Degree Completion Speed and Information Retention

[Hunter91]

I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death but I'd like to know your opinions on it.

Do you find there's a correlation between completing a degree fast and not learning/retaining a lot of necessary information? I only ask because I'm looking into a bsba in accounting and I see tons of threads about people completing bsba's in <6 months etc...and here I am reading every word of each chapter in my accounting book, taking notes, reviewing, self quizing...etc.. I read their stories and it makes me feel so slow lol!! I spend a whole day on one chapter and they finish the class in around 3 days. I just don't think it would benefit me, for example, to finish accounting I & II on SL in a weeks time just to get the credit and move on and jeopardize the foundation of knowledge that is my degree/career focus. Now if one needs to complete a degree fast in order to check the box and progress at work because they've hit the glass ceiling, then by all means go as fast as you want. But for those who don't have a background or experience in the material they're learning, what are your opinions on speed and retention? I guess this is just a study break ramble and me spending too much time comparing myself lol...

With all that said, I'm in awe of the people who complete degrees fast.

[dfrecore]

You are doing it right. Since you want to actually get your degree in accounting and then work in accounting, you need to know the information well. By all means, take the time. You should even think about taking classes at your local cc if you can fit those in. I learned a lot about accounting in those classes (I was working towards my degree in accounting and working in accounting myself).

But, when you have to take American Government or World History or Religion or whatever, and it doesn't pertain in any way to your degree, that's when you can feel free to just suck in the information and spit it back out, to get through it as quickly as possible. I'm pretty sure I don't remember a THING about that Death, Dying & Religion course I took my freshman year in college in 1989. And guess what? It doesn't matter, because nothing has ever come up in the 26 years since where I needed that information. And if I did need it, I could look it up.

So, take the time to learn what you need, or what you WANT to learn, and bypass the other stuff that you don't. Focus on what's important, and what you enjoy.

[marquardt21]

I went through financial accounting very quickly thinking I really would not need the information, but life can change things. I am now going back through and learning all the things I should of learned the first time while working toward a undergrad certificate in accounting. This is one area in which slow and steady is better then fast and quick. Good luck on your studies.

[cookderosa]

I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death but I'd like to know your opinions on it.

Do you find there's a correlation between completing a degree fast and not learning/retaining a lot of necessary information? I only ask because I'm looking into a bsba in accounting and I see tons of threads about people completing bsba's in <6 months etc...and here I am reading every word of each chapter in my accounting book, taking notes, reviewing, self quizing...etc.. I read their stories and it makes me feel so slow lol!! I spend a whole day on one chapter and they finish the class in around 3 days. I just don't think it would benefit me, for example, to finish accounting I & II on SL in a weeks time just to get the credit and move on and jeopardize the foundation of knowledge that is my degree/career focus. Now if one needs to complete a degree fast in order to check the box and progress at work because they've hit the glass ceiling, then by all means go as fast as you want. But for those who don't have a background or experience in the material they're learning, what are your opinions on speed and retention? I guess this is just a study break ramble and me spending too much time comparing myself lol...

With all that said, I'm in awe of the people who complete degrees fast.

speed is relative. It's distracting to read stories about other people who complete their degrees in 6 months. If you rewind to a time before you found this board, and we were talking about earning a BA in 3 years (vs 4) you'd be impressed too. It took me 18 months from scratch, and I finished in 2008. I'll spin it around and say that it's probably impossible to go through an ENTIRE degree of roughly 40 courses completed in any-way-shape-or-form and remember OR forget it all. Courses build on each other and the point of education is to become a learner-thinker-problem solver, not necessarily the best player in a game of trivial pursuit.

[clep3705]

When you read about a degree being completed in a short amount of time, it is accomplished primarily through Credit By Examination (CBE). These exams are essentially proctored (necessary for credibility) final exams for a college level course. Although a few schools award letter grades for passing such an exam, the overwhelming majority treat the exam scores as credit or no credit (not pass or fail because there is no penalty if the passing score is not achieved). The established threshold for CBE is demonstrating C- level competency in a subject.

It's possible for a person to mostly test out of a degree and have A level competency, C- level competency, or anywhere between.

Suppose you have a simple, cash only small business and want to hire an accountant. Would C- competency be sufficient?

Suppose you have a global hedge fund and need to hire an accountant. Would C- competency be sufficient?

Can a person learn as much cramming for an exam when compared to someone taking a 15 or 16 week semester long course? There's a lack of research to answer the question. Research comparing 8 week to 16 week long courses says there is no difference, but this cannot be extrapolated to say that CBE cramming is as effective as a semester long course. An Evaluation of Student Outcomes by Course Duration in Online Higher Education

[videogamesrock]

I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death but I'd like to know your opinions on it.

