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I've been an lurking member for some time now and keep getting intimidated with self doubt and where to begin as far as actual committed studying/testing. I have taken a few of the free courses (i.e. sophia, institutes....etc) but really struggle with where to start when choosing a study source. Lots of other members have started with some college credit, but I am one of those who truly is starting from scratch.
Any others out there who have jumped in to get those LL classes started? If so, would you be willing to share your journey (first classes, study material, time taken, etc...).
For those who are more experienced with this way of earning credit, which source would work best for a visual learner who likes to follow an outline of course work, take exams/quizes and earn ACE credit for passing?
Most importantly, which source best prepares you for the testing without having to utilize another source of studying. For example: a lot of people utilize the Modern States option due to the free voucher, but also state that the course work alone is not adequate enough to pass the clep, but they also don't state what OTHER means of study they did use to help them pass the clep.
Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Completed:
The Institues-Insurance Ethics (2cr)
Sophia.org - Developing Effective Teams (1cr), The Essentials of Managing Conflict (1cr)
CSMLearn- CSMLearn Course (3cr)
TEEX- Cybersecurity 101, 201, 301 (11cr)
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I only did CLEP/DSST exams cold for things I already knew (and passed all 4 of those). So I guess that was my strategy with testing. It was really inconvenient for me to take them as the testing center was far, so I didn't utilize them as much as I could have.
I would say that for courses, your best bet is to try a few, when coupons or other things come out. Some people love SL, and it can be a great deal if you do 3, 4 or 5 courses in a month, with a coupon. I hated them and never finished a course, but that's just me personally, I have nothing against them or anything. If Sophia does a great coupon, use that to take some courses there. If you like Study.com, they're a great option, especially for on-the-go since they have a good app.
Really, you should just try a few different things to see what you do best with.
If you're doing a BSBA, I recommend Study.com for your entire non-GE portion of the degree, since with overlap and placement tests, you can get a lot done in a short amount of time, and each subsequent course in the same area gets easier and easier.
TESU BSBA/HR 2018 - WVNCC BOG AAS 2017 - GGU Cert in Mgmt 2000
EXAMS: TECEP Tech Wrtg, Comp II, LA Math, PR, Computers DSST Computers, Pers Fin CLEP Mgmt, Mktg
COURSES: TESU Capstone Study.com Pers Fin, Microecon, Stats Ed4Credit Acct 2 PF Fin Mgmt ALEKS Int & Coll Alg Sophia Proj Mgmt The Institutes - Ins Ethics Kaplan PLA
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Study.com because they have animated videos. Their quizzes are really short too and you can retake the quizzes. The exams are longer but you don't need to score well if you did well on the quizzes.
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If you are a visual learner then SDC might be your way to go. You can watch videos with closed captioning on or off and they also provide transcripts. SDC is also good if you are doing a lot of classes in the same area because as dfrecore said, they overlap. What that means (in case someone may not know), is that some of the content overlaps so if you test out of it in one class, it shows up as complete in the new class. For example, when I did Eng I, Eng II was already 45% complete. You can't beat that if you ask me.
I think it also can depend on what you want to learn. SL graded exams are open book and a lot of finals are also. If you don't care to learn about content, it's easy to go through them just answering questions.
Hope that helps!
Amberton University, MS Human Relations & Business
Started June 2022
TESU BALS completed March 2020
Study.com (24) StraighterLine (33) Sophia (10) SHU and GCU (26) TEEX (6) Coopersmith (12) CSMLearn (3) TESU (6)
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For CLEP exams, in addition to Modern States, I used Crash Course on Youtube. There are ones for Sociology, Psychology, Biology and Economics. Additionally, there's one on Astronomy that I used for the DSST.
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Crash Course is a fantastic source for CLEP studying on the subjects they cover. I used them almost exclusively for the Sociology and American Government CLEPs, and heavily for the US History I & II CLEPs.
Completed:
BA History & Psychology, Thomas Edison State University, March 2020
ASNSM Mathematics, Thomas Edison State University, March 2020
Up Next:
JD, Cornell Law School, Class of 2024
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07-02-2019, 05:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-02-2019, 05:05 PM by Supermind.)
I was a start-from-scratch degree seeker last year. And SDC really helped me learn quickly, and finish my courses in time tonregister for the Capstone. Khan Academy is another excellent resource to clarify some concepts if you did not follow them, or if you need some extra practice in Math. Saylor & Aleks are ok. The course materials are way too extensive and time consuming. You should definitely do CSM-Learn’s Math course, and will earn 3 credits that can be used to fulfill your Quant requirement. I didn’t try Straighterline; so i can’t comment on it.
TESU BALS-Psych. + ASNSM(Math)
TEEX(6): Cybersec. 101/201/301
The Institutes(2): Ethics
Sophia(2): Ess. Of Managing Conflict, Dev. Effective Teams
NFA(1): Comm. Safety Edu.
