CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics Exam Prep Course
Full course with 500+ practice questions and a practice exam
Self-paced prep for the CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics exam. 8 chapters covering all 7 content areas the exam tests, with a quiz after every subchapter. 80 questions, 90 minutes. A score of 50 earns 3 transferable college credits.
- Backup ACE/NCCRS credit path — earn the credit even if you don't pass
- Lifetime access — no deadlines, no expiry, study at your own pace
- Credits accepted at 2,900+ U.S. colleges
Pricing
$19 for this course with lifetime access, or $29 a month for all 28 CLEP subjects. Every plan also unlocks the ACE/NCCRS course in the same subject.
- All 8 chapters and 82 lessons
- Five-question quiz after every subchapter
- Readiness score tracker
- Every AD/AS and money-market graph, worked
- Lifetime access, no expiry
- All 28 CLEP prep courses
- Every chapter, lesson and quiz
- Readiness tracker per subject
- Backup ACE/NCCRS credit path
- Cancel or pause anytime
- Lifetime access to all 28 subjects
- All current and future courses
- 12-month ACE/NCCRS backup path
- Pay once, never renew
What are ACE and NCCRS?
Two independent bodies that review online courses and recommend them for college credit. The American Council on Education (ACE) and the National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS) put courses through faculty panels that assess rigor and learning outcomes, then publish a credit recommendation. When you complete one, the credentialing body issues an official transcript you send to your college — the same kind of transfer credit a student moving from another university would bring with them.
- Reviewed by faculty panels, not by the course provider
- Official transcript issued on completion
- Recognized at 2,100+ colleges, many of which also take CLEP and DSST
Both routes, one plan
Buying CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics prep also opens the ACE/NCCRS course in the same subject — Macroeconomics — at no extra cost. So exam day isn't the only way through. If the score doesn't land, the course is already sitting in your account: complete it self-paced, no proctor and no 90-minute timer, and earn the three credits through coursework instead.
- Same subject, same 3 semester hours, different path
- Unlocked automatically — no extra fee, no application
- CLEP can still be retaken after three months
Each college sets its own transfer policy, so confirm yours accepts the route you plan to use.
Check your college's policy before you buy. We keep 280+ school pages listing accepted exams, required scores and credits awarded.
Check your collegeCLEP Principles of Macroeconomics exam format and topics
The exam covers a one-semester undergraduate macroeconomics course across 7 content areas, with particular emphasis on aggregate demand and supply and on the monetary and fiscal policy tools used to reach policy goals. About 80 questions in 90 minutes, some of them unscored pretest items. Pass mark is 50.
| Content area | Weighting | Questions | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inflation, Unemployment and Stabilization Policies | 20–25% | ≈16–20 | Fiscal and monetary policy; demand-side and supply-side effects; policy mix; deficits and debt; the short- and long-run Phillips curve; the role of expectations |
| National Income and Price Determination | 15–20% | ≈12–16 | Aggregate demand and supply; multiplier and crowding-out effects; sticky versus flexible prices; macroeconomic equilibrium; the business cycle |
| Financial Sector | 15–20% | ≈12–16 | Money, stocks and bonds; time value of money; money supply measures; how banks create money; money and loanable funds markets; central bank tools; real versus nominal interest rates |
| Measurement of Economic Performance | 12–16% | ≈9–13 | National income accounts; circular flow; GDP and its components; real versus nominal values; price indices; inflation; types and measurement of unemployment |
| Basic Economic Concepts | 12–15% | ≈9–12 | Scarcity and opportunity cost; production possibilities; comparative advantage and trade; supply, demand and equilibrium; price controls |
| Economic Growth and Productivity | 5–10% | ≈4–8 | Measuring growth; investment in human and physical capital; research, development and technological progress; growth policy |
| Open Economy: International Finance | 5–10% | ≈4–8 | Balance of payments; current and financial accounts; foreign exchange markets; appreciation and depreciation; exchange rate policy; net exports and capital flows |
| 7 content areas | 100% | ≈80 | 90 minutes · multiple choice · score 50 for an ACE recommendation of 3 semester hours |
How hard is the exam?
