A firm starts to demand a bachelor's degree for a clerk's job whose duties have not changed in thirty years. What do sociologists call this reliance on formal qualifications?Wikipedia, "Credentialism and educational inflation". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), educational.
A high school places ninth graders in honors, regular or basic classes for every subject according to their test scores. What is this practice called?Wikipedia, "Tracking (education)". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), educational.
A small congregation keeps apart from the wider society and rejects several of its norms and values. In the sociology of religion, what kind of organization is it?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 17.4 "Types of Religious Organizations". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), religious.
A sociologist argues that physicians have sought control over medical practice partly to raise their incomes, and that people from disadvantaged backgrounds receive worse care. Which perspective is she using?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 18.1 "Understanding Health, Medicine, and Society". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), medical.
Show all 60 questions (56 more)
Institutions, continued
Citizens obey a prime minister because she won office under the country's laws, and they will obey whoever holds the office next. Which of Weber's types of authority is this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 14.1 "Power and Authority". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), political.
Clerical work, health care and teaching belong to which sector of the economy?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 13.1 "Economic Development in Historical Perspective". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), economic.
In one country the government owns the factories, farms and railways and decides what they produce. Which economic system is this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 13.2 "Types of Economic Systems". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), economic.
In one society children belong to their mother's kin group, and kinship is traced through the female line. What is this system of descent called?Wikipedia, "Matrilineality". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), family.
In the societies where polygamy is practiced, which form of it has been much more common?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 15.1 "The Family in Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), family.
Marx called religion the "opiate of the masses." What did he mean?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 17.3 "Sociological Perspectives on Religion". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), religious.
Over a century, heavy drinking comes to be seen less as a moral failing and more as a condition that doctors diagnose and treat. What is this process called?Wikipedia, "Medicalization". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), medical.
Weber thought charismatic authority in its pure form less stable than the other two types. Why?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 14.1 "Power and Authority". College Board outline: Institutions (20%), political.
Social patterns 6
A country counts 20 million people under 15, 60 million aged 15 to 64 and 10 million aged 65 or older. What is its total dependency ratio?Wikipedia, "Dependency ratio". College Board outline: Social Patterns (10%), demography; interpretation of tables and charts.
A country's total fertility rate stays at 1.4 children per woman for decades. Death rates hold steady and net migration is zero. What happens to its population in the long run?Wikipedia, "Total fertility rate". College Board outline: Social Patterns (10%), demography.
In his essay "Urbanism as a Way of Life," Louis Wirth compared city and country residents. What did he say about tolerance?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 19.3 "Urbanization". College Board outline: Social Patterns (10%), rural and urban patterns.
Studies find that people of color and low earners live nearer to hazardous waste sites and polluted air than other groups. What do environmental sociologists call this pattern?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 20.4 "Understanding the Environment". College Board outline: Social Patterns (10%), human ecology and environmental sociology.
Tönnies sorted social relationships into two types. Which one is marked by long-standing ties of family and local community?Wikipedia, "Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft". College Board outline: Social Patterns (10%), community.
Under the Census Bureau's criteria for the 2020 Census, what must a densely settled territory contain to qualify as an urban area?U.S. Census Bureau, Urban and Rural (geography guidance). College Board outline: Social Patterns (10%), rural and urban patterns.
Social processes 15
A close-knit board wants harmony so badly that no member voices doubts, and it approves a plan that plainly cannot work. What is this called?Wikipedia, "Groupthink". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), groups and organizations.
A commune of young people rejects paid careers, marriage and private property, the central values of the society around it. What is such a group called?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 3.3 "Cultural Diversity". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), culture.
A family that eats together every night, shares its troubles and stays close for life is an example of which kind of group?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 6.1 "Social Groups". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), groups and organizations.
A man steps into a crowded elevator and stands facing the other riders instead of the door. No written rule forbids it. Which kind of norm has he broken?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 3.2 "The Elements of Culture". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), culture.
A manager has to lay off an employee who is also her closest friend. Which role problem does she face?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 5.3 "Social Interaction in Everyday Life". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), social interaction.
A movement forms to undo a reform that became law ten years ago. What type of social movement is it?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 21.3 "Social Movements". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), collective behavior and social movements.
A sociologist says a riot was no hypnotic frenzy: the people in it already shared the same beliefs and intentions before they gathered. Which theory of crowds is this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 21.2 "Explaining Collective Behavior". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), collective behavior and social movements.
