New member, Excelsior student need help choosing exams. Long, very long.

[Mini Trail]

I need 5 hours of Arts and Science and 9 hours of “Any Collegiate Study”. I would very much appreciate any advice on choosing the easiest exams I don’t care what they are in or about the cost so much as I don’t want to stress out about them.

I don’t know why it was so hard for me to find this forum but I think I have finally found something useful for my endeavor. I am very impressed by most of the posts in this forum and the cavalier attitude toward exam taking. So far I have taken three Uexcel courses:
Macroeconomics - B
Microeconomics - C
LIFE SPAN development – B
I found all of these to be very stressful but arguably easier than taking the 8 week courses. I intended to exam out of financial accounting and managerial accounting but the books were putting me to sleep and I just wasn’t sure I could pull off the exams.

For the past 18 months I have been pursuing a degree in Global Business from Excelsior. I am pretty much wrapping it up by taking my capstone course over the next 15 weeks but they cancelled another business concentration course (GLOBAL BUSINESS STRATEGY) that I need and don’t offer it again until October. I have also signed up for 2 more 8 week courses at Excelsior beginning next week.

The only other required course I have (not counting toward the Arts and Science and 9 hours of “Any Collegiate Study” requirements) is Organizational Behavior which I do plan to take the exam soon. The course syllabus looks way too tedious.

So now I am thinking about finishing up with exams after seeing your impressive results. I was not really aware of the CLEP or DSST exams and am not sure how to get the credit back to Excelsior but it seems like there is a much greater pool to choose from. This is what I have so far:
Uexcel WORLD CONFLICTS SINCE 1900
DSST Civil War Recommended on this site
DSST INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING saw it on another post and looks easy

I would like some feedback on these exams or anything else you see in my post. I am looking for basically anything easy, intuitive and/or obvious. I don’t much care at all what the exams are in, just that I can read a book and take the exams. Also, any exam that is only worth 2 credits since I have an unequal number would work. I welcome any questions about what I have done so far.

Here is where I am:

Written English 6hrs *Transferred

Humanities 9hrs
Foreign language Spanish 1 *Community College
Foreign language Spanish 2 *Community College finish next Friday
Lit heritage *Transferred

Social Science / History 15hrs
world Civilization *Transferred
macroeconomics *Exam
microeconomics *Exam
Intro World Politics & Conflict *Excelsior
LIFE SPAN DEVELOP *Exam
Nat Science/ Math Req 9hrs
COLLEGE ALGEBRA *Transferred
Statistics *Excelsior
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY *Excelsior

Business Core Requirements 27hrs
Financial Acctg *Excelsior
Managerial Acctg *Excelsior
Intro to US Business *Excelsior
Computers Bus Communica *Excelsior
Principles of management *Excelsior
Principles of marketing *Excelsior
Financial management *Excelsior
Operations management *Excelsior
Addl bus credit cost acctg *Excelsior
Bus Policy capstone *Excelsior Summer 2015

Concentration Requirements 15hrs
International Business *Excelsior
International Economics *Excelsior
International Finance *Excelsior
International Marketing *Excelsior
GLOBAL BUSINESS STRATEGY *Excelsior Fall II 2015

Remaining Arts and Sciences Requirement 21 hrs
Chem lab 1hr *Transferred
Ethics *Excelsior
BIOLOGY *Excelsior
Pirates On the High Seas *Excelsior Summer 2015
BUS 430 Quantitative Methods *Excelsior Summer 2015
WORLD CONFLICTS SINCE 1900 *planning to take Uexcel Exam
Need 2 more hours of A&S

Additional Credit (Any College Study) 15hrs
INTRO ELECTRICAL ENGR *Transferred
FREE WEIGHTS/MACHINES 2hr *Transferred
Information Literacy 1hr *Excelsior
Need 9 more hours of ANYTHING

[mednat]

Hands down I'd recommend Analyzing & Interpreting literature CLEP. It's the easiest 6 credits I've found.

To schedule a clep you pay and register on the collegeboard website (https://clep.collegeboard.org/ ). They give you a voucher to print. Then you find a test center near you using their locator (on the same link). Call up the test center and schedule the test. They will usually require a small fee for the test. When you take the register for the CLEP you indicate where the scores should be sent. It sounds like alot of steps, but I assure you it's pretty painless.

