Western will award course credit for prior learning to students who successfully test out of GT Pathways courses by earning a score equivalent to a grade of C- on a course challenge exam. Challenge exams are developed by discipline faculty for GT Pathways courses that do not have a corresponding CLEP exam.

• Students must be enrolled full-time at Western when the challenge exam is administered.
• Challenge exams are only available for GT Pathways courses that do not have a CLEP exam equivalent.
• Exams must be completed before a student has earned 100 total credit hours.
• Students may not challenge a course if they have already received credit for a higher-numbered course in the same subject.
• Exams must be completed in one sitting, within the designated time limit set by the academic discipline.
• Students may not challenge a course in which they are currently enrolled.
• Students are not eligible to take a challenge exam if they’ve already earned a grade or credit for the course at Western or another institution.
• Challenge exams may not be used to replace courses that appear on a transcript.
• Each course may only be challenged once.
• All challenge exams are graded as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. A score equivalent to 70% or higher (C-) is required to earn a Satisfactory grade.
• Only Satisfactory grades will appear on the transcript.
• Challenge exam credits will apply toward graduation but do not count toward Western’s residency requirement and are not calculated into the GPA.
• A $100 fee is required for each exam.

Western allows a maximum of 18 credits from any combination of CLEP and challenge exams. All credits are awarded at the lower-division level.