GED(10): NAS-131, SOC-273, MAT-121, HUM-101 (1)
Study.com(75): Intro to Psych., Soc. Psych.-1, Growth & Dev. Psych., Personality Psych., History & Systems of Psych., Org. Theory, Library Science, Comm. at Workplace, Intro to World Religion, I/O Psych., Ethics in Soc. Sc., Org. Comm., Eng. 104, Eng. 105, History of Vietnam war, Sp. Ed. History & Law, Diff. Ed., Classroom Mgmt., Foundations of Ed., Abnormal Psych., Rsch. methods in Psych., College Math, Intro. to Geometry., Calculus (6).
Saylor (15): Intro. to Mol. & Cellular Bio., Comp. Politics, Corporate Comm., Env. Ethics, Principles of Comm.
TESU (1): Cornerstone, Lib. 495 Capstone.
CSM (3): Quant. reasoning.
Aleks (6): Trigonometry, Intro to Statistics.
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(07-02-2019, 01:20 AM)Idreamofadegree Wrote: I've been an lurking member for some time now and keep getting intimidated with self doubt and where to begin as far as actual committed studying/testing. I have taken a few of the free courses (i.e. sophia, institutes....etc) but really struggle with where to start when choosing a study source. Lots of other members have started with some college credit, but I am one of those who truly is starting from scratch.
Any others out there who have jumped in to get those LL classes started? If so, would you be willing to share your journey (first classes, study material, time taken, etc...).
For those who are more experienced with this way of earning credit, which source would work best for a visual learner who likes to follow an outline of course work, take exams/quizes and earn ACE credit for passing?
Most importantly, which source best prepares you for the testing without having to utilize another source of studying. For example: a lot of people utilize the Modern States option due to the free voucher, but also state that the course work alone is not adequate enough to pass the clep, but they also don't state what OTHER means of study they did use to help them pass the clep.
Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Ditto on previous answers plus, for CLEP/DSST, if you get InstantCert you have access to the paid forum where people say what materials they used to pass, and most tests have a document people have updated with things that were on their test.
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(07-02-2019, 12:37 PM)mysonx3 Wrote: Crash Course is a fantastic source for CLEP studying on the subjects they cover. I used them almost exclusively for the Sociology and American Government CLEPs, and heavily for the US History I & II CLEPs.
I second this. Even just using the free crash course videos as a supplement is a great choice, playing them in the background while doing other tasks. I used CC for all 3 CLEPs I took; psychology, sociology, and government.
I also recommend checking out any resources your local library may have. I was able to check out REA books and other study guides in addition to free practice tests.
WGU BSIT Complete January 2022
(77CU transferred in)(44/44CU )
RA(non WGU)(57cr)
JST/TESU Eval of NAVY Training(85/99cr)
The Institutes, TEEX, NFA(9cr): Ethics, Cyber 101/201/301, Safety
Sophia(60cr): 23 classes
Study.com(31cr): Eng105, Fin102, His108, LibSci101, Math104, Stat101, CS107, CS303, BUS107
CLEP(9cr): Intro Sociology 63 Intro Psych 61 US GOV 71
OD(12cr): Robotics, Cyber, Programming, Microecon
CSM(3cr)
Various IT/Cybersecurity Certifications from: CompTIA, Google, Microsoft, AWS, GIAC, LPI, IBM
CS Fund. MicroBachelor(3cr)
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I started in 2017 lurking on the forum too. I did a lot of straighterline initially because they were pretty easy to get through. Especially for the low level gen eds like science. My advice is to look on here ( https://www.straighterline.com/how-it-wo...g-details/ ) and take all the straighterline courses that fit into your degree which are open book final. The reason for this is that you won't fail your class just because you forgot key terms or whatever - I really struggle with things like memorizing dates, so taking an open book history course (i took 3 actually) was amazing.
Once you are done with the SL open book classes, take a look at Sophia and do their 2 free courses. they are good to fill out the electives and they're interesting classes.
Then you can decide how to proceed with what's left over in your gen eds because there are so many low cost options.
I would use Study.com for any classes you feel would be 'difficult' (no matter what level) because they have the video option. Sophia also has this, but they are pretty expensive. They do more coupons now than they used to, though.
I am someone who hates having my entire grade rest on one final exam so i have not done any of these types of options such as Saylor or Onlinedegree. I have ADD so i need visual, measurable progress and incremental learning.
If I had to give one piece of advice overall, it would be to choose a course provider based on your learning style, and NOT on how fast you can complete the courses. I wish i had slowed down and enjoyed my classes more. i was so focused on getting them out of the way that i don't think i got as much out of them as i could have. If you set a study plan and take it in small increments you will get there slowly but surely. I have taken a lot of breaks on my journey but i started out with zero college credits. Even if it takes me another year to finish (I have 11 classes left for my bsba) it will still be less time than i would have spent trying to go to classes in person. And cheaper by far.
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