CLEP Principles of Microeconomics Exam Prep Course
Full course with 400+ practice questions and a practice exam
Self-paced prep for the CLEP Principles of Microeconomics exam. 12 chapters covering every content area 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 12 chapters and 61 lessons
- Five-question quiz after every subchapter
- Readiness score tracker
- Every cost curve and market structure, 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 Microeconomics prep also opens the ACE/NCCRS course in the same subject — Microeconomics — 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 Microeconomics exam format and topics
The exam covers a one-semester undergraduate microeconomics course. Product markets — how consumers and firms behave and how market structure shapes prices and output — make up 55–70% of the questions. About 80 questions in 90 minutes, some of them unscored pretest items. Pass mark is 50.
| Content area | Weighting | Questions | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm Behavior and Market Structure | 23–33% | ≈18–27 | Accounting versus economic profit; MR = MC; perfect competition and the shut-down decision; monopoly and price discrimination; oligopoly, game theory and Nash equilibrium; monopolistic competition |
| Supply and Demand | 15–20% | ≈12–16 | Equilibrium and its determinants; price and quantity controls; price, income and cross-price elasticity; consumer and producer surplus; tax incidence and deadweight loss |
| Production and Costs | 10–15% | ≈8–12 | Short- and long-run production; marginal product and diminishing returns; fixed, variable, average, marginal and total cost; economies of scale |
| Basic Economic Concepts | 10–16% | ≈8–13 | Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost; production possibilities; comparative advantage and trade; economic systems; property rights and incentives; marginal analysis |
| Market Failure and the Role of Government | 8–14% | ≈6–12 | Positive and negative externalities and their remedies; public goods and the free-rider problem; antitrust and regulation; income inequality, the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient |
| Factor Markets | 6–12% | ≈4–10 | Derived factor demand; marginal revenue product; the labor market and firms' hiring decisions |
| Theory of Consumer Choice | 5–10% | ≈4–8 | Total and marginal utility; utility maximization; individual and market demand; income and substitution effects |
| 7 content areas | 100% | ≈80 | 90 minutes · multiple choice · score 50 for an ACE recommendation of 3 semester hours |
College Board groups supply and demand, consumer choice, production and costs, and firm behavior into one area, The Nature and Functions of Product Markets, worth 55–70% of the exam.
How hard is the exam?
Most of the exam is about how firms decide output and price. If you know the cost curves and can apply MR = MC to perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly, you've covered the largest area. Expect to read graphs and payoff matrices, and to reason at the margin. With 80 questions in 90 minutes, you have time to sketch.
- Start with firm behavior and market structure — up to a third of the exam
- Know elasticity and surplus inside out
- Learn the cost curves before the market structures
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
Nearly every market-structure question comes back to one rule: produce where marginal revenue equals marginal cost. Practice finding it on each graph.
Check your collegeCourse chapters and lessons
12 chapters across 61 instructional hours. Expand any chapter to see the lessons inside it.
Chapter 1 Welcome to Economics!
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1.1 What is Economics and Why is it Important?
What economics studies, the difference between micro and macro, how economists use models, and the main types of economic systems.
- 1.2 Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
- 1.3 How Economists Use Theories and Models to Understand Economic Issues
- 1.4 How To Organize Economies: An Overview of Economic Systems
Chapter 2 Choice in a World of Scarcity
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2.1 How Individuals Make Choices Based on Their Budget Constraint
Budget constraints, opportunity cost, the production possibilities frontier, and the objections people raise to economic thinking.
- 2.2 The Production Possibilities Frontier and Social Choices
- 2.3 Confronting Objections to the Economic Approach
Chapter 3 Demand and Supply
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3.1 Demand, Supply, and Equilibrium in Markets for Goods and Services
Demand, supply and equilibrium, what shifts each curve, the four-step process for analyzing change, price ceilings and floors, and market efficiency.
- 3.2 Shifts in Demand and Supply for Goods and Services
- 3.3 Changes in Equilibrium Price and Quantity: The Four-Step Process
- 3.4 Price Ceilings and Price Floors
- 3.5 Demand, Supply, and Efficiency
Chapter 4 Elasticity
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4.1 Price Elasticity of Demand and Price Elasticity of Supply
Price elasticity of demand and supply, the special cases, how elasticity affects pricing and revenue, and income and cross-price elasticity.
