Studying on a Schedule, week by week

[Pats20]

So, when I log into my class on Modern States or Saylor (the only two that I have experience with) they want to force me to watch every video, read evey slide, page by page, do all the quiz questions, etc. All the way to about 60 hourse worth of content before I can access the Final Exam/CLEP and get my credits. Even watching videos at 2x it would still take plenty of time.


TLDR: How do you -really- pass your classes so quickly? Do you watch all the videos? Read the syllabus then study from a library book and go directly to the Final Exam? Or study differently, depending on the source / provider?

I can't comment on every single ModernStates course, but for the English Comp (which was 6cr 2 classes worth of credit), it only took me around 5 hours to go through the ModernStates course watching all videos 2x speed. Most of the videos were short 2min videos. 

I was using a combo of ModernStates, Peterson Test/Guides, Quizlets, and Instantcert.

I don’t think you’re required to watch the videos in Sophia. Although I may be wrong, it’s been a year since I’ve taken any. I’m going to be honest here, there are some super information processors on this forum that can knock out a degree in a year, but that’s not going to be the norm. It’s probably gonna take 15-20 hours per week for 2 years If you’re a working adult with a home and family. 

You don't have to watch the Sophia videos, the transcript is the same thing word for word, and you can read faster than you can hear information. However, some videos were interesting, so I did watch some. 

I wouldn't say there are super nerds here, just people using efficient studying techniques.

15-20hrs per week is a good pace. You should be able to do at least 1 class per week.

As Pats20 said, you're not REQUIRED to watch any of Sophia's videos. We do strongly recommend it for Statistics, but the others can be watched (or not) as desired.

The problem with doing a speedrun through Modern States is:
#1 You must score 75% or higher to get a voucher. 
#2 You must pass the CLEP exam

It took me approx 350 hours to complete English 1&2 and public speaking through Sophia. They were definitely much more difficult and time consuming than my kids community college ra versions. No joke.

Quote from the book, How to Win at College, 
"You must avoid bad courses at all costs.  They will make you unhappy, they will upset your academic momentum, they will sap your will to achieve, and they will hurt your grades."

This is where learning from other student's experiences here on DF can help you choose the best path to take.

I agree. My daughter had a gravy English 1 professor. The next semester he was Booked for English 2 so she waited until the following semester and booked him for English 2. I was too wrapped up in the free Sophia and July deadline that I didn’t even think about pursuing it another way. At that time I don’t think there was a lot of “dont take English from Sophia “ I think that came to be around the time I was pretty close to being over the hump. Oh well it didn’t stop my motivation or will. I’m still here.

[wow]

I've taken courses from Saylor and they had no way of tracking what videos I'd watched. Has this changed?
If not, you might just find it easier to download the video transcripts and read those.
Though in my case I liked the videos because they were Khan Academy and really well done. I would save time by watching them during my exercise time (walking on treadmill).