The Western Civilization I CLEP is the equivalent of the first half of a two-semester Western Civilization course. It starts with the first cities of Mesopotamia and stops in 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years' War. That is close to 5,000 years in 120 questions, so the exam cannot go far into any one of them. You do NOT need the name of a Roman governor. You need the main points of each era: who held power, what people believed, what changed, and why. College Board splits the exam into 6 periods, and they are not the same size. Medieval History is the largest at 23% to 27%. The Ancient Near East is the smallest at 8% to 10%. Most questions ask you to identify a person, a term, or a cause. The real exam also has questions built on a short passage, a map, or a picture.
| Period | Share of exam | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Medieval History (500 to 1400) | 23% to 27% | The Byzantine Empire and Islam, the Carolingian era, feudalism and manorialism, the medieval Church, the crusades, medieval culture and thought, the growth of towns, feudal monarchies, the late medieval crisis |
| Ancient Greece and Hellenistic Civilization | 15% to 17% | The city-states, Periclean Athens, the wars of the 400s BC, Greek philosophy and culture, Macedon and Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic period |
| Ancient Rome | 15% to 17% | The Roman Republic and Empire, Roman culture and law, the early Church, the Germanic invasions, the fall of the Western Roman Empire |
| Renaissance and Reformation (1400 to 1560) | 13% to 17% | The Italian and Northern Renaissance, humanism, the new monarchies, the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Counter-Reformation |
| Early Modern Europe (1560 to 1648) | 10% to 15% | The Commercial Revolution, Atlantic expansion, dynastic and religious conflicts, the Thirty Years' War |
| Ancient Near East | 8% to 10% | Mesopotamia (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria), Egypt, the Persian Empire, the Hebrews, political and cultural development in the Fertile Crescent |
| Questions | 120 multiple choice |
| Time | 90 minutes |
| Passing score | 50 (some schools require 60) |
| College credits | 3 semester hours (typical) |
| Exam fee | $97 |
| Retake wait after a fail | 90 days |
How do our free questions compare to the real exam?
For five of the six periods, close enough. For the sixth, not at all. Our 20 free questions (10 here, 10 more by email) stop at the Counter-Reformation. There is NOT one question on Early Modern Europe, 1560 to 1648, and that period is 10% to 15% of the real exam. You should know that before you read anything into your score. Here is the count for our 20 free questions against the real weights.
| Period | Share of real exam | Our 20 free questions |
|---|---|---|
| Medieval History (500 to 1400) | 23% to 27% | 5 of 20 |
| Ancient Greece and Hellenistic Civilization | 15% to 17% | 4 of 20 |
| Ancient Rome | 15% to 17% | 4 of 20 |
| Renaissance and Reformation (1400 to 1560) | 13% to 17% | 4 of 20 |
| Early Modern Europe (1560 to 1648) | 10% to 15% | 0 of 20 |
| Ancient Near East | 8% to 10% | 3 of 20 |
TIP: Early Modern Europe, 1560 to 1648, is 10% to 15% of the real exam. That is 12 to 18 of the 120 questions, and our free questions have NOTHING on it. No Commercial Revolution, no Atlantic expansion, no wars of religion, no Thirty Years' War. Because that period gets zero, the other five all run a little high. The Ancient Near East is 3 of our 20, which is 15%, against 8% to 10% of the real exam. Medieval History is the closest match at 5 of our 20, or 25%, against 23% to 27%. Even there, look at what the 5 are about: kings, popes, a treaty, a charter, and a conquest. There is nothing on feudalism, manorialism, Islam, the crusades, or the plague. The Greece questions skip philosophy and Athenian democracy. The Rome questions skip the fall of the Republic. The Renaissance and Reformation questions skip art, Calvin, and the English Reformation. One more gap. Every one of our questions asks you to fill in a name or a term. The real exam also has questions built on a short passage, a map, or a picture. A good score here tells you the big names are in decent shape. It does not tell you how you would do on a period we never asked about.
Where should I spend my time studying?
Five things, based on the College Board weights and what we tell every student on our study guide page:
- Start with the Middle Ages. Medieval History is the largest piece of the exam at 23% to 27%, which is about 28 to 32 of the 120 questions, and it is the period most people know least. It runs 900 years, from the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Islam through feudalism, the crusades, and the growth of towns to the plague. Our free questions give you 5 on it, and all 5 are about rulers and the Church.
- Learn 1560 to 1648 from somewhere else first, because we gave you nothing on it. Early Modern Europe is 12 to 18 questions on the real exam. Know the Commercial Revolution, Atlantic expansion, the wars of religion, and the Thirty Years' War, which ends with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. That date is where this exam stops.
- Do not shortchange Greece and Rome. Together they are 30% to 34% of the exam, or about 36 to 40 questions, which is more than the Middle Ages. Know why Athens and Sparta went to war, what Alexander left behind, how the Roman Republic turned into the Empire, and why the Western Empire fell.
- Build a timeline before you drill. This exam covers close to 5,000 years and it expects you to know what came before what. You do not need exact dates for most of it. You DO need the century, and you need to know which empire, church, or king a name belongs to. One page with the 6 periods and 5 or 6 events in each is enough to hang the rest on.
- Study the main points of each era, NOT the trivia. The exam asks why something happened and what it led to far more often than it asks for an obscure name. When you miss a question, read the whole explanation and not just the right answer. The explanation is where the cause and the result are.
For the full topic breakdown and pass-rate history, see the Western Civilization I CLEP study guide page.