Exam Facts for 2026

Exam Facts for 2026

Quick Answer: College Board administers CLEP History of the United States II: 1865 to the Present as a computer-based, multiple-choice exam of approximately 120 questions in 90 minutes. Some items are unscored pretest questions. Scaled scores run 20–80. The American Council on Education (ACE) recommends a credit-granting score of 50 for 3 semester hours, but each college sets its own policy. The College Board exam fee is $97, plus either a test-center administration fee that varies by site or a $30 remote-proctoring fee. Eligible military candidates may be funded by DANTES.

This exam exists to certify second-semester college U.S. history knowledge without requiring you to sit the campus course. College Board states that the content is usually taught in the second semester of a two-semester United States history course, and that the majority of the questions concern the 20th century. That logistics sentence should change how you budget hours. A candidate who treats Reconstruction as “half the test” because the textbook chapter is long will walk into a form that is weighted toward later decades.

OpenExamPrep publishes independent study material for exam ID clep-history-us-2. It is not a College Board publication and not an ACE publication. Use official College Board pages for registration, fees, and score sending; use your target college's catalog for credit rules.

What this exam is — and what it is not

CLEP (College-Level Examination Program) is credit-by-examination. A participating college may post credit when your scaled score meets that college's published threshold. ACE's 50 / 3-semester-hour recommendation is advisory. Registrars decide whether they accept this title, which course number it replaces, whether the credit counts toward a major or only as elective hours, and how many total CLEP hours they will post. A 50 that earns U.S. History II credit on one campus can be unused—or accepted only as elective—on another. Read the policy, including any higher local cut score, before you pay.

The national exam has no essay. College Board's scoring pages list faculty-scored essays only for College Composition and Spanish with Writing. History of the United States II is scored by computer. A college might later ask you for a local writing sample for placement or advising; that extra assignment is not part of the CLEP exam itself.

Official College Board sample questions for this title instruct candidates that each item is followed by five suggested answers. The teaching quizzes in this guide use four options. Do not let that format difference surprise you on test day. Sample items are published as format and difficulty indicators; College Board states they are not live exam questions and are not presented exactly as they will appear on the test.

Format, timing, and pretest items

Treat the published approximately 120 figure as a working count, not a guaranteed live item inventory. College Board also states that some questions are pretest items that will not be scored. It does not publish how many pretest items appear, and you cannot identify them in the software. Do not invent a “scored item” number, and do not convert a scaled 50 into “you need 60 of 120.” Equating converts a rights-only raw score (correct answers among scored items) onto the 20–80 scale and adjusts for form difficulty.

If you use 120 questions and 90 minutes as the planning numbers College Board publishes, you have about 45 seconds per question. That pace is tight for stimulus-based items (cartoons, excerpts, charts). Practice moving on when an item is stuck, then returning if time remains.

Rights-only scoring: you receive one raw point for each correct scored answer. Points are not deducted for wrong or skipped answers. College Board tells candidates to attempt every question. A blank and a wrong guess have the same raw-score effect; a thoughtful guess can still be right.

Scoring, credit, transcripts, and cancellation

The number on your score report is the scaled score, not the raw number correct and not a percentage. ACE recommends that colleges grant credit at 50, described as comparable to a C in the equivalent course, for 3 semester hours. Standard-setting panels of college faculty estimate C-level performance; the approved cut is then equated to scaled 50. Different CLEP subjects are not interchangeable: a 62 on this exam is not “the same” as a 62 on Calculus.

For multiple-choice exams, College Board states that scores appear onscreen immediately at a test center (administrators print a report) and in the My CLEP portal within 24 hours. Scores for exams taken on or after July 1, 2022, remain available for 10 years from the test date. You may designate a score-recipient college at registration at no extra transcript fee. Additional official transcripts after testing cost $20 per institution. College Board lists a $30 Parchment fee for military/DANTES transcript orders. Transcripts once ordered cannot be canceled or refunded.

You may cancel a score before you view the instant report. After you see the report, cancellation is closed. Canceled scores cannot be reinstated, do not appear on the portal Scores page, and still start the three-month retake clock.

Fees, registration, and DANTES

Register and pay the $97 College Board exam fee in My CLEP, then schedule separately. Test centers operate independently: they set administration fees and appointment calendars. Remote proctoring keeps the same $97 exam fee and adds College Board's $30 remote-proctoring fee for self-funded testers and testers using vouchers (the voucher covers the exam fee, not automatically the remote fee). For DANTES-funded test takers, checkout can show $0.00 when the benefit covers the attempt, including the remote fee on a funded first attempt.

DANTES funds one attempt per exam title for eligible examinees. A retake of the same title is self-paid after the three-month wait, using public/civilian registration procedures. On-base and some fully funded centers waive administration fees for funded testers; off-base “exam fee only” centers may still collect a local administration fee. Confirm the live DANTES eligibility chart rather than assuming every uniform or spouse status is funded.

Who can test, remote-proctoring limits, and the retake trap

College Board states that everyone is welcome at a CLEP test center, including high school students, college students, adult learners, military service members and veterans, and professionals. Remote proctoring is narrower:

• Age 13 or older, except Illinois residents must be 18 or older
• Located in the United States excluding territories, or DANTES-funded
• Computer, private-room, and smartphone-camera requirements published for remote proctoring (Proctortrack by Verificient)

If you cannot meet remote rules, use a test center. People involved in creating CLEP preparation materials, and high school teachers involved in CLEP-related instruction or administration, are prohibited from sitting a CLEP exam. Anyone who takes a CLEP exam is barred from those CLEP-related activities for at least one year after the test date.

You may not retake the same exam title within three months of the original test date. If you violate the rule, College Board treats the administration as invalid, cancels the score, and forfeits fees. Canceling a score does not let you test the next week. College Board does not publish a pass rate for this title on the exam page; do not study to an invented percentage.

Test-week traps that cost credit

• Policy first, then payment. A scaled 50 is the ACE recommendation, not a universal “pass.” Some colleges require a higher score or grant only elective credit. Screenshot or print the catalog language before you register.
• Two invoices, not one. The $97 College Board fee is never the whole bill at a test center. Remote testers should expect $97 + $30 unless DANTES checkout shows $0.00.
• Pretest items are invisible. Do not skip later questions because you “already answered 100.” You cannot know which items count.
• Guess. Rights-only scoring means a blank cannot help you and a wrong answer does not subtract.
• Remote is not automatic. Age, Illinois’s 18-year rule, U.S. location excluding territories, a private room, and a second-camera smartphone are hard gates. Test-center seating remains open to the broader “everyone welcome” rule.
• The three-month clock is unforgiving. Same title, three months, reregister. DANTES will not fund the retake of a previously funded title.