Shmoop for BA in English

[KAnn]

Hi All,
I am looking into a second bachelor's from TESU and am wondering about how insufferable Shmoop's English courses are.  I have seen the threads indicating almost all the requirements for a BA in English can be completed through Shmoop.  I have taken their European History course, however, and do not know if I could manage another seven or so of their courses if they are as bad as the history course was.  I have the same complaints as many, including their convoluted questions and questions asking for obscure information, broken links, etc.
If anyone has experience with both their European History and English courses, I would really appreciate a comparison.
Thanks so much!
Kerry

[originalamyj]

I can't compare the two. I've only taken 2 from Shmoop so far and am starting the 3rd. I feel like if I do as advised by others and open every link and at least browse them, I will do ok. It's proven true on the first two courses (Bible and Shakespeare) but I am aware that I began with the two "easiest" courses. I'm trying not to think of it like I'm suffering through them. Sure, study.com is easier. But they don't offer the courses an English major needs, and Shmoop does, so I'm grateful. I feel certain that the time and expense of a 16 week B&M class would be a LOT worse than Shmoop from the comfort of my couch.

I'm also only using it for 5 courses to get my UL. How bad can it be!?

[Ideas]

I took one history course through them, and started 4 English courses. I gave up on most of the English courses. Only the Bible course was similar to the history course. The others are much harder, in my opinion, because the answers are much more subjective. For history/bible it seems like they were more constrained.

You're aware of the Non-Western Lit requirement right? In addition to Shmoop courses that is needed. Someone on this forum finally found one for not much over $500, and it's self paced.

Then a couple CLEP exams are also required.

[dfrecore]

The good news is that with the BYU course needed (Chinese Literature in Translation) for your Non-Western Lit requirement, it is UL. The Capstone is UL. You can take the English Lit, American Lit, and A&I Lit CLEP exams. That leaves 4 UL Shmoop courses. So that's your minimum. Pick 4 out of the 5.

SecularCourses has Medieval Hispano-Jewish Poetry, 4cr UL for $225, so if you don't mind paying a little more, you're down to 3 Shmoop courses.

If you don't want to take CLEP exams, there are other options too. SecularCourses has American Lit I & II (a full year of either Am Lit or Brit Lit is required for the degree) for $150 each. Study.com offers A&I Lit, either Am Lit I or Brit Lit I, and Short Stories, as well as Info LIt & Tech Writing, all English or Lit courses.

[jsd]

SecularCourses 

I was confused by this and thought we had a new provider, then I remembered Coopersmith uses this as their domain name for some reason.

[dfrecore]

SecularCourses 

I was confused by this and thought we had a new provider, then I remembered Coopersmith uses this as their domain name for some reason.

Yeah, it's a weird one.  I'd rather tell people the name of the website than the name of the course provider in this case, makes it easier to find.

[KAnn]

The good news is that with the BYU course needed (Chinese Literature in Translation) for your Non-Western Lit requirement, it is UL. The Capstone is UL. You can take the English Lit, American Lit, and A&I Lit CLEP exams. That leaves 4 UL Shmoop courses. So that's your minimum. Pick 4 out of the 5.

SecularCourses has Medieval Hispano-Jewish Poetry, 4cr UL for $225, so if you don't mind paying a little more, you're down to 3 Shmoop courses.

If you don't want to take CLEP exams, there are other options too. SecularCourses has American Lit I & II (a full year of either Am Lit or Brit Lit is required for the degree) for $150 each. Study.com offers A&I Lit, either Am Lit I or Brit Lit I, and Short Stories, as well as Info LIt & Tech Writing, all English or Lit courses.

Now THAT is helpful, dfrecore! Thanks a bunch!

[originalamyj]

Is Coopersmith/SecularCourses basically a proctored exam? So they provide you with the study content but you still have to go sit for a proctored exam. Does anyone know if they are easier to pass than CLEP? I’m thinking of American Lit.

[jsd]

Yes that is exactly what Coopersmith is. Proctoring is done online. Someone else will have to chime in on how they compare to CLEP, however.

[rlw74]

As far as shmoop...you pay the $88 a month and just try to knock out as many courses as you can. They really are horrible. I love English Lit and went into courses having read everything but had trouble passing their tests. So you can waste a few days on a course and not get any credit. I've heard of a few people just winging it on exams and if they passed they passed and if not they moved onto the next course. I never tried it that way but my guess is the results are probably the same either way. Its a cheap option but not a fun one for sure. I even complained to them but their customer service is terrible and I never heard from anyone. The only reason I would recommend them is based on cost. Otherwise I think they are a joke. I have no idea how they got ACE approval. Half their exams include typos, the grammar is awful in some of their courses, links are broken and I even found exams where the same exact answer was an option more than once. So which one do you choose - you can get marked for an incorrect answer on A when they want you to select B even though the wording is exactly the same?

I did take Bible as Lit during the 24 hour free trial, passed it and got ACE credit without paying anything. You could try that to see if its worth your time. But I think Bible as Lit was the easiest course to pass. None of the other ones I did were as easy. Maybe try one of the UL courses and see if you can get some free credits that way.