Social Science & History was a pretty easy one as well, but I'd recommend studying the notes in the specific exam section here. I studied this alone and passed easily.

[studymom]

Check out this website: Free Clep Prep.com

Especially the CLEP exam difficulty list: Clep Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com

And the DSST exam difficulty list: DSST Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com

His specific feedback about each exam is very helpful.

If you do decide to test, the specific exam feedback board on this website is invaluable. It is definitely worth the subscription.

Also, you may want to look into Straighterline or Sophia for speed and ease.

[KittenMittens]

Check out this website: Free Clep Prep.com

Especially the CLEP exam difficulty list: Clep Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com

And the DSST exam difficulty list: DSST Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com

His specific feedback about each exam is very helpful.

If you do decide to test, the specific exam feedback board on this website is invaluable. It is definitely worth the subscription.

Also, you may want to look into Straighterline or Sophia for speed and ease.

Also 123collegedegree.com, and bain4weeks.com. They tend to give the overall strategy and mentality one should have in order to test out of a large part of a degree. Also, you must always read the exam feedback subforum for each exam (always), and 9/10x get official practice exams from the test maker.

[Mini Trail]

I have been reading almost all day and am learning a lot and getting confused a lot.

CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature - This looks like a definite for me the CLEP site says it is 6 credits, does anyone know if Excelsior gives 6 credits for it?

DSSTÂ INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING - Looks easy enough.

Do I have to worry about Excelsior not accepting any exams in particular? They will just be for electives not for my concentration studies.

[mednat]

I have been reading almost all day and am learning a lot and getting confused a lot.

CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature - This looks like a definite for me the CLEP site says it is 6 credits, does anyone know if Excelsior gives 6 credits for it?

DSSTÂ INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING - Looks easy enough.

Do I have to worry about Excelsior not accepting any exams in particular? They will just be for electives not for my concentration studies.

They accept A&I for 6 credits.

When I was enrolled in Excelsior, this was my "bible" http://documents.excelsior.edu/document/...m-catalog/ If it's in there, they will accept it. If it's not in there, they may still accept it, but i check first.

[Mini Trail]

Thank you so much for that. I never knew it was out there.

[marianne202]

I too recommend that you read the accepted exams section of the catalog. It was my best friend while testing out. just make sure you send a list of exams to your advisor before you take any exams, to make sure you dont duplicate credits. Good luck and welcome!

[Exfactor]

Do I have to worry about Excelsior not accepting any exams in particular?

In your myexcelsior account, within your maplanner, you should be able to see the remaining credits that you need to complete your degree. Within that you should be able to see courses or exams (Uexcel) that would satisfy those requirements. From there you should be able to see the correct exams that would satisfy your degree requirements. You may also want to reach out to your academic advisor before you begin such, so that you can get an approval, as they will make sure that such is relevant to your degree plan, and if you want to take a CLEP or DSST, make sure you inform them so they can give you the ok.

[Mini Trail]

In your myexcelsior account, within your maplanner, you should be able to see the remaining credits that you need to complete your degree. Within that you should be able to see courses or exams (Uexcel) that would satisfy those requirements. From there you should be able to see the correct exams that would satisfy your degree requirements. You may also want to reach out to your academic advisor before you begin such, so that you can get an approval, as they will make sure that such is relevant to your degree plan, and if you want to take a CLEP or DSST, make sure you inform them so they can give you the ok.

The map planner is helpful but it doesn't show everything that is available. For instance, I have fulfilled my business requirements so when I go to "any collegiate study" some (but curiously not all) of the business classes don't show up. Twice I have had to have the adviser add classes for me because I couldn't access them through the planner. I wonder if there are other classes or exams that are missing from the lineup. I haven't had a chance to study the catalog of exams of which I was recently made aware.

I have read other posts on here about people working with their adviser and knowing their name. I don't recall ever being introduced to my adviser and have just assumed that my approvals were coming from a pool and whomever was working the board at the time addressed them. Am I wrong about that? The replies have ranged anywhere from short to curt for the most part.