Straighterline vs. Saylor

[belgianmalinois]

Hello,

I have been completing CLEP and Aleks courses and just looked into Saylor and Straighterline. Any information about each would be appreciated.

[jsd]

I haven't used either, but my understanding is SL is $100/month + $50 or so per course you take, whereas Saylor is free until you're ready to test out, and at that point it's a $25 exam-proctor fee.

I know which one I'd choose

[gingerbeefE]

From experience.... the saylor classes are long brain numbing content and super long videos to take a basicly free test.
There was so much content with the saylor I just wanted nothing to do with it. ( tried it twice, once was for a TECEP. Gave up both times)
I much prefer just reading straight out of a textbook, but thats just me.

Straighterline is open book tests with basicly a 95% pass rate if you know how to search properly. Well worth the money (don't forget the promo codes)

If I had to do it over here is how I personaly would pick (keep in mind, I am military and get CLEPS/DSSTS free)

TECEPs(if you are going to TESC and need residency)< ALEKS< Straighterline< DSSTs/CLEPs< then saylors

I might switch the last 2 if my tests wern't free. I never attempted a saylor final, however when I was making a study guide the practice test for enviormental ethics was great, showed me a lot of weak areas.

[mednat]

Gingerbeefe is correct on the saylor content. It leaves alot to be desired. The test only costs the proctor fee, but the material is organized horribly.

I read quite a bit of the material on the saylor courses i took, but eventually just took the test and relied on previous knowledge. For the intro to marketing clep, I utilized the study.com material and it aligned well enough for a pass. In particular the business communication class was such a mess, I read half the material and decided the practice exams didn't line up closely enough for me to bother continuing. I stopped the saylor class and just took it at straighterline. I was done in less than week (had already spent ~2 weeks reading at saylor).

It is cheap credit, and I used a bit of it, but I found the time savings of straighterline to be easily worth the added cost. With that said, if you know the material it's only $25 to take a shot at the exam.

[jsd]

Straighterline is open book tests with basicly a 95% pass rate if you know how to search properly.

Many are, but be careful, not all all. It looks like they're slowly moving away from open book:

Online Exam Proctoring Details by Course | StraighterLine

[adavis84]

Many are, but be careful, not all all. It looks like they're slowly moving away from open book:

Online Exam Proctoring Details by Course | StraighterLine

+1 on the finals not all being open book.

If you look only at those courses which are book based (ie, not Physics, Calc, C++), and those where the book directly provides the answers (ie, no math courses), about 40% of the finals are closed book.

BUT, there are courses where the final is less than 30% of your total grade. So, if you're careful and diligent, you can accumulate enough points through the open book graded quizzes/exams/midterms that the final grade is inconsequential.

Saylor's model is a bit of a double-edged sword in that it's 100% based in your final exam. Rock that exam and you're all set. On the other hand, it's also nice to have some insurance against a lack-luster final exam performance at times.

[belgianmalinois]

Do you know if you need to buy the textbook, or is the information all in their curriculum?

[adavis84]

SL course exams are literally pulled word-for-word from the assigned text. The specific books are essential to the courses in my experience.

ETA: That being said, there are frequently much cheaper options for rental/purchase than buying from SL.

[ladylearner]

Do you know if you need to buy the textbook, or is the information all in their curriculum?

You will need the textbook for most SL courses. You can find some cheap online and/or go to chegg.com and get the ebooks. I have rented hard copy textbooks and received short-term access to the ebook while waiting for the hard copy book to get started right away.

I started with mostly Straighterline classes. I always looked for promotions (buy one/get one, $ off class, etc.) and I tried to knock out as many open-book exams as possible. I used graded quizzes to study from though there is no guarantee if the final will have those same questions. But basically, I tried to build a pool of possible questions for the final. When I took SL classes, you were allowed to take the first quiz more than once and there is a different set of questions each time. I have squeezed a lot of information on a double-sided page of notes, too, when that's allowed. You MUST pay attention to what's allowed during each final exam - open book/closed book, notes/no notes.

[ladylearner]

Hello,

I have been completing CLEP and Aleks courses and just looked into Saylor and Straighterline. Any information about each would be appreciated.

I loved Aleks! worked on algebra for a couple of hours a day most days for a month. I only spent $20 and did not have to take a proctored math exam.

I recommend looking at individual classes and determining the best way to complete it. Saylor, as others have said, is long and drawn out but free. For example, business communication at SL and corporate communication at Saylor are similar. However, Straighterline's business communication class incorporates written assignments and even the final has a written component. I know that Saylor has a final exam but I don't know how much writing is involved. I personally welcome the writing assignment because I'm better at that than I am at multiple-choice questions but that might not be your thing.

There were some SL classes that were tedious with a ton of quizzes but it helped me increase my chances of doing well. I can't imagine my passing a political science or history class depending solely upon one final exam. But maybe that works for you, in which case Saylor might be your best bet.