Exams on UMPI vs Study.com / InstantCert

[MrPhilipp]

Hi Guys, 

this is my first post here; been a long time lurker, downloaded the famous 6moth BABA plan for UMPI and now going for the degree! Its a great forum here and such a helpful ressource; pretty amazing! 

One question, that popped up while preparing the "external credits". Sophia.org courses are pretty easy and I really like the platform. Im doing all courses there, as suggested in the plan, and then planned to go forward with Study.com and InstantCert. 

Now, after having a look at InstantCert and Study.com, Im thinking about taking them at UMPI (except Bio) and need your opinion on this. 

Why? UMPI doesnt have proctored exams and to be honest, that makes it much more convenient to write an essay over there than making proctored exams on Study or Instantcert.

What do you guys think? Is that a stupid idea? Should I better stick to the plan and do the proctored exam at Study/Instantcert? Or is UMPI maybe easier? 

Thanks again for this great forum and in case anyone needs some help with Sophia.org, let me know! :

Thanks
Philipp

[rachel83az]

It's totally up to you whether or not you follow the recommendations. ashkir, who came up with the plan, ONLY transferred in courses from Sophia. The ones he recommended are ones that he thought may bey easier taken elsewhere. The plan was also created when some courses were only available during either Session 1 or Session 2 of a semester and not both. Now, that's apparently changed and you can take all courses all of the time.

I would strongly recommend at least InstantCert Spanish, in addition to Bio 101L, unless you are able to take an ACTFL exam for another language.

[MrPhilipp]

Hey Rachel,

thanks for your answer

I took the ACTFL OCIs exam in a different language (my native) at languagetesting.com (in case everybody reads this: was great and highly recommend it).

UMPI "Exams" are only written essays or multiple choice, right? Don't want to "discredit" the performance but wouldn't these exams always be easier than the proctored ones from Study or InstantCert? Bad people could easily cheat there, I suppose?

Thanks
Philipp

[ss20ts]

Most courses at UMPI do not have exams. Less than 25% of classes have an exam. The classes have a paper/project for the Final Assessment far more often than an exam.

[MrPhilipp]

Great. Do you maybe have some more informations about this? I had a hard time finding informations regarding the actual exams / tests at UMPI, apart from "they are not proctored". Paper / Project is just something, I write locally and then submit. What are these 25% remaining courses with an exam? What is an exam in this case?

Thanks
Philipp

[rachel83az]

My understanding is that exams at UMPI would be multiple choice, not unlike Sophia milestones.

[ss20ts]

Great. Do you maybe have some more informations about this? I had a hard time finding informations regarding the actual exams / tests at UMPI, apart from "they are not proctored". Paper / Project is just something, I write locally and then submit. What are these 25% remaining courses with an exam? What is an exam in this case?

Thanks
Philipp

The exams I've had were multiple choice. I can't tell you anything about them due to the academic honor code. If I'm found breaking that then I would be expelled and risk having my degrees revoked. No thanks! Exams are 3 hours long and are on the learning platform. You must score an 80 or above to pass. If you don't score an 80 you get one more chance to take the exam again. That's about all I can tell you.

Courses change so what was an exam when I took the class last year may have changed. When you enroll and go through scheduling with your advisor you can ask them what classes have an exam. Most don't. If you're going for a non business degree there are even fewer exams. In the Marketing Concentration there was 1 exam and 7 papers/projects. I've completed 2 bachelor's degrees at UMPI and only had 4 exams out of 26 courses.

[CCCC]

I've only taken 3 multiple choice exams this semester and they allowed only 120 minutes for each if you need it.

[MrPhilipp]

@ss20ts: No No, sorry, I expressed misleadingly: I don't want to know any secret details about the course topics or whatever. I just wanted to know what kind of exams UMPI have or I should expect, technically. Are these multiple choices, written papers and so on. Exactly what you told me now

@CCCC: Great, thanks a lot for this information!

[dfrecore]

Hi Guys, 

this is my first post here; been a long time lurker, downloaded the famous 6moth BABA plan for UMPI and now going for the degree! Its a great forum here and such a helpful ressource; pretty amazing! 

One question, that popped up while preparing the "external credits". Sophia.org courses are pretty easy and I really like the platform. Im doing all courses there, as suggested in the plan, and then planned to go forward with Study.com and InstantCert. 

Now, after having a look at InstantCert and Study.com, Im thinking about taking them at UMPI (except Bio) and need your opinion on this. 

Why? UMPI doesnt have proctored exams and to be honest, that makes it much more convenient to write an essay over there than making proctored exams on Study or Instantcert.

What do you guys think? Is that a stupid idea? Should I better stick to the plan and do the proctored exam at Study/Instantcert? Or is UMPI maybe easier? 

Thanks again for this great forum and in case anyone needs some help with Sophia.org, let me know! :

Thanks
Philipp

The main reason we recommend Sophia, Study.com and ICC is because if you want to transfer in the full 90cr, that's the "best" (and cheapest) way to do so.  The more credits you bring in and the more GEC's you cover, the more you get to spend time at UMPI on your major/concentration/minor coursework (especially the UL's).

Also, the Bio w/Lab course at UMPI was not a fun one for Ashkir (nightmarish might be a better description), so the SDC Bio w/Lab is a good way to avoid some pain.  The ICC Spanish exam is also a fast/cheap way to avoid the not-so-fun Spanish course at UMPI.  Now, those courses might have improved by now, but we don't know, so we go ahead and just tell people to skip them.

Time is literally money at UMPI, so it's critical to get everything possible transferred in if you want to make the most of your time there, and try to make sure you get done in 1-3 terms (that's what people here are doing - I would say 2 terms is the norm).