Do you find there's a correlation between completing a degree fast and not learning/retaining a lot of necessary information? I only ask because I'm looking into a bsba in accounting and I see tons of threads about people completing bsba's in <6 months etc...and here I am reading every word of each chapter in my accounting book, taking notes, reviewing, self quizing...etc.. I read their stories and it makes me feel so slow lol!! I spend a whole day on one chapter and they finish the class in around 3 days. I just don't think it would benefit me, for example, to finish accounting I & II on SL in a weeks time just to get the credit and move on and jeopardize the foundation of knowledge that is my degree/career focus. Now if one needs to complete a degree fast in order to check the box and progress at work because they've hit the glass ceiling, then by all means go as fast as you want. But for those who don't have a background or experience in the material they're learning, what are your opinions on speed and retention? I guess this is just a study break ramble and me spending too much time comparing myself lol...

With all that said, I'm in awe of the people who complete degrees fast.

Yes, the faster I complete a course the less I retain. I remember my first stint at college 15 years ago where I was studying and retaining lots of information specifically in math, accounting, and science. I doubt I could pass any of the exams today. So even if you goal is retention, if you do not use the information throughout your daily life, it sort of will disappear. I say finish fast and continue to study areas that you will use in life.

[ronaldemail1]

In my country before starting college you need to pass an exam equivalent to 60-80 credits in knowledge. (Any person that did not pass the exam, could pass without
breaking a sweat their equivalent in CLEPs if the person has some basic English fluency).
After that, when you are in college, you are required to pass the total of 220 credits in 5 years in order to graduate.

Millions are not able to finish college. A few millions are able to pass it after consuming or cramming the equivalent of almost 300 credits in 5.5 years.

Now up to the year 2000 the academic requirements were extremely demanding for all the courses. But the people that came out of the experience
were well educated and good professionals.

Still, in the year 2000 the ministry of education decided to lower the standards in order according to them to give the opportunity to everybody.
The results, we are now the worst educated country in the world. Started from school all the way to college.

The same people that I mentioned due to the amount of studies, could have graduated in the US without any problems in 6 months to a year.
Because they are used to that academic conditions. I am talking about millions of people. So, it is not strange for me to hear that there is
people that are able to take certain courses in 2 weeks to a month. It simply depends on the person. While I know that I have been myself
very slow compared to the posts of the forum, I forgot that I was able to take 30 credits of FEMAS in two weeks (I got scared that OBAMA
was elected president and the fear made me cram the courses with total focus).

It is obvious that I do no recall everything. But the gist of it is present in my memory. And If I am accepted in a related position. I would
perform with a good degree of success.

[GoodYellowDogs]

Here are some rambling thoughts on the subject... some on target, some completely off target... just needed to ramble

I took forever to get my BS. In retrospect, had I had more confidence and less procrastination, I could have done the last 60 units in four months or less easily. I had 60 units from my AS and I had 40 years of business/health/life experience. Had I been confident I could have easily done two tests (or as many as I could schedule) a week because I knew most of the stuff. Do I remember it iall - yes I remember it all because I already knew most of it already. My learnings from studying were more like the frosting on the cake. My BS has depths in Psych and Healthcare. I had enough units I could have had two more depths in History and Photography.

My advice on the confidence piece for a BS/BA for any adult is to compare yourself to the newly minted BS/BA students you know. Do you know as much of them? That's all that's required for a BS/BA. No more, no less. Had I gone into my BS with that in mind I would have taken most of the DSST/CLEP/TECEP/Uexcel without studying. I know, because they work for me, that I'm smarter and more "educated" than most BS/BA grads. Maybe not specific major STEM BA/BS grads, but definitely more than any liberal arts, social science, history, etc. BS/BA grad.

I'm in my MBA program now and was struggling with my first class, which is ironically an undergrad prereq. It's microeconomics (which actually has marketing, psych, etc.), but it also has math. I am afraid of math. So it's a struggle to actually sit down and study something that scares me. The difficulty is in my stinking thinking, not my educational abilities. So yesterday I fell back on my own advice. This is stuff that new grad BS/BA students do early in their college education. I am certainly as smart as they are. Once I finally figured that out, it all became doable. The rest of the MBA should be a piece of cake. I have to study this and remember it, because it's a foundational class. I'm down to the wire and have to finish in 8 days. Go, me!

[passit1]

I think it depends on the situation. Since I was in business for decades before completing my degree, I had figured out most of what to do through trial and error or had been trained or had lived through it. The only things I really needed to study was what those concepts were called and who the individuals who founded the principles were. Some of the concepts were deepened by what I studied to pass the tests but nothing was really new.

Companies and recruiters did not want anything to do with me prior to my degree, now I regularly are called by recruiters. Am I a viable candidate now because of what I learned by obtaining a degree primarily through CBE or am I really a worthy candidate because of the experiences that enabled me to pass those exams? It feels good to be wanted now. But it is damned silly that I had to get a pricey piece of paper to prove what I already knew.

[Devanna]

I think also it depends on the person. I learn best by completing a lot of material in a short amount of time (which is why I prefer 8 week college classes). I know other people who can't learn like that, they need a lot more time. How fast you go and how much you retain will probably depend on the person, how they learn best, how much they already know of the topic, etc. In the end all that matters is that you complete your goal, even if it takes you longer than the speed learners.