Your Opinion Appreciated...

[Publius]

Only 4 DSSTs are still required for my degree (Principles of Statistics, Principles of Finance, Business, Ethics and Society, and Principles of Financial Accounting). I do have other CLEPs and online courses, but my testing center only does DSSTs on certain days.

I’ve got the Biology CLEP February 14, and a DSST February 16, followed by 2 DSSTs in March.

I’m leaning towards taking Business Ethics and Society right after my Biology. Will a day and a half of study be enough to pass it or am I setting myself up for failure?

Back in Oct timeframe, I took all of these and have heard that they are beneficial in preparation for Business Ethics and Society.
Principles of Management CLEP — Failed — 48 (The only exam I’ve failed... yet)
Principles of Supervision DSST — Passed — 441
Principles of Marketing CLEP — Passed — 60
Human Resource Management DSST — Passed — 54
Introduction to Business DSST — Passed — 422

Is it a wise move to take the Business Ethics and Society? Would another one of my three remaining DSST prove easier? Or is it better to just blow all of it off and spend two weeks studying? And finally for those for those of who who have taken at least two of the above tests, which one was the easiest and/or required the least amount of preperation?

Any insight would be helpful... Thanks.

[Yenisei]

Your mileage may vary, but I'd take them in this order: Business Ethics, Statistics, Financial Accounting and then Finance. The most important thing to remember is to take Finance after Statistics and, especially, Financial Accounting.

[burbuja0512]

I didn't think Biz Ethics was horrible, but then again I've been in the biz world for years and many of the concepts have been drilled into my head. If you've worked at a larger company that requires all of its employees to take ethics training every so often, you'll be fine. If you're not familiar with the ideas, it could be tougher. It is an UL test for a reason, I just didn't think it was all that bad for me, but could see why it would be tough for a younger test taker or one who had little work experience.

Finance was tough. I struggled with it and barely passed. That being said, I did only take a week to study and could have done better with a slightly different mix of questions on my test. I didn't take the other two you mentioned and can't comment on those.

[dcan]

I'm doing the BSBA thing as well. Personally I'm planning one month per test for my business core. Once that's all done and only gen eds are left, I'm completely comfortable with a day or week or study for a test. But I don't see blowing off a test that is critical to my major.

[bricabrac]

I agree with Yenisei's advice. Did you already take ACC-102? I feel principles of finance and intro to managerial accounting complement each other.


1. Business, Ethics and Society (a lot of management, human resources, bus law overlap on this exam). Also just watching the news over the years -- enron, martha stewart, wall street meltdown, etc.
2. Principles of Statistics (depending on your comfortablitlty with subject, you could actually take this here or leave to the end so you could give it your full attention).
3. Principles of Financial Accounting
4. Principles of Finance

[Publius]

Did you already take ACC-102? I feel principles of finance and intro to managerial accounting complement each other.

No, I haven't taken ACC-102. Principles of Financial Accounting is a prerequisite for my LSU classes (where I'll be taking my 6 Accounting courses... then transfer those to TESC and finish with 1 TESC course and 2 TECEPs).

Thanks for your opinion everyone, I'll probably go ahead and do Business Ethics and Society a day and a half after Biology... hopefully that will be enough time. BTW, are there any other free practice tests out there for Business Ethics (besides FCP)? I searched for it and couldn't find anything...

[Yenisei]

IMHO, this is may be a better option than LSU for your UL accounting courses: University of North Alabama Professional Accounting Prep Program - Home, but be sure to do your due diligence on that as your mileage may very.

[ryoder]

Go ahead and spend 1.5 days studying and then reevaluate your position afterward. I spent 2 days studying marketing because I have years of experience in business and passed with a 74. I spent 0 days studying information systems, intro to business, and the management info sys dsst because of my experience as a software developer and passed with flying colors as well. I could not, however, spend 2 days studying statistics and expect anything but a failure. The same goes for biology.

[Publius]

I passed Biology w/ 65 and ended up passing Business Ethics w/ a 417 (a low score but kinda expected when I only put about 6 hours of study in).

I've been studying to take Principles of Financial Accounting next but had to change to Principles of Finance as I work through some stuff (lsu won't accept the DSST or CLEP as a prerequisite for their accounting courses...). So the last two days I've been studying for Finance, but didn't think I would pull it off with a week to go.
Today, just for fun, I decided to take Peterson's first Statistic's PT and got 53% with zero study... Considering the amount of preperation, It was fairly easy for me, and have decided to take Statistics this Thursday, followed by Financial Accounting 3 weeks from now and then Finance… Thanks everyone for your insight!! It's been quite helpful!