Updated as of April 20, 2024.
Get a jump start on college with these free online resources!
Benefits of Study Materials in Your College Career
College is a great time for learning, and there is SO much to learn and explore. There are also quite a few “introductory” level courses you must take, and they often account for one or two of your four years in college.
But you can also earn credits for those introductory courses while still in high school –more opportunity for electives, options to take more classes in your major, and reducing your course load for the first semester or two so that you have time to get disability services in place. Our Bridges staff share that it can be REALLY good to take a lower load (minimum is typically 12 credits) the first semester of freshman year so that you can acclimate to college, iron out disability-related accommodations, etc.
Modern States
Modern States advertises “Freshman Year for Free.” Modern States offers more than online courses to prepare for thirty (30) different CLEP exams.
What are CLEP exams?
CLEP stands for College Level Examination Program, a collection of College Board exams; many colleges offer course credit or advanced placement for individuals who attain college-determined cut-off scores on a CLEP exam.
CLEP exams are a really nice option for students because you can take them anytime—you can schedule them on your timeline. In contrast, the well-known AP (Advanced Placement) exams are offered on only one day of the entire year. Also, while AP exams usually require that you have taken an AP class with your school, CLEP has no such requirement.
It’s really free?
Modern States’ courses are completely free, but you’ll need to create a free Modern States account in order to access the course materials.
With the free materials From Modern States, you may study what, when, and how you want. Each course also includes quizzes and other tools to check your understanding of the materials presented. Check out the Bridges Resource Library CLEP Preparation Courses Available from Modern States entry, or download our full list of courses Modern States offers.
What about the CLEP exam fee?
Modern States even helps out with the fees you must pay the College Board to take the CLEP exam. The Modern States CLEP Voucher Program provides CLEP vouchers to individuals who complete a Modern States CLEP preparation course with a score of at least 75%. Thus, you can if your college it is possible to get college credit at no cost to you!
What about accessibility?
We have found the Modern States website to be accessible. We tested it with both JAWS and iOS (on an iPhone). While the computer interface is a bit easier to use, the site was quite accessible on the iPhone as well.
For instruction, Modern States predominantly uses videos. While it does not appear that audio description has been built into the instructional videos, the presenters do a pretty good job of verbalizing graphics on the videos. Additionally, the modules have a transcript of the video, the slides used in the video (though there are some undescribed graphics on those slides), and a summary of each video.
While these tools are not as accessible as we’d like to see, they are a great start. You might even want to share this resource with your classroom teacher or TVI so that they can help overcome the lingering areas of inaccessibility in the course materials.
Also, please reach out to us at the Free Bridges Helpdesk with any questions or concerns. We are eager to hear from you and to help in any way we can!
Contact the Bridges Helpdesk for More Information
- Our Accessible web form
- Email: Helpdesk@imagemd.org
- Text: Send to: (410) 357-1546
- Voice mail: Call (410) 357-1546, leave a voice mail message, and we will return your call
This unique project is being coordinated through The IMAGE Center of Maryland, a center for independent living in Towson, and it is funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Education Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services.