UL vs LL difficulty

[ryanaryn]

What is the difference between UL and LL tests? 
For example In JSD's BA in Psychology map I see this: Abnormal Psychology, TECEP (UL), UExcel (UL), ed4online (UL?), Coopersmith (UL?), Study.com (LL).
Does that mean that the Study.com course is easier, less comprehensive?  Could I take the Study.com course, and then test out using the TECEP and expect to pass without needing to cover more study material? 
Any insight into the differences is much appreciated!

[Supermind]

Typically, lower level course numbers are in the 100 or 200 range, while upper level courses are in the 300 or 400 range. You will find both upper and lower level courses on study.com. For an undergraduate degree, TESU expects you to have 15 upper level credits (5 courses that are in the 300-400 range) in your Area of study (AOS). So, those are the details you find on Jsd’s List. You might not find all 5 upper level courses for your AOS with any one provider. So, we look for different course providers to meet our requirements.

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But I must keep you informed that there are courses on study.com with numbers like 316, 312 etc. And they are still only lower level courses. It all depends on what ACE (American Council on Education) grades the course material as- LL or UL. So, prior to taking a course on study.com or Coopersmith, you might want to confirm with TESU if they consider it UL or LL. Some of the forum members here are very knowledgeable in these matters too.

[Ideas]

Sometimes Study.com or another place tries to make their course UL, but it gets LL approval. In those cases, the material may be similar to a UL course. However, the one you asked about is numbered low by Study.com. So, yes it is LL material. I doubt that someone would easily pass the TECEP from just the Study.com course, but I don't know which things Study.com focuses on in their course. Passing may be possible, but I wouldn't recommend going into the TECEP with just that preparation.

[cookderosa]

I do think the *intent* of an UL course is to be "harder" or require more work, however, this is not always the case. As for UL vs LL exams, I can't say since I didn't attempt any, but for classroom, my very general opinion is that you'll have a little more writing in some subjects for UL vs LL.

Something I observed that I found interesting, is several of my LL courses (my prenursing and premed sciences all came in as LL) were "bigger" in content than the more specialized UL version (or in my case graduate level). I have taken 16 or 17 graduate level courses, a handful with BIO prefix, 6 I think, and I always thought the content was much easier to learn than my Intro Bio or General bios which I found to be "huge" subjects to learn well.
I also can use psychology as an example, I took the 3 psychology CLEPs and the sociology CLEP (self-study) and then took a handful of upper level psych and sociology courses for my degree, as well as one grad level psych class - and I still think the grad level/ upper level were easier to learn than the very wide intro classes. Maybe that's just me, maybe it's the difference of coming to a subject with no knowledge vs having already done the intros, but I'd take a grad level class over an intro 100 any day.

[sanantone]

I taught and took correctional systems and practices, which is your typical LL intro to corrections course. I also taught penology, which was an UL course. When I designed the penology course, I used two textbooks and essay/short answer exams instead of multiple choice. The class also went more in depth than correctional systems and practices which just brushed the surface. 

However, one can find a lot of multiple choice exams at the UL and graduate level in the natural sciences. The graduate-level microbiology course I took at University of Florida was a lot more difficult than Straighterline's microbiology. I needed to know more specifics and apply what I learned to scenarios. For example, I needed to determine what disease someone had based on the symptoms and recommend a treatment.

[zzzz24]

I found the UL exams on SDC to be worded a lot more trickier than the LL exam I took. They still weren't very hard though.

[Merlin]

UL vs LL is typically content based. It often has to do with the depth of the subject matter and how it is delivered. Certain subjects are considered first year, second year, third year, etc. The difficulty of a course doesn't always have to do with the course level. Some first-year subjects are harder to grasp than more advanced subjects. More advanced subjects tend to expect people to come in with prior knowledge in that subject so they can be shorter and more focused. They also expect students to be able to apply their knowledge better. So, generally speaking, LL courses tend to be more about rote learning and memorization and upper-level courses are more about applied knowledge and analysis.

At SDC you'll also find that in addition to being shorter, UL courses (or courses that were designed to be UL) will also have projects or papers in addition to the final exam.

[Ideas]

I already addressed the original question separately, but I thought I would add one more thing. Based on the ones I took, UL TECEPs were significantly harder than LL TECEPs.

[ryanaryn]

Wow, thank you all for the very helpful information!  As always, you guys are super helpful, I can't thank you enough!