Back in 2010, College Board retired three exams: the English Composition CLEP, the English Composition with Essay CLEP, and the Freshman College Composition CLEP. In their place, they introduced two new exams—College Composition CLEP (which includes essays) and College Composition Modular CLEP (which does not). If I had to guess why they made the change, it’s probably because of the overlap. The Freshman College Composition CLEP covered a lot of the same ground as the older English Composition exams, and it was rare to find a school that awarded credit for both. Starting fresh likely made things a lot cleaner for everyone. The good news is the core material hasn’t really changed much. This exam still tests your grasp of sentence structure, your ability to revise and improve clarity, and your understanding of how to use source materials correctly. For the sentence structure portion, the College Composition Modular CLEP focuses on how sentences and paragraphs are constructed—not why. For example, you might see something like: "Bob and Mary, went to the mall because he wanted to buy shoes but didn't have enough money so they play video games instead." You’ll be given several choices that correct punctuation and fix syntax errors. Your job is to pick the one that makes the sentence work. If you’ve ever taken a test where you correct grammar and sentence flow, this will feel familiar. You’ll be tackling issues like sentence boundaries, active vs. passive voice, diction and idiom, clarity, and verb tense. And here’s the key part: you won’t just define these terms—you’ll be expected to apply them. Knowing the “what” is great, but knowing the “how” is essential. In short, the non-essay version of this exam asks you to improve someone else's writing, not your own. If you read regularly, many of the mistakes will stand out. If not, a little extra review time will go a long way. The study guide below is set up a bit differently than the normal ones here on the site. Instead of summaries, I've given you some lessons on each subcategory topic. At the bottom of each lesson, there will be a few practice questions, followed by the usual chapter quizzes and a free practice test, as you'd expect. Hope they help!