BA General Education TESC - NEW USER

[K-rys]

Hello everyone,

I've recently stumbled on this forum and I've read A LOT of information over the last weeks. I'm working on a degree plan for a BA in Psychology and I was hoping you guys could take a look at what I've got so far on the gen ed requirements and let me know if I've done anything wrong or if something else makes better sense or would be easier. I know ALEKS isn't ACE accredited right now but from what I've read, they'll be getting reinstated by the end of December. This is just the General Education section, I'll post the rest when this part is finished.



A. Intellectual and Practical Skills (15)
English Comp I
English Comp II CLEP College Composition(6)
College-Level Math ALEKS Intermediate Algebra(3)
Electives in Intellectual and Practical Skills(6) ALEKS College Algebra(3) & DSST Tech.Writing(3)

B. Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World (18)
Humanites (3) CLEP Humanities(6)
Social Sciences (3) CLEP Social Science(6)
Natural Sciences(3) CLEP Natural Science(6)
Hum/Soc Sci/ Nat Sci/Interdisciplinary (9) (3 (6) Credit classes cover this)

C. Personal and Social Responsibility (9)
Diversity/Global Literacy CLEP Intro to Sociology
Responsible Ethical Leadership DSST Business Ethics
Other Ethics or Diversity Course DSST General Anthropology

D. General Education Electives (18)
DSST Public Speaking(3)
DSST Intro to Computing(3)
CLEP American Government(3)
Analysing and Interpreting Literature (6)
DSST Human and Cultural Geography (3)




Thank you to anyone who can help out at all with this!

[ironheadjack]

As far as your plan goes it looks spot on, every course fits perfectly where you put it.

The only alternatives I could recommend would be to look into Straighterline, they offer many of the courses you've planned already, it works out to be a little bit cheaper then CLEP/DSST testing, and you don't have to leave your house to do it. But that is personal preference.

[EI2HCB]

Hello everyone,

I've recently stumbled on this forum and I've read A LOT of information over the last weeks. I'm working on a degree plan for a BA in Psychology and I was hoping you guys could take a look at what I've got so far on the gen ed requirements and let me know if I've done anything wrong or if something else makes better sense or would be easier. I know ALEKS isn't ACE accredited right now but from what I've read, they'll be getting reinstated by the end of December. This is just the General Education section, I'll post the rest when this part is finished.



A. Intellectual and Practical Skills (15)
English Comp I
English Comp II CLEP College Composition(6)
College-Level Math ALEKS Intermediate Algebra(3)
Electives in Intellectual and Practical Skills(6) ALEKS College Algebra(3) & DSST Tech.Writing(3)

B. Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World (18)
Humanites (3) CLEP Humanities(6)
Social Sciences (3) CLEP Social Science(6)
Natural Sciences(3) CLEP Natural Science(6)
Hum/Soc Sci/ Nat Sci/Interdisciplinary (9) (3 (6) Credit classes cover this)

C. Personal and Social Responsibility (9)
Diversity/Global Literacy CLEP Intro to Sociology
Responsible Ethical Leadership DSST Business Ethics
Other Ethics or Diversity Course DSST General Anthropology

D. General Education Electives (18)
DSST Public Speaking(3)
DSST Intro to Computing(3)
CLEP American Government(3)
Analysing and Interpreting Literature (6)
DSST Human and Cultural Geography (3)




Thank you to anyone who can help out at all with this!

Welcome to the forum, Will you be submitting all these CLEPs to TESC at once or as you complete them? For example A&I Lit is sometimes transcribed as a humanities course. (TESC folks will be better versed in this) So it may be better to do you humanities after you do A&I lit which is the easiest of the two. If you do them all and then submit them, They'll get assigned into the groups that they fit into and you'll be many credits ahead of where you are now. Start well and keep going along, we are all here to encourage each other in this journey, so many people have gained degrees on this forum over the past two year's I've been watching and learning that I'm amazed. Some are very disciplined but all put in the time and energy required one way or another. In a few months from now you'll look at your transcript and be amazed at the progress you've made.

[K-rys]

@ironheadjack - Awesome! I was hoping everything fit okay. I honestly haven't done too much research into Straighterline yet.. I'll have to look over some pros/cons. Have they been faster for you to complete the course rather than study and CLEP?

@EI2HCB - I was thinking of doing all of the CLEPs I can and transferring all at once when I apply to TESC. I was planning on taking one TESC course so I could get a GPA. Am I looking at this wrong?

[ironheadjack]

Straighterline worked well for me because I prefer open-book tests, to studying for one big test. I completed all of the SL courses in my signature in about 3 weeks. But this is personal preference.

IMO, SL is an option that is definitely worth checking out. Read other peoples thoughts on SL and if it seems interesting to you give it a shot. Use code BGS310, and for $150 you can complete two courses, say anthropology and world religions. Try it, get the credits, and if you like the system you can do more.


Also, check out the the difficulty list on FCP, there might be a certain CLEP exam that you could substitute with an easier DSST.

Clep Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com

[K-rys]

ironheadjack- I did some reading about SL and a couple people seem to have issues with the ProctorU .. Exams not submitting, proctors being unprofessional, proctors changing settings without permission, etc. Have you had any of these issues? The post was a year old so this may have all been worked out.

[ironheadjack]

I didn't have any of those issues. The only problems I've had with ProctorU were (a computer person might be able to understand this and better explain it), whatever software they use to be able to view your computer would really drag down the speed of my laptop, IDK if it was overloading my little laptop or what but the fan would kick on a fight for cool air.

Once I had a proctor tell me to close an additional browser I had open, I told him it was my e-book and it wasn't an issue. Another time I had a very overzealous proctor try to re-verify my identity in the middle of the exam, my "Jersey" attitude came out and that was the end of that situation.

Aside from those two incidents every proctor I encountered was professional and asked permission before they went through their checklist. (take control of your mouse, check for dual monitors, etc.)

[corpsole2]

ironheadjack- I did some reading about SL and a couple people seem to have issues with the ProctorU .. Exams not submitting, proctors being unprofessional, proctors changing settings without permission, etc. Have you had any of these issues? The post was a year old so this may have all been worked out.

As you can see from my signature, the bulk of my degree came from Straighterline. About half of the courses I took were before they instituted proctor requirements for the finals. I generally had a good experience with Proctor U, except for a technical problem which got ironed out quickly. If you take a lot of tests through them, there will probably some tech problems, but that is part of life.

Don't hesitate to use Straighterline. Through them I was able to complete 78 credits, and the bulk of my Associate's and Bachelor's degrees. Thomas Edison State College accepts almost all their courses for credits, so they are probably the best bet to knock out your General Education requirements, and a few upper level courses.

[weirdnewjersey]

Excellent work!!!! You may want to continue on with completing more FEMA credits. The latter is to comply with TESC's 27 free elective credits. Also, look at the DSST tests which are counted as upper level college credits. Just about all TESC degrees require the 27 free elective. Additionally, TESC typically will require you to have completed at least 18 credits of upper level credits, 300 level and above.