Course

Course Summary

Credit Type:

Exam

ACE ID:

CLEP-0030

Organization:

College Board's College-Level Examination Program (CLEP)

Location:

Certified CLEP testing centers throughout the U.S.

Length:

1.5 hours

Dates Offered:

Credit Recommendation & Competencies

Level	Credits (SH)	Subject
Lower-Division Baccalaureate	3	Principles of Microeconomics

Credit is recommended for candidates scoring 50 and above.

Description

Objective:

The Principles of Microeconomics exam covers material that is usually taught in a one-semester undergraduate course in introductory microeconomics, including economic principles that apply to the behavioral analysis of individual consumers and businesses. You will be required to apply analytical techniques to hypothetical as well as real-world situations and to analyze and evaluate economic decisions. You're expected to demonstrate an understanding of how free markets work and allocate resources efficiently, how individual consumers make economic decisions to maximize utility, and how individual firms make decisions to maximize profits. You must be able to identify the characteristics of the different market structures and analyze the behavior of firms in terms of price and output decisions. You should also be able to evaluate the outcome in each market structure with respect to economic efficiency, identify cases in which private markets fail to allocate resources efficiently, and explain how government intervention fixes or fails to fix the resource allocation problem. It is also important to understand the determination of wages and other input prices in factor markets, and be able to analyze and evaluate the distribution of income.

The exam contains approximately 80 questions to be answered in 90 minutes.

Skills Measured:

Questions on the Principles of Microeconomics exam require test takers to demonstrate one or more of the following abilities:
• Understanding of important economic terms and concepts
• Interpretation and manipulation of economic graphs
• Interpretation and evaluation of economic data
• Application of simple economic models

The subject matter of the Principles of Microeconomics exam is drawn from the following topics.

Basic Economic Concepts (10%–16%)
The Nature and Functions of Product Markets (55%–70%)
• 15%–20% Supply and demand
• 5%–10% Theory of consumer choice
• 10%–15% Production and costs
• 23%–33% Firm behavior and market structure
Factor Markets (6%–12%)
Market Failure and the Role of Government (8%–14%)

Instruction & Assessment