My review of Study.com "College Accelerator" service -- 6 credits for $199

[TinHead]

Hey everybody,

I just took 2 exams today online from the comfort of my home via Study.com's "College Accelerator" service that I had mentioned in a previous post. Here I want to provide a summary of my experience.

Study.com (formerly called Education-Portal) is a website that allows you to take the following exams to obtain ACE approved credit:

...

Business

Business 101: Principles of Management
Business 102: Principles of Marketing
Business 107: Organizational Behavior

History

History 101: Western Civilization I
History 103: US History I

Math

Math 101: College Algebra
Math 102: College Mathematics
Math 103: Pre-Calculus
Math 104: Calculus

Science

Biology 101: Intro to Biology
Biology 103: Microbiology
Biology 105: Anatomy and Physiology
Environmental Science 101: Environment and Humanity
Science 101: Intro to Natural Science

Social Science

Psychology 101: Intro to Psychology
Psychology 102: Educational Psychology
Psychology 103: Human Growth and Development
Psychology 104: Social Psychology
Psychology 106: Abnormal Psychology

...

Each course is worth 3 credits and you are able to take obtain maximum of 6 credits per month as they only allow you to take 2 credit bearing exams every pay period.

Study.com has 3 levels of service -- $49 for just the videos + transcribed video lessons, $99 for videos + transcribed video lessons + practice quizzes and exams or $199 for College Accelerator which allows everything in the other packages but also allows you to take 2 credit bearing exams.

To pass the course to take the exam you have to get 100% on all quizzes (ie: 104 videos in "Psychology 101" = 104 quizzes to pass). They are 5 questions each (for every lesson) and if you get any incorrect, they will show you which questions you got wrong and what the correct answer is. Essentially like an assisted open book exam. There is also a 30 question chapter quiz for every chapter (that are optional to take) that is a random mixture of the questions from all the previous lessons of the chapter as well as a 50 question "practice" final exam. Just like the 5 question lesson quizzes you are shown all the answers you got incorrect and what the correct answer is.

After you have passed all the quizzes for every lesson you are allowed to take the final proctored exam. You can literally take the exam anytime 24/7 as long as you have a webcam. Your screen and face are recorded so they see what you were doing during the exams and this video is reviewed by a human being at some point within the next 2 weeks. Once your score is calculated and the video reviewed to ensure you didn't cheat, you are emailed your marks.

The exams are 100 questions (multiple choice) and a 70% (or above) is a pass. You have 2 hours to complete them. The questions are very similar to the questions that you had during your lesson quizzes. Only small details are changed. I found them to be even easier that the lesson quizzes.

The proctoring fee is included in the $199.

I am waiting on my exam results (I took Psychology 101 and 102) but I have a good feeling I passed them as I was averaging anywhere from 80% - 96% during the 50 question practice exams I took and re-took close to 10 times. I would advise doing this to really get a feel for the material.

If you have any questions, ask away

[SuzanneD]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[sheagang6]

At one point Education Portal lined up with the Saylor courses (for their videos). Is this still the case? Basically, in theory, you could get the 2 credits from study.com plus use the service to pass the Saylor proctored exams at the same time. Right?

[swalke321]

I'm not too familiar with Saylor but I have been looking at DSST and CLEP. Some of the courses duplicate DSST or CLEP. I've looked at study.com to take a couple of courses as an alternative to test centers. One course I was looking at was study.com Psychology 103 which is 3 credits. It appears to duplicate CLEP Human Growth and Development Exam which is also 3 credits. I think it depends on the school, but if the course/exam are too similar the school might not accept both for credit towards a degree program. DSST offers Life Span Developmental Psychology and CLEP offers Human Growth and Development which TESC considers to be duplicate. TESC also considers the DSST Criminal Justice and DSST Intro to Law Enforcement to be duplicates and will only award credit for one. In the past study.com was used as a study aide for DSST, CLEP, Uxcel, etc. but now a lot more courses have ACE credit recommendations which some schools will accept. It all depends on the schools' transfer credit policies.

[TinHead]

At one point Education Portal lined up with the Saylor courses (for their videos). Is this still the case? Basically, in theory, you could get the 2 credits from study.com plus use the service to pass the Saylor proctored exams at the same time. Right?

I know that there is some overlap but I would argue it is best to learn the materials Saylor recommends because some of the questions on the exams come directly from some of their obscure readings

[Ready2Test]

I know that there is some overlap but I would argue it is best to learn the materials Saylor recommends because some of the questions on the exams come directly from some of their obscure readings

Tinhead, I see that you have used study.com for more than just psychology. I guess you like this method? My daughter is just finishing up AM. History 1, and we initially thought she'd be taking the CLEP, but we are now leaning toward their proctored exam.

Thanks for your post here and the great information!

I hope I'm posting this correctly. I don't post often.

[Togas]

I would love to take the study.com test instead of the CLEP for chemistry. I have a feeling that it would be easier.
Sadly my school only takes selected CLEP and DSST classes. They got somewhat rude when I brought up other ACE options .

How was the Math 104 Calculus?
Did you get into trig functions or was it purely business calc?

[dfrecore]

I would love to take the study.com test instead of the CLEP for chemistry. I have a feeling that it would be easier.
Sadly my school only takes selected CLEP and DSST classes. They got somewhat rude when I brought up other ACE options .

How was the Math 104 Calculus?
Did you get into trig functions or was it purely business calc?

You can choose the inexpensive Study.com option and study for the CLEP exam. They are aligned.

[TinHead]

It is a great method. Videos / transcripts for all lessons. 5 question quizzes after each lesson. Chapter exams and practice final exams. Great support and the most affordable college credits. I'm a big fan

[EI2HCB]

Study.com has some good information although some of their course material overlaps with other courses and can be confusing, mainly because I use two different browsers a url on chrome when pasted to internet explorer will have a different course number and chapter number so make sure you use just one browser and you'll do better, the material is aligned to CLEP and DSSt in most cases, I'd rather have a CLEP or DSST exam on my transcript than a Study.com Ace recommendation because more people are familiar with CLEP and DSST but that's personal preference.
The subscription for it is a bit pricey but if it saves time then its worth it. I find that instantcert gives greater value to me on many exam because I have to interact with the questions as I progress.