After a scandal, a town holds meetings and marches that bring neighbors closer together. Which of Durkheim's points about deviance does this show?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 7.2 "Explaining Deviance". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), deviance and social control.
Army recruits arrive at boot camp, where every hour of the day is controlled, and they leave with sharply changed beliefs and habits. What is the process called?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 4.5 "Resocialization and Total Institutions". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), socialization.
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf gave their names to a hypothesis about culture. What does it claim?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 3.2 "The Elements of Culture". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), culture.
Friends fall silent and frown when a guest tells a cruel joke at dinner. What kind of social control is this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 7.1 "Social Control and the Relativity of Deviance". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), deviance and social control.
George Ritzer argued that more and more of society is taking on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. What did he name the process?Wikipedia, "McDonaldization". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), social change.
Kohlberg built his stages of moral development from studies of boys. What did Carol Gilligan conclude about girls?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 4.2 "Explaining Socialization". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), socialization.
Which of these is an ascribed status?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 5.1 "Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), social interaction.
World-systems theory sorts countries into three groups by their place in the world economy. What are the three?Wikipedia, "World-systems theory". College Board outline: Social Processes (25%), social change.
Social stratification 15
A flight attendant must stay warm and cheerful with rude passengers because the airline expects it. What did Hochschild call this part of the job?Wikipedia, "Emotional labor". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), professions and occupations.
A senior center keeps its members busy with volunteering and classes, on the view that older people do better, and serve society better, when they stay involved. Which theory of aging lies behind it?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 12.3 "Sociological Perspectives on Aging". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), aging.
A society expects women, and not men, to do most of the caring for small children. In sociological terms, is this expectation a matter of sex or of gender?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 11.1 "Understanding Sex and Gender". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), sex and gender roles.
A trade founds an association, fixes the qualifications for entry and begins to oversee its members' conduct, so as to set the qualified apart from amateurs. What is this process called?Wikipedia, "Professionalization". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), professions and occupations.
A woman finishes her paid job at six and then spends the evening on cooking, cleaning and child care that nobody pays her for. What is this second load of work called?Wikipedia, "Double burden". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), sex and gender roles.
A woman retires at 65 and becomes a grandmother the same year. To a gerontologist, these changes in her roles and relationships belong to which dimension of aging?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 12.1 "Gerontology and the Concept of Aging". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), aging.
A woman starts work as an administrative assistant and retires as a vice president of the same company. Which kind of mobility is this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 8.3 "Social Class in the United States". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), social mobility.
According to Allport's contact hypothesis, which kind of contact between a majority and a minority group may reduce prejudice?Wikipedia, "Contact hypothesis". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), race and ethnic relations.
After a factory closes, laid-off workers start to blame a local immigrant group for their troubles, though the group had no part in the closing. Which explanation of prejudice fits?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 10.3 "Prejudice". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), race and ethnic relations.
Functionalist sociologists often place people in a social class by their socioeconomic status. Which three things does that measure combine?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 8.3 "Social Class in the United States". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), social class.
How does the Census Bureau decide whether a family is in poverty under the official measure?U.S. Census Bureau, How the Census Bureau Measures Poverty. College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), social class.
In one society people are placed at birth in the rank of their parents and have no chance of leaving it. Which system of stratification is this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 8.1 "Systems of Stratification". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), social mobility.
In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), what did Thorstein Veblen call the buying of costly goods as a way to win reputation?Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), chapter 4, Project Gutenberg edition. College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), social class.
Poor workers believe their low pay is simply their fate and do not see themselves as a class with shared interests. What did Marx call this?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 8.2 "Explaining Stratification". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), power and social inequality.
Weber used one term for the opportunities each person has to improve his or her quality of life. What is the term?Wikipedia, "Life chances". College Board outline: Social Stratification (Process and Structure) (25%), power and social inequality.
The sociological perspective 12
A sociologist spends a year as a working member of a restaurant kitchen crew in order to study it. Which research method is she using?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 2.3 "Research Design in Sociology". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), methods.
A sociologist watches how two strangers at a bus stop use glances and small talk to settle who they are to each other. She holds that people build their roles as they interact. Which perspective is hers?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 1.3 "Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), sociological theory.
A survey table shows that 30 of 120 rural respondents and 90 of 180 urban respondents hold a college degree. Which reading of the table is correct?Worked from the figures in the question. College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), methods; interpretation of tables and charts.