Macroeconomics rewards understanding models rather than memorizing terms. Many questions describe a shock — a tax cut, a rise in oil prices, an open-market purchase — and ask what happens to output, prices or interest rates. If you can shift AD/AS and money-market curves confidently, the policy questions follow. With 80 questions in 90 minutes, you have time to sketch a graph.
- Start with stabilization policy — the largest area at 20–25%
- AD/AS and the financial sector are 15–20% each
- Sketch the graph for every shock question
Exam fee and booking
Register with College Board for $97. Test centers may add an administration fee. You can test at a center or remotely with a proctor, year-round. Scores are reported immediately for multiple-choice exams, and you send them to your college yourself.
- Passing score 50, for 3 semester hours
- Retake permitted after three months
- Free for active-duty military via DANTES
Policy questions often chain several steps: a Fed action changes interest rates, which changes investment, which shifts aggregate demand. Practice tracing each step.
Check your collegeCourse chapters and lessons
8 chapters across 60 instructional hours. Expand any chapter to see the lessons inside it.
Chapter 1 Introduction to Economics and Macroeconomic Perspectives
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1.1 Measuring the Size of the Economy: Gross Domestic Product
How GDP measures the size of the economy, converting nominal values to real, tracking growth over time, comparing countries, and what GDP misses — the measurement area, 12–16% of the exam.
- 1.2 Adjusting Nominal Values to Real Values
- 1.3 Tracking Real GDP over Time
- 1.4 Comparing GDP among Countries
- 1.5 How Well GDP Measures the Well-Being of Society
Chapter 2 Economic Growth and Unemployment
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2.1 The Relatively Recent Arrival of Economic Growth
Why sustained growth is recent, productivity and its components, convergence, and how unemployment is defined, measured and explained in the short and long run.
- 2.2 Labor Productivity and Economic Growth
- 2.3 Components of Economic Growth
- 2.4 Economic Convergence
- 2.5 Introduction to Unemployment
- 2.6 How Economists Define and Compute the Unemployment Rate
- 2.7 Patterns of Unemployment
- 2.8 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Short Run
- 2.9 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run
Chapter 3 Inflation and International Trade and Capital Flows
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3.1 Tracking Inflation
Measuring inflation and the cost of living, indexing, and the balance of trade, capital flows and the national saving and investment identity.
- 3.2 How to Measure Changes in the Cost of Living
- 3.3 How the U.S. and Other Countries Experience Inflation
- 3.4 The Confusion Over Inflation
- 3.5 Indexing and Its Limitations
- 3.6 Introduction to the International Trade and Capital Flows
- 3.7 Measuring Trade Balances
- 3.8 Trade Balances in Historical and International Context
- 3.9 Trade Balances and Flows of Financial Capital
- 3.10 The National Saving and Investment Identity
- 3.11 The Pros and Cons of Trade Deficits and Surpluses
- 3.12 The Difference between Level of Trade and the Trade Balance
Chapter 4 The Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply Model and Macroeconomic Perspectives
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4.1 Macroeconomic Perspectives on Demand and Supply
The AD/AS model, shifts in aggregate demand and supply, Keynesian and neoclassical perspectives, and the Phillips curve — the heart of national income and price determination.
- 4.2 Building a Model of Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
- 4.3 Shifts in Aggregate Supply
- 4.4 Shifts in Aggregate Demand
- 4.5 How the AD/AS Model Incorporates Growth, Unemployment, and Inflation
- 4.6 Keynes’ Law and Say’s Law in the AD/AS Model
- 4.7 Introduction to the Keynesian Perspective
- 4.8 Aggregate Demand in Keynesian Analysis
- 4.9 The Building Blocks of Keynesian Analysis
- 4.10 The Phillips Curve
- 4.11 Introduction to the Neoclassical Perspective
- 4.12 The Building Blocks of Neoclassical Analysis
- 4.13 The Policy Implications of the Neoclassical Perspective
- 4.14 Balancing Keynesian and Neoclassical Models
Chapter 5 Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
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5.1 Defining Money by Its Functions
What money is, M1 and M2, how banks create money, the Federal Reserve, and how monetary policy works and where it goes wrong — the financial sector, 15–20% of the exam.
