Frequently Asked Questions

The CLT is our flagship test, designed for high school juniors and seniors preparing to apply for college. It is an alternative to the SAT and ACT. Over 200 colleges that accept the CLT offer academic scholarships to high-scoring students. Go here to learn more and register for the CLT.

The CLT10 is an alternative to the PSAT and the ACT Aspire, and serves as preparation for the CLT or any college entrance exam. Sophomore students who take the CLT10 may be eligible for our CLT10 awards, including the National Award, worth $2,500. Go here to learn more and register for the CLT10.

The CLT8 is designed for 7th and 8th grade students. Its format is the same as the CLT and CLT10, and helps students prepare for these tests. Go here to learn more and register for the CLT8. Students often take this test as an end-of-year assessment.

The CLT costs $59, the CLT10 costs $49, the CLT8 costs $39, and CLT3-6 each cost $39. All test fees include comprehensive Student Analytics. Unlimited score shares are also included with the CLT and CLT10.

CLT exams are open to every student, regardless of educational background.

The ‘classic’ in Classic Learning Test refers to its use of the greatest and most enduring texts that have informed and shaped society. Although these texts are featured prominently in a classical education, CLT exams instead emphasize intellectual aptitude and achievement which is not limited to classical curricula.

The CLT is open to students of all ages, including those who have taken gap years. Please fill out your Student Profile with your correct graduation year (even if it was several years ago) and the GPA you had upon graduation when registering.

International students are welcome to take the CLT. They do not need to pay a separate fee to take the exam. All publicly available testing dates are available to them.

CLT is not religiously or politically affiliated. What differentiates CLT from other standardized tests is that the CLT does not censor reading passages from different viewpoints and includes content on a variety of topics, including philosophy, religion, literature, history, science, and more. The majority of these passages are drawn from classic literature and historical texts that have had a lasting influence on Western culture and society.

Students do not need a prior knowledge of these texts to succeed on the CLT; instead, what is assessed is a student’s ability to read, comprehend, and analyze a text. Students who take the CLT will read atheist as well as religious authors, Karl Marx as well as Adam Smith, Aristotle as well as Mahatma Gandhi. These are the texts that students are likely to encounter throughout high school and college, and by the end of high school, students should be able to read texts that they agree or disagree with and glean information from them.

Registration is made through an online account. Registrants choose the date they prefer, fill out a brief student profile, and pay online to complete their registration.

Our step-by-step guide:

1. Go to the account registration page to create an account or sign in to an existing account.
2. Once you are logged in, select ‘Register for a Test’ and select the test type you would like.
3. Select a test date from the drop-down menu and click ‘Register for Selected Test Date.’
4. Complete your student profile, or skip ahead to payment and complete it later.
5. Make your payment with our secure online portal.

We’ve also created a short video tutorial to walk you through the process.

You’re all set!

 We offer financial assistance up to the full cost of a test for qualifying students. Please fill out our Financial Assistance Request Form so that we can help.

Each student taking the CLT must have their own account and must be registered individually under a unique email address. 

Once you’ve registered for a test, you may edit your registration on your student dashboard until the registration deadline. When editing, you may cancel or move your test date to a new date.

If you cancel your registration before the deadline, you are eligible for a refund.  Please fill out this form to request a refund.

Once the registration deadline has passed, registrations cannot be edited. If the registration deadline has passed and you would like to transfer your registration, please complete this form.

Please note that we are unable to provide refunds for tests canceled after the registration deadline.

While we cannot issue a refund for a missed test day, we may be able to transfer your registration to a new date at no cost. Please fill out this form within 10 business days of test day to reschedule your exam.

All students are welcome to take the CLT, whether for self-evaluation or to send results to colleges.

Yes. Testing accommodations are individualized and considered on a case-by-case basis for the CLT and CLT10 examinations. Regardless of diagnosis, all individuals seeking disability-related accommodations must provide evidence that their condition rises to the level of a disability and provide information about functional limitations in areas central to daily life. Accommodations for the CLT10 and CLT must be submitted to CLT for approval at least four weeks prior to the test administration date.

It is no longer necessary to submit requests for accommodations for the CLT8 exam. It is the responsibility of schools, co-ops, and homeschool parents to provide accommodations for the CLT8 that reflect what the student requires in normal classroom settings. Accommodations for the CLT10 and CLT must be submitted to CLT for approval, even if a student has been granted accommodations for the CLT8 in prior academic years.

Questions? Find out more – including our documentation guidelines – on our testing accommodations page or email cltaccommodations@cltexam.com.

Our most commonly granted accommodations are extended time (25%, 50%, and 100% extended time) and accommodations for students with Type 1 Diabetes. Other, more specific, accommodations may be requested in our Accommodations Request Form.

Reapplications are not necessary once a student has been approved for testing accommodations on the CLT or CLT10. If you have previously been granted testing accommodations for the CLT8 and would like to receive them for the CLT or CLT10, please apply for testing accommodations for the CLT or CLT10 you will be taking.