- 4.2 Polar Cases of Elasticity and Constant Elasticity
- 4.3 Elasticity and Pricing
- 4.4 Elasticity in Areas Other Than Price
Chapter 5 Consumer Choices and Labor and Financial Markets
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5.1 Demand and Supply at Work in Labor Markets
Supply and demand in labor and financial markets, how consumers maximize utility, income and substitution effects, and where people act less than rationally.
- 5.2 Demand and Supply in Financial Markets
- 5.3 The Market System as an Efficient Mechanism for Information
- 5.4 Consumption Choices
- 5.5 How Changes in Income and Prices Affect Consumption Choices
- 5.6 How Consumer Choices Might Not Always Be Rational
Chapter 6 Production, Costs, and Industry Structure
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6.1 Explicit and Implicit Costs, and Accounting and Economic Profit
Accounting versus economic profit, production and costs in the short and long run, diminishing returns, and economies of scale — the foundation for every market-structure question.
- 6.2 Production in the Short Run
- 6.3 Costs in the Short Run
- 6.4 Production in the Long Run
- 6.5 Costs in the Long Run
Chapter 7 Market Structures in Economics
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7.1 Perfect Competition and Why It Matters
Perfect competition, entry and exit, monopoly and barriers to entry, monopolistic competition and oligopoly — the largest single area on the exam.
- 7.2 How Perfectly Competitive Firms Make Output Decisions
- 7.3 Entry and Exit Decisions in the Long Run
- 7.4 Efficiency in Perfectly Competitive Markets
- 7.5 Introduction to Monopoly
- 7.6 How Monopolies Form: Barriers to Entry
- 7.7 How a Profit-Maximizing Monopoly Chooses Output and Price
- 7.8 Introduction to Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
- 7.9 Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
Chapter 8 Environmental Protection, Negative Externalities, Positive Externalities, and Public Goods
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8.1 The Economics of Pollution
Pollution as a negative externality, command-and-control versus market-based tools, and the costs and benefits of environmental protection.
- 8.2 Command-and-Control Regulation
- 8.3 Market-Oriented Environmental Tools
- 8.4 The Benefits and Costs of U.S. Environmental Laws
- 8.5 The Tradeoff between Economic Output and Environmental Protection
Chapter 9 Labor Markets and Income
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9.1 The Theory of Labor Markets
Labor demand and marginal revenue product, monopsony, unions, bilateral monopoly, discrimination and immigration — the factor markets area.
- 9.2 Wages and Employment in an Imperfectly Competitive Labor Market
- 9.3 Market Power on the Supply Side of Labor Markets: Unions
- 9.4 Bilateral Monopoly
- 9.5 Employment Discrimination
- 9.6 Immigration
Chapter 10 Information, Risk, and Insurance in Financial Markets
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10.1 The Problem of Imperfect Information and Asymmetric Information
Imperfect and asymmetric information, insurance markets, how businesses raise capital, and how people build wealth.
- 10.2 Insurance and Imperfect Information
- 10.3 Introduction to Financial Markets
- 10.4 How Businesses Raise Financial Capital
- 10.5 How to Accumulate Personal Wealth
Chapter 11 International Trade
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11.1 Absolute and Comparative Advantage
Absolute and comparative advantage, trade between similar economies, and the gains from reducing trade barriers.
- 11.2 What Happens When a Country Has an Absolute Advantage in All Goods
- 11.3 Intra-Industry Trade between Similar Economies
- 11.4 The Benefits of Reducing Barriers to International Trade
Chapter 12 Globalization and Protectionism
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12.1 Protectionism: An Indirect Subsidy from Consumers to Producers
Protectionism and its costs, trade's effects on jobs and wages, the arguments for restricting imports, and how trade policy is made.
- 12.2 International Trade and Its Effects on Jobs, Wages, and Working Conditions
- 12.3 Arguments in Support of Restricting Imports
- 12.4 How Governments Enact Trade Policy: Globally, Regionally, and Nationally
- 12.5 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 Microeconomics 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 Microeconomics
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 Microeconomics exam, drawn from the chapters above. No sign-up needed — see where you stand before you buy.