My Newbie Plan - Advice needed

[jeremipdx]

Hi Everyone -

First, what an amazing resource I have stumbled upon. I found this site yesterday and have been researching my options for the last 24 hours. I really appreciate everyone who helps out in here. About a month ago I decided it was time to go get a bachelors degree. I have made a decent living, but as I move into managment and potentially switch companies in the future I know this could become a problem. I'm in Arizona and the community colleges here have 8 week classes for a adult learners allowing you to finish your associates part time in two years. However, I want to finish in a year if possible so I started researching CLEP. Our community colleges allow you to get up to 30 credits through CLEP (which seems pretty good). I just want to make sure I understand the process correctly, and see if anyone with more expierence has any suggestions:

Here is a link to the Associate in General Studies Degree that will allow me to transfer all credits to any 4 year AZ School:
http://www.maricopa.edu/academic/ccta/cu..._12-13.doc

Here is the detailed CLEP tests and credits accepted:
2.2 Admission/Registration/Enrollment

Please correct me if I'm wrong but the fine print "The general studies requirement in natural sciences (SQ and SG) and Literacy and Critical Inquiry (L) are not satisfied by CLEP" means I can't use a CLEP test for any Natural Sciences required classes or Literacy and Critical Inquiry.

My CLEP plan (please sanity Check)

College Composition (4 credits) - Still need 2 credits to complete First Year Composition requirement
College Mathmatics (3 credits) - No additional credits needed for Mathmatics
America Literature (6 credits) - Still need 3 credits to complete Humanities and Fine arts
Human Growth and Development (3 credits), American Government (3 credits), US History (3 credits) - No additional credits needed for Social and Behavioral Sciences

That gives me 22 credits, and I'll find a couple others for electives to fill up my 30 credits.

What do you think? Am I missing anything, do I understand the process correctly? Can I take these tests before I ever register for community college? Thanks for any help! I'm also pondering doing the big 3 plan, but I figure I can start taking CLEP tests before I need to make that decision.

Thanks!

[cookderosa]

Is there an award for the most well-thought out, properly composed and sufficiently supported first post? If so, you win.
cheersmate

CLEP policy looks fair, and I think your plan looks good. You'll be able to rock out your plan in relatively quick amount of time. Run your list past your advisor. I'd suggest Analyzing and Interpreting Literature if you can get it to fit- it's the easiest CLEP for many people. Also, I noticed from your link, that they accept ACE credit...hummmm that's interesting. Might be important later.

When you meet with your advisor, have your ducks in a row. Sometimes advisors know a very narrow amount of information, and when confronted with something they don't know, they may just say "no" instead of looking like they don't know something. So, you seem very capable. Simply get all your papers, print outs, etc and head in with your game plan. Get them to sign off / approve it, and you'll be on your way to testing ninja.

Also, specific thing you need to ask:
Is this degree part of a guaranteed articulation agreement with any colleges in my state?
(this means, if you complete the degree, are you guaranteed that ABC College will accept all 60 as a block of credit instead of individual evaluation? That's an important distinction. You want block acceptance)

Finally, for your electives- your school is VERY generous for the Natural Science CLEP with its award of 8 credits. Consider grabbing that one. Typical award is only 6. Also, Western Civ 1 for 6 credits? That has to be a mistake. If not, grab it!

[TSP1]

Hello Everyone I am very new. I had notes taken in trying to figure out the easiest degree plan. Unfortunately I have been affected by Hurricane Harvey so everything that I had is no longer available. Can you guys please assist me so I can get started.
I am trying to start with no credits. I would love to go in to getting a psychology degree or business whatever is faster. I struggle with math so I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. I was told that you can take math online tutorial classes to obtain credit but I'm not sure if that is entirely true. Can you guys please help me with a plan for either business or psychology I would love to CLEP out if possible. It really doesn't matter what school  (Big 3 schools )as long as I can obtain a degree the fastest. I thank all of you in advance. 

Regards,
TSP

[dfrecore]

Hello Everyone I am very new. I had notes taken in trying to figure out the easiest degree plan. Unfortunately I have been affected by Hurricane Harvey so everything that I had is no longer available. Can you guys please assist me so I can get started.
I am trying to start with no credits. I would love to go in to getting a psychology degree or business whatever is faster. I struggle with math so I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. I was told that you can take math online tutorial classes to obtain credit but I'm not sure if that is entirely true. Can you guys please help me with a plan for either business or psychology I would love to CLEP out if possible. It really doesn't matter what school  (Big 3 schools )as long as I can obtain a degree the fastest. I thank all of you in advance. 

Regards,
TSP

Here are sample degree plans for the BSBA and Psych degrees at TESU.

One thing to keep in mind for the Psych degree - if you want to use Study.com, you may want to do the Psych courses there ASAP, since many of them may be downgraded after 12/31/17.  Study.com is working on getting them to be UL courses through ACE or NCCRS, but in case they don't, you want to get those done.

[ToniP]

Thank you, I’ll take a look at it now

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Can you explain more about study.com and which edition did you use?