Free Winter term for Sophia members, Strayer U

[jch]

I think that being a currently enrolled student is not required to take challenge exams. As long as you're in their system, you might be good. I took my three exams before I was actually enrolled, and the ones that didn't duplicate credits still showed up. If I can manage to get the challenge exams transferred out, I plan to keep taking them as long as I can. Like you, I loaded myself up with too much stuff right now and don't have time for the challenge exams.

[jch]

I see that they have a winter term mini-session starting mid-February, which I may attempt to pursue. My success coach said she'd investigate if the Sophia scholarship could be used for it, but hasn't provided an answer yet. I'll ask again next week.

Update: the mini session is not going to happen for me. My coach was still not able to find out if the Sophia scholarship can be used for the mini session. However, she did look at the courses available and there wasn't anything applicable to my degree plan. It seems like the courses offered during the mini sessions are extremely limited, and there really isn't anything in the CIS tree. If any of you have a different major selected than my BSIT, you could email your coach to see if anything might work for you.

[eriehiker]

I have taken two more challenge exams during the past few days.

I failed the CRJ 330 Comparative Criminal Justice exam. I don't know what the score was because Strayer kind of takes a lacksadaisical approach towards reporting failures on the challenge exams. Sometimes the failing scores are reported. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes, it takes a subsequent passing score for the earlier failed scores to report. This is not true for the passing scores. These are reported quickly. Most of mine have been reported within one day. One score was reported within 30 minutes.

I passed the BUS 230 Purchasing and Materials Management exam. I felt that this one was kind of general in nature and logic could be used for most questions.

I do continue to have the strange pattern of failing the exams that I perceive to be easier exams. Of the two above, I thought the difficulty level would be reversed. I have been trying to be very efficient with the exams. Study enough to pass, but not much more. These are end of day things for me. I print study materials before I go to bed, study during random times the next day. At about 3PM, I make the decision about whether I know enough and then schedule an exam for 10PM. It take me 20 minutes to take each exam. Then I go to bed.

As mentioned previously, I think that I know enough generally to reach 60 percent on these exams, but I don't generally know enough to hit 70 and have to study for that 10%. The perceived "easier" ones skew my judgment in terms of study time and I end up not studying enough for these exams and fail.

I do want to test one thing. When I fail exams, the exam system always says that I have one more attempt left. This seems to run counter to Strayer's stated policy. I want to test it to see if I can take failed exams again. Will report back.

[eriehiker]

Oh, man! The project management challenge exam - BUS 375 - is a killer. I have become used to the quick 50 question in and out exams. So, I figured a midnight exam tonight wouldn't be too bad. Haha! It ended up being 207 questions. I did a double take when the exam loaded. So, I got my mind back in the game, took the exam and passed. It was actually probably a good thing in terms of passing to have that many questions because the 50 question exams kind of have a fluky quality to them. A couple of poorly worded questions can make the difference. That said, 207 questions is a lot of questions.

[jch]

Wow, that's an absurd number of questions. I can just barely make it through the ~90 question IT cert exams. Was the hardest part the difficulty of the questions or just getting through them all? Were they at least pretty quick to click through?

[rachel83az]

Strayer students now have access to LinkedIn Learning. Too bad it's not worth college credit! https://icampus.strayer.edu/linkedin-learning

[ylmir]

Just a few weeks left in the term. Anyone receive any updates about challenge exams?

[jch]

Just a few weeks left in the term. Anyone receive any updates about challenge exams?

Nope, zero updates. All of my challenge exam related communications seem to be routed to a black hole. I know that the people and addresses that I am contacting are alive, as they do respond or take action on other things. However, they will not even bother to reply to anything related to challenge exams. I have not progressed any more on the transfer situation. I've let Strayer know that a transcript anendum letter would work, but no response to that so far.

I will likely take a handful more exams over the next month, covering courses that I really want. There are some things with limited other options, where I am willing to take a gamble. Otherwise, I'm not going to do many more until I know that they will transfer.

I'm just about done with my classes. I've worked ahead, and essentially only have some discussions remaining. I'll finish both with an A, probably even above 100% thanks to bonus points. Per icampus, the average grade in both of my classes is just 75%. I thought this would improve once the automatic drop eliminated all the people who never did any work, but it didn't. I don't understand why so many people are failing. Both of my classes use an online textbook platform for most/all assignments, with unlimited attempts to solve every problem and comprehensive text/video walkthroughs for anything hard.

[rachel83az]

I'm just about done with my classes. I've worked ahead, and essentially only have some discussions remaining. I'll finish both with an A, probably even above 100% thanks to bonus points. Per icampus, the average grade in both of my classes is just 75%. I thought this would improve once the automatic drop eliminated all the people who never did any work, but it didn't. I don't understand why so many people are failing. Both of my classes use an online textbook platform for most/all assignments, with unlimited attempts to solve every problem and comprehensive text/video walkthroughs for anything hard.

I don't understand either. I have the following classes:

CIS-111 (Relational DBMS). My current score: 105%. Class average: 71%
CIS-175 (Intro to Networking). My current score: 78%. Class average: 62%.
WRK-100 (Ugh). My current score: 105%. Class average: 58%
MAT-210 (Data-Driven Decisions). My current score: 102%. Class average: 78%

WRK-100 is literally the easiest class ever, as much as I hate it. How can you only have a 58%? The only reason why my score is so low in Networking is that I fell behind in week 5. So many videos! It's not difficult, per se, but the videos are time-consuming. I am catching up now, though! The one thing I've really learned from the networking class at Strayer is that I really, REALLY want to avoid the Networking TECEP if at all possible. I hate the OSI model so much. I've got my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed that I can do literally anything else.

[jch]

Also, just a reminder that everyone should check your automatic enrollment setting in icampus. Disable that if you're not going to continue at Strayer.