No. Your accommodations status will never be shared with a college or university and will be kept confidential in order to maintain your privacy.

CLT exams are currently offered only in English, in Roman and braille scripts.

For in-school tests, the testing site will provide a proctor for the exam. Proctors are vetted and approved by CLT and the testing site.

The CLT10 and CLT8 may be taken at home with a parent or another responsible adult as the proctor.

The remotely proctored CLT is proctored through a combination of technology and video/screen recording. Students do not need an adult proctor for the remotely proctored CLT because they must remain alone for the duration of the exam.

The CLT is taken at home on remotely proctored test dates. Please refer to the remote proctoring page for details of the requirements. The CLT8 and CLT10 can be administered at home with a responsible adult, including family members, serving as the proctor.

For the at-home CLT8 and CLT10, students will use their own laptop or tablet.

For the remotely-proctored CLT exam, students will furnish their own computer. Please note that tablets are not currently supported for the CLT remotely-proctored test.

For in-school tests, please check with your school.

The CLT does not allow calculators. The Quantitative Reasoning section is designed to test for logical reasoning abilities, rather than the performance of complex calculations, so calculators are unnecessary.

The CLT and CLT10 tests take 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete, 2 hours of which is testing time.

The test begins with about 20 minutes of instructions and pre-test preparation. Students will then have: 40 minutes to complete the Verbal Reasoning section; 35 minutes for the Grammar/Writing section; and 45 minutes for the Quantitative Reasoning section, for a total test time of 120 minutes (2 hours).

Students taking the CLT in school who choose to write the optional essay will receive an additional 30 minutes to do so.

The CLT8 test takes a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes of testing time. The CLT8 section times are as follows: 45 minutes for Verbal Reasoning, 40 minutes for Grammar/Writing, and 50 minutes for Quantitative Reasoning.

Extended time may be offered as part of approved testing accommodations.

Optionally, students may compose an essay, based on a prompt provided by the CLT, to send to colleges along with their CLT score. Students who choose to write an essay will receive 30 additional minutes to do so. The essay does not affect their numerical score on the exam.

Currently, the essay is not available on the remotely proctored exam.

No. CLT scores are calculated from the cumulative number of correct answers; it benefits students to choose an answer for every question.

In-school testers taking the CLT must remain for the full test, per in-person proctoring requirements, even if they finish the test early.

At-home testers (remotely-proctored CLT and at-home CLT8s and CLT10s) may finish a section early if they’ve completed it before the allotted time has elapsed. Students may not return to an earlier portion of the exam if they finish a section early. 

CLT uses a number system called a scaled score with a scale that ranges from 0 to 120. Each of three sections (Verbal Reasoning, Grammar/Writing, and Quantitative Reasoning) are scored out of 40.

Please visit our CLT vs. SAT and CLT vs. ACT pages for more information about score concordances.

Students and/or school administrators will be notified of the score release date for their particular exam. Scores can be found through students’ CLT accounts.

CLT8 and CLT10 scores, and In-school-only CLT scores are available on the Tuesday following the exam administration.

Remotely proctored CLT scores, due to additional layers of review, are available on the second Tuesday after the administration.

A perfect 1520 on the PSAT approximately equates with a 120 on the CLT10. However, the CLT10 evaluates slightly different capabilities from the PSAT. For a comprehensive review of how the CLT10 compares to the PSAT, go here.

We have an open retake policy. Students are welcome to register for any available date, whether to boost their college applications or for self-evaluation.

Though the CLT is not accepted by all colleges, over 250 hundred colleges partner with CLT, accepting the exam as a complete replacement of the ACT or SAT. Additionally, with many colleges going test-optional, even colleges who do not partner with CLT will accept CLT scores. Sharing your scores is a great way to strengthen your application and student profile even if they are not required.

CLT Partner Colleges tend to be private, liberal arts, or faith-based colleges which share our mission to reconnect knowledge and virtue in the classroom.

Once scores are released, students may send their CLT scores to any college they wish via their student accounts. CLT does not share scores unless a student requests that they be shared. Watch this short tutorial video to learn how to share your scores.

For a list of colleges and universities that have partnered with CLT, go here.

If you’re interested in applying to a college that isn’t currently a CLT Partner, don’t be discouraged. You can still use CLT to your advantage and ask colleges to consider your test scores! Call the college or university of interest and ask to speak with an admissions representative. Explain what CLT is, why you want to use CLT in the admissions process, and why they should consider your scores. You can share that the CLT best reflects your education and demonstrates your academic excellence. This is a great way to connect with a college and to help CLT gain wider recognition. There have been many cases where these kinds of conversations have led to a new CLT college partnership.

If you are planning on attending a CLT Partner College, sending CLT scores to those colleges demonstrates that you are a student who is well-prepared for their academics. Our Partner Colleges have noted that CLT students do very well in their classes, so these colleges respond with excited interest and generous scholarships to CLT scores.

Even if you are not planning to attend a CLT Partner College, the Student Analytics that accompany each test give invaluable insight into your education, highlighting your strengths and areas for improvement.