Speed Strategies

[rowan555]

With help from the other thread about good first courses with SL, I was thinking Intro to religion, cultural anthropology, business ethics or medical terminology. Or maybe environmental science.

My son took business ethics and env science - spent a week on each course. They both had open book finals.

[SaebScholar]

Study for two different courses but similar in relativeness of the subject at the same time. An example is English comp I and II, also Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. I know there are other pros here that would definitely have a better idea, but if I was you, I would only do what works for me, because at some point your brain might feel overwhelmed with info and you find yourself remembering topics or answers for Macroeconomics while doing Microeconomics. In essence find what works for you, it's always recommended to do Shmoop first but now that you got SL, I guess you'll just have to go on ahead and do what's needed.

Sorry Can you explain why it's recommended to do Schmoop first? I was actually guided to take SL Comm 101 first.

[Shynepapin]

Sorry Can you explain why it's recommended to do Schmoop first? I was actually guided to take SL Comm 101 first.

We are different and if you read the forum, you would know that most people actually do that and suggest it, so I was just relaying information I have read in the forum, but I think because it's easy and would take less time to get more electives and if you find some courses that'll fit into your degree plan as a prerequisite, before going to sources like SL and Study for more prerequisite and also because it helps prepare individuals for the real online study experience.

[rlw74]

Shmoop is recommended because it a very inexpensive option. You can easily knock out half a dozen courses in a month for only $87. For example, I took all the free courses (TEEX, NFA, Ethics) plus I'm on the scholarship at study.com which requires Personal Finance(another elective for me). Besides those courses I need 3-4 additional classes to fill up my electives. I can do that on shmoop and will have only paid a total of $87 for 21 credit hours. And I am doing all that in one month. That is half of the credits I need to get my degree in just one month for only $87!!! I'm not sure how you can beat that anywhere.

Of course your scenario may be different. You may not need that many electives or you may need them in certain areas. Shmoop has math, history and literature which are all classes that fit into my major. If I had decided to fill up my electives with math courses I would have done Aleks instead of shmoop for just $20 month. I could probably have gotten more for less money but I'm not a math person and I don't need it for my major.

[cookderosa]

Thank you so much, cookderosa, for posting those rules, but I have to admit, now I am even more confused. You write that those are non-final-exam. So they are for the quizzes? And I don't think they are written very clearly regarding the texbooks, as you highlighted in red. I will try to compare the final exam rules on the Straighterline website between closed book and open book and report back.

That page appears before every test/quiz in my son's microbiology course - so by non-final, that means the test/quiz that are in the course without a proctor. The proctored final has its own rules regarding open/closed book, etc. I assumed, though I may be wrong, that the textbook was allowed for all the tests/quizzes INSIDE the course - that is to say NOT the final exam. Now, I'm not 100% sure.

[dfrecore]

Sorry Can you explain why it's recommended to do Schmoop first? I was actually guided to take SL Comm 101 first.

Interesting. I don't think I've ever seen a post where a particular course is recommended "first." I've seen people say "sign up for ALEKS to take math before it expires" or "sign up for Shmoop before the $25/month deal goes away" but not "you should definitely take this particular course first."

There are times on here when people find out that something is going to happen with a course/exam provider, and they suggest people try to take advantage of it before a particular deal goes away. For instance, Shmoop got 3 courses approved, and was offering a $25/mo deal for all 3 courses. But they added a bunch of courses, and then changed the price to $85ish/mo. Still a great deal, but just not as cheap.

Some people recommend that you take the free Ethics course just to get motivated. Or ALEKS before the courses expire. Or TEEX because it's free.

All that to say, there is not one particular course that I would tell people they definitely should do first. It totally depends. I personally tell people to start with something they think would be easy, that they could pass easily (I started with the Marketing & Management CLEP's, passed, and got very motivated). So whatever will get you motivated to get started and then continue is your best bet. That will be different for everyone.

[TrailRunr]

There is the non legit but legal method of control F. And then there is the totally non legal and non legit method for SL. You don't learn anything with either method but both are needed for fast completion of SL courses without previous knowledge.

[Mamasaphire]

There is the non legit but legal method of control F. And then there is the totally non legal and non legit method for SL. You don't learn anything with either method but both are needed for fast completion of SL courses without previous knowledge.

I don't know what the non legal and non legit methods are, and I know my scenario probably isn't what you meant, but I wanted to say that using ctrl f was actually really helpful to me a few times. Some of the SL exams are very textbook-edition specific, so there were occasions when I knew the basic answer but had to use the search method to find what they specifically wanted the answer to look like. I think it can be a valid study method for adults, especially when they are taking the course out of motivation to actually learn, not just to fly through the course.

[cookderosa]

I don't know what the non legal and non legit methods are, and I know my scenario probably isn't what you meant, but I wanted to say that using ctrl f was actually really helpful to me a few times. Some of the SL exams are very textbook-edition specific, so there were occasions when I knew the basic answer but had to use the search method to find what they specifically wanted the answer to look like. I think it can be a valid study method for adults, especially when they are taking the course out of motivation to actually learn, not just to fly through the course.

Ctrl+F isn't cheating, it's digitized page flipping in your textbook.

[Mamasaphire]

Ctrl+F isn't cheating, it's digitized page flipping in your textbook.

Exactly! If using a modern book, then it's helpful to use a modern method of searching.