Low cost ACE reviewed history courses from Shmoop.com

[mednat]

I know this isn't likely since a few folks have said that the exams are so specific to the material, but let's say someone well-versed in history signs up for the free 1-day trial, knocks out one of the courses by skipping to the quizzes/exam and passes dry, could they get free credit?

This is theoretical only, I am not a history buff and wouldn't have any chance at taking this dry.

While the material is specific. If you are well versed, I'd say a 70% open book isn't impossible by any means. You can certainly try, and retake the tests needed (since you get one free retake of each).

Very little to lose by trying this method.

[ndelco]

I signed up for the free trial and read through the entire first unit and took the test. I felt that many of the questions had multiple correct answers. I scored a 75% on my first try and then a 70% on my retake (completely different questions). I used an additional tab with the coursework open and utilized the search function for almost every question. The search function worked well for some questions and terribly for others. I had every link that was supplied in the reading open as tabs that I could check back on. I had a tab open of the set of 9 flashcards that was provided for Unit 1. Maybe I am just really bad at figuring out which answer is better out of a couple possibilities but I think this type of course would give me anxiety as I hovered around the 70% mark the entire time. I didn't feel like it mattered if I learned anything, only if I remembered where each question could be found in the reading and then if I could figure out which answer/opinion the test is looking for. It was a lot of reading and I would be devastated to spend so much time in this course and end up below 70%, which I think would be a real possibility FOR ME.

Anyway, to add to some of the reviews for people that will be taking these courses... the Unit tests were 20 questions each and all multiple choice. Since I knew I wasn't going to do the course by the time I was finishing up my second test, I tried to Google one of the questions just to see what would come up. The other posters are correct in saying that Google won't be much help. Nothing specific to the question I copied and pasted came up and I was just given general Wikipedia links. Also, after deciding I wasn't going to continue, I tried the Unit 2 test and scored a 58% without looking at any material. I spent about 4 legit hours reading through Unit 1 and another 35 minutes on the test. US History I has 12 units so the course would take a while to get through. I admit that I am not that fast of a reader so other people's times would probably be shorter. Unit 1 had 8 sections to go through with two mini-quizzes for no grade and I saw some units had up to 20 sections. Like others have said, you can retake each Unit test and the final. If you do decide to retake your original grade is erased. You don't get the option to pick the higher grade. Personally, if I scored over 70% I would not take the chance of retaking for a higher grade. You get one hour per test but I am not sure about the final exam.

Overall I thought the reading was interesting and I think many people will do perfectly fine in it. I just felt like some of the questions were more about opinions instead of concrete answers and I don't think that type of course suits me best. I am loving the Study.com format so far so it's completely possible that this type of course just doesn't agree with me but others may love it. The reading is entertaining and I had no problem staying awake which is often a problem for me :roflol: The website clearly states that they will be upping the price "within the month" which someone else already wrote on here. Good luck to anyone who takes these courses and I hope my review helps you decide either way what to do! I definitely think this course is passable (with much frustration for me) but I think I would need to focus solely on each course by itself and really take my time which isn't something I can do right now with the Study.com subscription.

[edwardfurlong]

Just to follow up, they added the class to my ace transcript a few days ago, they had to reset my shmoop password to do so, it seems like there are a few kinks still, but they responded to all my e-mails and took care of things quickly.

In response to the previous post I would just keep in mind you need a 70% overall, some tests I did much better on than others, I wouldn't necessarily let one test discourage you.

Many of the answers I think are not what you would think if you just had to guess on them.

Not sure if this will help, but the last question is always a "read this passage and interpret this quote from it". I feel like I got most of these correct, although there is no way to be sure. I don't think you need any outside material to understand the quote. You may want to do the last question first if you are like me and just want to finish the test and not read a long passage right at the end.

If you have a question with "all of these" as an option, if you know at least two are correct then you know the answer is "all of these". If you know one is wrong, that will at least narrow your choices to two answers.

One more thing, sometimes it was obvious it was not "all of these" because if you picked that, then the answers would contradict each other.

Best of luck.

[ndelco]

@edward- that is really good to know. I definitely agree not to let my experience discourage you. It is also entirely possible that I went into the course with the wrong mindset. I think the course just probably needs more focus than I gave to it. For the price of the credits I would definitely try the 24-hour trial and see what you think. I'm still debating myself on if I should just sign up and go for it just because of the price alone. I don't really need the History credits but if I got them I could take the risk that Study.com will have more classes in the future like some of the accounting courses that I could move around. Worst-case scenario would be that I spent $25 on credits that won't fit into my plan.

@edward- did you take all three courses? If so, would you say all three are pretty comparable with the types of questions? I assume they are but it would be cool to get confirmation.

[edwardfurlong]

I am working my way through the other two classes, the type of questions and format are the same. The only difference I see is number of units varies from 11 to 14, the weight of the scoring for the unit tests and final changes some between them.

The first two sections of the modern U.S. history were covered some in the previous course. I have not gone very far in the European history course, but some of the topics look similar to the U.S course (WWI, WWII, etc), so there might be some overlap. The modern U.S history has the most units, but might be a little easier for some just because it is dealing with more recent history.

@edward- that is really good to know. I definitely agree not to let my experience discourage you. It is also entirely possible that I went into the course with the wrong mindset. I think the course just probably needs more focus than I gave to it. For the price of the credits I would definitely try the 24-hour trial and see what you think. I'm still debating myself on if I should just sign up and go for it just because of the price alone. I don't really need the History credits but if I got them I could take the risk that Study.com will have more classes in the future like some of the accounting courses that I could move around. Worst-case scenario would be that I spent $25 on credits that won't fit into my plan.

@edward- did you take all three courses? If so, would you say all three are pretty comparable with the types of questions? I assume they are but it would be cool to get confirmation.

[msd2012]

Just finished the Modern European History course as I was able to squeeze it into my degree plan. The quizzes weren't too bad and the final was pretty easy with a little more than 1/2 of the questions being material already covered. Took just over 2 days and ended with a 76%. Pretty awesome for $24.95, I really wish I had room in my plan for the other courses.

[bjcheung77]

Does anyone happen to know when they're "bumping" up their pricing as they mentioned it's within the month.
I'm still subscribing to Straighterline and would like to have that subscription run out before I go into this one...
But from the looks of things, a course can be done in a few days, I might just jump on it before they "bump the price".
Actually, gonna email them and if they say it's going to be really soon, I'll just do it... for all 3 courses as gen ed.

[ndelco]

@MSD- How long would you say that you took for this course in hours?

[msd2012]

@MSD- How long would you say that you took for this course in hours?

Probably about 10. I pretty much just did open book the entire way. There is more than enough time to go through the chapters and find the correct answers, you kind of get an idea of which chapter you need to reference based on the headings. This course (which I believe is the shorter of the 3) Can definitely be done in a weekend.

[mickey20]

Is there only one chance for retaking each test?