Straighterline New Course reviews

[durandtheman]

Hi Everybody,
I received a request for a review on the new SL courses I have taken (Western Civilization 1 and Criminal Justice).

As with many other SL courses, it is VERY IMPORTANT to have the exact book that is used by SL for these courses. And by exact book, i mean, same edition, author etc. Like other SL courses ALL the answers are available in the book, you just need to be able to find them in the time given.

Western Civilization 1 - *Homework is not necessary to complete the course*
-Lots of focus on Italian and French monarchies and governments
-Lots of questions regarding the
-Lots of questions about the living environment, disease, population fluctuations, reasons for doing so
-Crusades participants and results

Since this was a Intro course it did not go to in depth with everything. Lots of exam questions can be considered common sense for those who are History channel buffs. Again, all the answers are located in the textbook. Overall, this course is 100% doable in a short span of time. Since it can be taken for a P/F, you can have your goal in sight to know what you need to accomplish to get your needed results

Criminal Justice
- Tricky questions "Of these 4, which is NOT correct" Sometimes I answered too fast for my own good
- Each test centered around a specific topic (1-2 chapters) letting you know where to find the necessary information
- Specific exam questions regarding population percentages and yearly averages found specifically in the text.

Same as with Western Civ, if you watch crime shows/drama's you can answer the common sense questions rather easily, and leave the harder questions to your info-search within the book. Finished in 2 weeks, and received the grade i was looking for.

If anyone has any questions, go ahead and ask them here. I can't think of what I would ask someone taking the class myself, but I'd love to help answer anything you can come up with.

[a4tunatemom]

Thank you for posting your review! I have a few questions. Are the questions multiple choice? How many questions are there per exam? How much time do you have to complete each exam?

Thanks again!
Danielle

[durandtheman]

All questions, for both CJ and WC are Multiple choice.

CJ had 4 choices for each question, WC had 5 options (sometimes, mostly 4 however).

CJ had 12 quizzes, 1 midterm and 1 final. Each quiz is 10questions in 25min, worth 5pts each, total 50. Midterm/Finals are 80q, 2.5hrs and each q is worth 2.5pts.

WC has the standard SL setup, 4 graded exams 1hr for 25q worth 125pts, 2 midterms, 2hrs each with 50 questions worth 250.

Remember the end goal is 70% or higher, definitely attainable when you know what you need to score going into each midterm/final.

[a4tunatemom]

Thank you!!! That was very helpful and informative.

[Tasman]

Excellent SL feedback

[Gooberman11]

Did you feel the time given per test is enough if you have basic knowledge of info or did you feel like you should know the info perfect in order to pass in the given time? I've taken many CLEPS-is the tempo of how fast you have to answer similar? I'm a little nervous since I just took an online test and felt the computer was running slow and cutting into my time.

[durandtheman]

I do think the time given is enough if you have the basic knowledge. One important thing to do however, if you are going into each exam "blind" without the topic homework or reading the entire text, just glance at each chapter that you are being tested on. Even if you can't recite the info, knowing WHERE to find it is important too. The index is great, yes, but if they as for a percentage of peasants dead in France due to the "black death" you can't exactly find that in the index as "Percentage dead." If you've taken any SL course, or know indexes of texts, you know what I'm talking about.

One thing I did notice, There are probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the questions are quickly answerable, meaning you know the answer within a few seconds of seeing the question. That gives MORE time for the questions you need to search for. Very similar to CLEPs, but SL is open book, so the answers are all available to you, you just need to know how to find it.

You won't feel rushed, but there are times when you can't exactly review the answer for each question as is possible on some CLEP exams. The # of questions and the time given is very straight-forward. When doing some of these tests, you will feel like you can get through multiple in 1 day. I think the max I did was 4 topic exams in 1 night.

Hope that helps!

[Gooberman11]

Thank you! Yes, it does help.

[msantos]

Great review, thanks!!

I am contemplating getting 1 year older edition to both courses textbooks. I know the importance of the book form prior sl courses. But the current edition are very expensive. What do you think?

[durandtheman]

Which courses are you looking into? For all the courses EXCEPT Personal Finance and Nutrition, the texts were less than $10 each. Those 2 were the only 2 books that I saw were $50+. Granted, if you complete the class quick enough you can sell the edition back for roughly 80% of what you paid.

I always get used on amazon, and try lumping all books together into the Free-Super saver. Just notice that sometimes the more expensive books lumped in super-saver shipping is cheaper than the cheap books + shipping.