Graded filler DSSTs?

[argentnox]

I am in EC, and I am looking for graded filler tests that are pretty easy to study for (preferably ones that IC covers).

How hard is astronomy? I will be taking a chemistry course and the college math CLEP, which will cover 10 of my natural sciences/math credits. I just need 2 more, so a DSST would cover the rest. I am taking a Human Ecology course for upper level credits, so I do not think the Environment and Humanity DSST will count. If they do, that would probably be really easy for me and could be my natural sciences credit, instead.

Then I just would need 6 more elective credits.

I have already taken Principles of Supervision. I took a public speaking course already. I am not sure if technical writing will count, as I will be taking a scientific writing class through Park.

I am thinking some of the applied professional DSSTs might be the easiest. Intro to Business and something else, maybe? I need to get a score that will give me an A in order to keep my 4.0, but I am all about grabbing more letter grades.

Thoughts?

[perrik]

Technical Writing is primarily proposals, memos, manuals and other business communication; it will probably not be duplicated by a scientific writing course.

Intro to Business is a quick study if you've spent time in the corporate world. Human Resource Management is a logical progression from the Supervision material - learn the major aspects of employment law, and you'll make the A score easily.

With your psych background, the Fundamentals of Counseling exam ought to be a breeze. Foundations of Education, too, as a chunk of the test materials is on the psychology of learning (the rest is the history of American education). For that matter, social psych is an essential part of Organizational Behavior.

As of the 2009 guide, Excelsior classifies Tech Writing as humanities credit. Counseling, Education, and Organizational Behavior are social science. HRM and Business are applied professional.

[argentnox]

I just need one natural sciences/math exam and 6 total credits for electives, so any of those you listed would work for my elective credits. I like having multiple options, too, as then if I do not make the score I want on one, I can just take another, instead.

Now to just figure out where to get those last natural sciences/math credits! I was originally going to take natural sciences for 3 natural sciences and 3 elective credits, but I would much rather have graded credits where possible.

[perrik]

How about the DSST exam for geology?

[argentnox]

How about the DSST exam for geology?

I wonder how difficult that is. I was thinking astronomy because IC covers it, whereas it does not cover geology, but I do not know how difficult astronomy is, either. Either subject could be somewhat interesting (certainly more so than humanities, ugh!). I do not mind having to study a bit more for my natural sciences credit DSST, but I do not want something very difficult, either.

The problem with being a biology major is that all of the classes I am taking that could be natural sciences credit go toward my major. >_> There seem to be rather limited natural sciences exams. I was even looking through ECEs to see if there was anything that would count and was covered by IC, but nadda. EC barely has anything in biology, too, which sucks because I was thinking of knocking out some bio credits using ECEs as long as they did not show up funky on my transcripts. (Since I want my bio credits to all look "nice and normal" for my grad school applications).

[perrik]

From the current School of Liberal Arts catalog: "Credits used to satisfy one area may simultaneously satisfy requirements in another area."

Any biology, chemistry, or mathematics classes you take towards fulfilling the major requirements can also be used to fulfill the general education distribution requirement for natural sciences/math. Only the credits used to fulfill the Written English Requirement can't do double-duty. My literature credits covered both the area of focus requirement and the humanities distribution; the algebra exam counted towards both the quantitative reasoning requirement and natural science/mathematics distribution.

So take geology or astronomy if you want to - but you don't need to.

[argentnox]

Oh, so I would really just need to fill in the extra credits with whatever I want in order to make the full 120 credits?

I may still take astronomy just because it kind of sounds fun. I know, I am weird. I want to fill up my remaining credits with graded exams, though. Heck, I might even take all of the graded exams I can fit in to override some of the non-graded credits I already took. It cannot hurt for grad school applications, and the tests are free for me.