

U.S. History I and II CLEP

Analyzing & Interpreting Literature CLEP

American Government CLEP

Social Sciences & History CLEP

Humanities CLEP

College Composition CLEP

College Mathematics CLEP

Natural Sciences CLEP

Introduction to Geography DSST

Introduction to World Religions DSST

Principles of Public Speaking DSST

Business Ethics & Society DSST

Why Charter Oak State College? Charter Oak State College is a regionally accredited institution that allows students to self-study and use accredited college-level exams to earn up to 114 credits of the necessary 120 credits for a BA or BS degree! This is how a student can accelerate their degree while saving a significant amount of money. Many of these exams also transfer to other accredited colleges and universities for students who choose an on-campus route to a degree.

The Study Plans are the actual daily lesson plans that your student will follow as they study 13 subjects and prepare to take the corresponding CLEP or DSST exam. The Extra-Mile Assignments are an optional part of the program. While the Study Plans are purely academic, this part of the program deals more with developing their character and personal growth. These assignments add about 30-45 minutes per day to school time and include a book list, following a couple of blogs of your choice, keeping up with current world events, etc.

Exams are taken at a testing center near you. Many 2-year and 4-year schools have open testing centers where your student will go to take their official exams. Locations are easily found by visiting CollegeBoard.com to locate a CLEP testing center or GetCollegeCredit.com to locate at DSST testing center. 

Every college sets their own credit value of these exams, and at Charter Oak State College they total 51 college credits. You, as the parent, award the high school credit for your student’s studies of these subjects.
Know your state’s home school requirements and keep within them. HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) recommends one high school credit for a 3-credit college level exam and 2 high school credits for 6-credit exams.
Following HSLDA’s recommendation makes these 13 exams equal 17 high school credits, and this blog article contains suggestions on how to show these credits on your student’s high school transcript.

These 13 subjects/exams cover a typical core curriculum. You can supplement with any electives that you’d like to include in your homeschool.

Students can begin to study using the Study Plans at any age. However, a student has to be 13 years old in order to register for a CLEP exam online, but you can call to register younger students. There is no minimum age to purchase and take a DSST exam. Dual Credit at Home has had students ranging from 11 to 52 years of age!

Yes! The materials that you receive are copyrighted, but we give you permission to use them in your immediate family.

Over 2000 colleges and universities recognize the DSST program and award college credit for passing scores. CLEP credits are accepted by over 2900 colleges and universities. You can check the policy of a particular school online or by calling the college’s admissions or registrar’s office.  

Yes, once you have completed payment, email us and we’ll send them all at once. This way you can also change the order or choose only certain exams.

No. However, we do recommend that these core exams be taken before taking other exams so that you earn the maximum number of credits available.

You decide how fast or slow to work through the Study Plans. Many younger students go slower because parents are supplementing their dual credit studies with other subjects.

That’s up to you as the parent to decide as you’re working within your state requirements. Typically parents include electives, foreign language, and other outside/extra curricular activities to their student’s four-year plan.

Reading assignments in the Study Plans are taken from a test preparation book along with a recommended textbook. We mail each student a book list inside of their student notebook.

While you receive your Student Notebook within a few days, the first Study Plan is scheduled to arrive in your inbox on the first Monday 21 days after purchase. That gives you time to order and receive books. You can email us to start sooner if you’re ready!

Your student will have learned how to study by taking these 13 core exams, and they’ll apply that method to additional exams in order to meet their degree requirements. However, if your student is pursuing a degree on-campus at a college or university, they’ll request that the transcripts of their tests be sent by Prometric (DSST) and CollegeBoard (CLEP) to the school they choose to attend. Every college will evaluate the credits and apply them, according to their policy, to the student’s degree plan.

There isn’t a need to enroll in college when you first begin Dual Credit at Home. When purchasing an exam, your student will simply not have their scores sent to a particular college. CollegeBoard and DSST will “bank” their scores until you request that a transcript of those scores be sent to a particular college.

We offer the U.S. History I CLEP Study Plan separately as part of our College Degree Roadmap package.

Your student can choose to take an on-campus class to earn a science lab credit, or they can take Charter Oak State College’s accredited online science course (Earth Science) that includes one lab credit.

Some students are more anxious about testing than others. However, students do get comfortable with the process as they get familiar with it. All it takes is one or two “passes” on exams! When a student doesn’t pass an exam, they can re-take it in three months. However, we’ve built into the Study Plans the ability to know whether a student is ready to test so that you don’t waste money or time.

Many parents supplement their teen’s dual credit studies with a foreign language, music, sports, drama, band, speech & debate, etc. Often a student is still studying some early level math or English material also.

YES! It is our goal to help your student succeed, and we are available by email, live chat, and in our private Facebook group community.

Yes! Join our affiliate program and you can earn $100 for every family who purchase the full Dual Credit at Home package. Parents and students are our greatest supporters, so we like to thank you for that!

For students who have received their Student Notebook containing the Exam Calendar and all Program Information, along with:
Week #1 – $200 refund
Week #2 – $150 refund
Week #3 – $100 refund
Week #4 – $50 refund
Week #5 – no refund
If a parent chose the 2-payment billing option and then requests a refund, the refund amount will be subtracted from the 2nd payment amount, which will be billed immediately. Refunds are made to the card on file.