In a time of rapid change the old rules stop guiding people and no clear new ones have formed. What did Durkheim call this state of normlessness?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 1.3 "Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), sociological theory.
In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, what did Weber say led large numbers of people in northern Europe to work in the secular world and build enterprises of their own?Wikipedia, "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), sociological theory.
In The Souls of Black Folk (1903), W. E. B. Du Bois wrote of "this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others." What name did he give it?W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), chapter I, Project Gutenberg edition. College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), history of sociology.
Marx and Engels open the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto by saying that the history of every society up to their own day is a history of what?Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), chapter I, Project Gutenberg edition. College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), sociological theory.
Some writers call Harriet Martineau the first woman sociologist. Which piece of her work brought the new discipline to English readers?Wikipedia, "Harriet Martineau". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), history of sociology.
Which French philosopher coined the term sociology and formulated the doctrine of positivism?Wikipedia, "Auguste Comte". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), history of sociology.
Which perspective starts from the idea that people act to gain the most and lose the least in any situation?Saylor Academy, Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, section 1.3 "Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), sociological theory.
William Graham Sumner wrote in Folkways (1906) of a "view of things in which one's own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it." What did he name it?William Graham Sumner, Folkways (1906), section 15, Project Gutenberg edition. College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), history of sociology.
Workers in a study raise their output whenever the researchers change the lighting, brighter or dimmer, because they know they are being watched. What is this called?Wikipedia, "Hawthorne effect". College Board outline: The Sociological Perspective (20%), methods.
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the College Board's published outline of the CLEP Introductory Sociology exam (https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep-exams/introductory-sociology, read 2026-10-13): Institutions 20% (economic, educational, family, medical, political, religious); Social Patterns 10% (community, demography, human ecology/environmental sociology, rural/urban patterns); Social Processes 25% (collective behavior and social movements, culture, deviance and social control, groups and organizations, social change, social interaction, socialization); Social Stratification (Process and Structure) 25% (aging, power and social inequality, professions and occupations, race and ethnic relations, sex and gender roles, social class, social mobility); The Sociological Perspective 20% (history of sociology, methods, sociological theory). The bank holds 12, 6, 15, 15 and 12 questions on them, the same shares. Every fact was read on 2026-10-13 in the public page named under its question: Saylor Academy's open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0, https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_sociology-understanding-and-changing-the-social-world-comprehensive-edition/); the Project Gutenberg editions of Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, Sumner's Folkways, Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class and the Manifesto of the Communist Party; the Census Bureau's pages on urban and rural areas and on how it measures poverty; and Wikipedia articles on sociological terms. One question is worked from its own figures. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
This free sociology CLEP practice test has 60 questions of our own on the Introductory Sociology outline's five topics, each naming its public source. It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the College Board.
Read the full guide
Five topics and their weights
The College Board's exam page, read October 13, 2026, weights the topics: institutions 20%, social patterns 10%, social processes 25%, social stratification 25% and the sociological perspective 20%. This bank holds 12, 6, 15, 15 and 12 questions, the same shares, with at least one on every subtopic the outline lists, from demography to social mobility.
Timing
About 100 questions in 90 minutes make up the real exam, some of them unscored pretest questions. Exam mode keeps that pace: 60 questions in 54 minutes.
Where the answers come from
Each explanation names its source: Saylor Academy's open sociology textbook, the founders' own books (Du Bois, Sumner, Veblen, Marx and Engels) in Project Gutenberg editions, the Census Bureau, or a Wikipedia article.
The College Board says the exam stresses basic facts, concepts and general theoretical approaches, not highly specialized knowledge of the subject or its methodology.
Some real questions apply a concept to a hypothetical situation or ask you to read a table, so many questions here are short cases.
Questions and answers
Is this CLEP sociology practice test free?
Yes. The questions, the explanations, the timed round and the paper test, which saves as a PDF, cost nothing and need no account.
What does an intro to sociology CLEP practice test cover?
The exam's full name is Introductory Sociology, and it covers a one-semester introductory college course. Among the outline's subtopics are the family, schooling and religion, deviance and social control, race and ethnic relations, social class and the history of sociology.
Is this CLEP intro to sociology practice test the real exam?
No. Every question is our own, written from the published outline and a named public source. None is copied or reworded from a real exam or an official sample question, so a score here is only a count of right answers.
What score do you need on the CLEP Introductory Sociology exam?
Each college sets its own. Scores run from 20 to 80, and the American Council on Education recommends 3 semester hours of credit at 50.