- 5.2 Measuring Money: Currency, M1, and M2
- 5.3 The Role of Banks
- 5.4 How Banks Create Money
- 5.5 Introduction to Monetary Policy and Bank Regulation
- 5.6 The Federal Reserve Banking System and Central Banks
- 5.7 Bank Regulation
- 5.8 How a Central Bank Executes Monetary Policy
- 5.9 Monetary Policy and Economic Outcomes
- 5.10 Pitfalls for Monetary Policy
Chapter 6 Exchange Rates, International Capital Flows, and Government Budgets
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6.1 How the Foreign Exchange Market Works
The foreign exchange market and exchange rate policy, then government spending, taxes, deficits, automatic stabilizers and discretionary fiscal policy.
- 6.2 Demand and Supply Shifts in Foreign Exchange Markets
- 6.3 Macroeconomic Effects of Exchange Rates
- 6.4 Exchange Rate Policies
- 6.5 Introduction to Government Budgets and Fiscal Policy
- 6.6 Government Spending
- 6.7 Taxation
- 6.8 Federal Deficits and the National Debt
- 6.9 Using Fiscal Policy to Fight Recession, Unemployment, and Inflation
- 6.10 Automatic Stabilizers
- 6.11 Practical Problems with Discretionary Fiscal Policy
- 6.12 The Question of a Balanced Budget
Chapter 7 Government Borrowing, Macroeconomic Policy, and Globalization
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7.1 How Government Borrowing Affects Investment and the Trade Balance
How government borrowing affects investment and trade, macroeconomic policy around the world, and comparative advantage and the gains from trade.
- 7.2 Fiscal Policy and the Trade Balance
- 7.3 How Government Borrowing Affects Private Saving
- 7.4 Fiscal Policy, Investment, and Economic Growth
- 7.5 Introduction to Macroeconomic Policy around the World
- 7.6 The Diversity of Countries and Economies across the World
- 7.7 Improving Countries’ Standards of Living
- 7.8 Causes of Unemployment around the World
- 7.9 Causes of Inflation in Various Countries and Regions
- 7.10 Balance of Trade Concerns
- 7.11 Introduction to International Trade
- 7.12 Absolute and Comparative Advantage
- 7.13 What Happens When a Country Has an Absolute Advantage in All Goods
- 7.14 Intra-Industry Trade between Similar Economies
- 7.15 The Benefits of Reducing Barriers to International Trade
Chapter 8 Globalization, Protectionism, and Advanced Economic Models
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8.1 Protectionism: An Indirect Subsidy from Consumers to Producers
Protectionism and its costs, trade's effect on jobs and wages, the arguments for restricting imports, and how trade policy is made.
- 8.2 International Trade and Its Effects on Jobs, Wages, and Working Conditions
- 8.3 Arguments in Support of Restricting Imports
- 8.4 How Governments Enact Trade Policy: Globally, Regionally, and Nationally
- 8.5 The Tradeoffs of Trade Policy
Practice exam Practice final exam
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Practice final exam — 100 multiple-choice questions
A full-length practice final that mirrors the exam's content areas and question style. Your score feeds the readiness tracker, so you know when you're ready to book the real exam.
These chapters make up the CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics exam prep class. They cover every content area on the official exam outline, and some topics go further than the exam requires.
Take the CLEP exam for the fastest route to 3 credits. If it doesn't go your way, your plan also includes a backup course that earns the credit through coursework.
See pricingColleges that accept CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics
CLEP is recognized at more than 2,900 U.S. colleges, but each one sets its own minimum score and decides how many credit hours to award. Check yours before you book the exam.
Browse college credit policies
Policies change. Every college page lists the date the policy was checked, and we recommend confirming minimum scores and credit awards with the Registrar before you schedule an exam. TransferCredit.org is an independent education service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the institutions listed.
Practice tests and study guides
Five questions in the style of the CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics exam, drawn from the chapters above. No sign-up needed — see where you stand before you buy.