In an effort to be more efficient with time, I studied the Fairfax County School System’s high school curriculum. 
In examining all of the options for a typical high school student I compared them to available DSST and CLEP tests and found some surprising results.
There is significant overlap between high school classes and undergraduate classes in college. How can we best harness our time? As a high school student, after finals, you can brush up on content with a study guide, and then take the test. While it isn’t the most fun way to spend summer, at the end of your high school career, you can have a fair amount of your first year or two of college done, and can take that gap year or shorten your college costs and experience with zero guilt!
Below is an example of the overlap for a typical high school student, and this is by no means all inclusive:
| Grade | High School Class | Test Equivalent for College | ACE Recommended Credits |
| 9 | Biology | CLEP Biology | 3 |
| 9 | Cybersecurity Fundamentals | CLEP Fundamentals of Cybersecurity | 3 |
| 9 | Principles of Business | DSST Introduction to Business | 3 |
| 10 | Business Law | CLEP Business Law | 3 |
| 10 | Principles of Marketing | Clep Principles of Marketing | 3 |
| 10 | World History | CLEP Western Civilization 1 and 2 (not an exact match, but close) | 6 |
| 11 | US History | CLEP History I and CLEP History II | 6 |
| 11 | Economics and Personal Finance | DSST Personal Finance, CLEP Macroeconomics, CLEP Microeconomics | 9 |
| 11 | Computer Science | DSST Introduction to Computing and Information Technology | 3 |
| 12 | Psychology | CLEP Psychology | 3 |
| 12 | Government | CLEP American Government | 3 |
| 12 | English | DSST English Comp II | 3 |
| 12 | Algebra I and II | CLEP College Algebra | 3 |
The total for the example above is 51 credits, and all you have to do is take your high school finals, maybe order a small study guide and learn the few bits on the test and take it! This approach can save many thousands of dollars and shave your college experience nearly in half.
~The Owl
