Need Help W/ B.s. Roadmap...suggestions Needed

[mlwilliamsiv]

Hello everyone. Need some help trying to put these exams in order so I can concentrate on one thing at a time. What order do you think I should take these in? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[gcalvin]

I'll go ahead and be the mean old curmudgeon, because I'll bet others are thinking the same thing. If you want help, please make it easy for us to help you. Downloading a Word file is a pain -- a minor pain, sure, but still a pain. How about pasting the relevant text into a new message?

-Gary-

[mlwilliamsiv]

Hello everyone I need help with my B.S. Roadmap for TESC. I have made a list of the exams/courses I need to take. I just wanted some suggestions as to how I should go about this. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

MY 2008 BS ROADMAP

 CLEP English Composition w/essay
 CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature
 DSST Ethics In America or Introduction to World Religions
 CLEP Principles of Macroeconomics
 CLEP Principles of Microeconomics
 CLEP Social Sciences & History
 DSST Environment & Humanity: The Race to Save the Planet
 CLEP Introductory Business Law
 CLEP Information Systems & Computer Applications
 CLEP Principles of Marketing
 CLEP Principles of Management
 CLEP Financial Accounting

I think I'll save the following for last:

 CLEP Precalculus
 DSST Principles of Statistics
 Managerial/Business Communications Course
 Managerial Accounting Course (ACC-102)
 Business Finance Course*
 Business In Society or International Management Course* (BUS-311 or MAN-372)
 Business Policy Course (BUS-421)

*Do you know if there are any CLEPS/DSST that will go with the above courses?

P.S: I am 26 years old and I have been out of school for quite some time. Is it better to study for one CLEP/DSST at a time or should I at least read up on several subjects at a time and tackle these subjects the way they do it in high school? I don't want to overwhelm myself but at the same time I don't want to waste time by just doing one exam at a time. What do you guys think?

Also...I am unemployed and am looking for work at the moment so I don't have the funds to join IC as of yet. The Library has been my primary source of study materials. I wanted to know if there are any of you who have passed exams (CLEP/DSST) without the help of IC, and if so what materials did you use. I have the following study materials from the library:

-The Official CLEP Study Guide 18th Edition
-Kaplan' CLEP 2005
-Principles of Marketing Textbook
-Business Law Textbook
-Barron's Management
-DUMMIES booksCs, Accounting, U.S. History, World History, Economics, & Religion, Psychology, Marketing, Statistics
-IDIOT's GUIDES:Computer Basics, World Religions, American Literature, The American Presidents, Precalculus
-Barron's Macroeconomics the easy way
-Microeconomics Demystified
-Don't Know Much About History
-Barron's Grammar the easy way
-Ethics textbook
-Algebra I textbook

[cinderly]

I don't have any comment on the order of your exams, but if you can't find the money for an IC subscription (you can do one month at a time, but I know what it is to not have even $20 to spare in a month), the following bookmarks are your new best friends:

Wikipedia
SparkNotes
Learner.org (free streaming videos!)
Cliffs Notes
Pink Monkey
The Free University Project
MIT Open Courseware

I would use the following methodology:

- Use the Exam Guide from the office site to create an outline
- Search IC forums for additional information
- Populate the outline with Wikipedia
- Augment Wikipedia with information from the other bookmarks
- Reinforce with Learner.org videos (optional)
- Reinforce with Idiot's Guides, ... for Dummies, etc. (optional)
- Take Peterson's practice exam and read/look up the answers for any explanations you miss. You might also consider making notes of any questions you guess on so you can reinforce those areas, even if you guess correctly.

Whether you study for one exam at a time or several at once depends on your learning style. I don't use the high school model of testing because I've got more on my plate than I did in high school, but it works well for many of the folks here. Above all, know thyself!

Finally, InstantCert is not necessary to pass these exams - it just makes studying for them much, much easier.

[mlwilliamsiv]

Thanks for the information and suggestions Cinderly...it is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Marshall

[gcalvin]

Try the practice exams in the CLEP Official Guide for the following:

Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
Principles of Management
Principles of Marketing
Social Sciences and History

Have somebody else check your answers (at this point, you don't want to know what you got right and what you got wrong), and report your raw scores here. That will give us a rough idea of how much prep you will need for those and other exams. The library materials you have listed should be fine for their respective exams. What sort of time frame do you have in mind for working through these exams?

-Gary-

[mlwilliamsiv]

hilarious I really don't have a time frame (so to speak) as far as the exams go. This is a new journey for me. But I really do want to earn my Associates Degree (at bare minimum) by the end of the year. I want to bring in 2009 with some kind of degree under my belt.