I have been reading this forum as well as another one for about a year and I have been inspired to get started. I have no excuses that can hold me back from achieving my goal of earning my BA degree. I have heard it said that a goal without a plan is just a daydream and I am tried of daydreaming! I need a little help with the plan.

I will be either enrolling at TESC or Excelsior but I am going to wait to get a lot of my general classes knocked out so I can make sure I am done within one year.

I have a few classes to transfer in from almost 20 years ago: All lower level
English 101 - 3 credits
Micro Economics - 3 credits
Macro Economic - 3 credits
College Math - 3 credits
Psyc - 3 credits
History of the Soviet Union - 3 credits **
** I took this one at the end of the cold war! We didn't use our books much at all but brought in the local new paper to get history in the making!

I am a licensed insurance agent with both my property/casualty and llife/health license. I also have a lot of FEMA credits and I will be getting as many of these as I possible can transfer either transfered raw to TESC or through FCC (which is a my local college) to Excelsior.

I want my degree to be in History but it does not need to be. I will be able to move forward with my career path regardless of what the degree is in. I just want to get it done as quickly as possible. I have a daughter turning 16 soon so I would love to be able to get the hang of testing out so I can help her do the same thing for a lot of her basic courses.

I want to test out of all courses and from what I have read that does seem doable. I also would like to keep cost down as much as possible so I am wondering if it is possible to use CELP and DANTES for all of my courses.

To sum up my questions:

Can it be done using just CLEP and DANTES? I know that Excelsior has a Literacy 1 credit course...so except that one.

How many upper level credits are needed for a BA degree?

I am going to start next week with the CLEP Growth and Human Development. Any recommendations of what to take next. I am weak in Sciences.

I will take any and all advise! Thanks in advance for your input!

I'm scheduled to take this test on Friday but I'm really disillusioned since almost everyone has said that this is one of the most difficult test . I'm only using IC at the moment - is IC enough to pass the test? I really appreciate any guidance from you guys. I just failed Microeconomics and don't want to fail another test so soon after. Help!!

I have 13 college credits and to join the Marines I need 15 since I have a GED.

I need to know the easiest test to take because I have 3 days to study. I bought Barrons CLEP study guide and it only has like 5-6 subjects to look over so its kind of lame.

Anyway I havent been in school for like 4 years, and the 13 credits I earned were this past semester but just blow off classes so I got the credits.

Someone please help me so I can enlist!!!!!

I ran through the search for Credit Banking, but most of it had to do with FEMA Courses.

Does anyone have experience with Credit Banking through EC and/or TESC for credit other than FEMA?

My Microsoft Certifications are applied differently at EC and TESC. TESC trasfers 20 credits, and EC closer to 30. Specifically a 4 credit course in Database Management from TESC and a 3 credit course in Programming from EC.

Will I be able to enroll at one college, credit bank the other college, and send the transcripts to the college I enrolled in? Effectively getting credit from the courses credit banked college that were not originally utilized by the enrolled college.

Thanks to all the helpful posts here and the IC cards, I just scored a 58 on the DSST Principles of Finance, an A, according to the exam cut score chart.

https://www.excelsior.edu/portal/page?_p...ema=PORTAL

Comments:
Study was definitely needed, but it wasn’t as bad as I had allowed the posts to somewhat paralyze me. I put if off for a long time, but should have taken the plunge sooner.

My test seemed to be approx. 85% basic knowledge questions which required knowing the cause and effect of various business decisions. (A general grasp of the big picture was the main focus.)

I had about 20-25 math problems, but only about 10 were related to Time/Value of Money.

Disclaimers:
According to DSST, a financial calculator, e.g. like the BA 2 Plus is not allowed. It really was not necessary. The 4 Financial Tables and a standard calculator is all I was given and that was fine.

I took the computerized version. I DID have to ask for the 4 tables before I went in for the test. Thankfully, Dwight, my College Plus mentor, called DSST ahead of time and found out they have to be requested by the testing center.

I called my center in advance and was assured they would be there. Upon arrival, I had a bit of a fiasco as they didn’t believe I would need them and said they would be provided on screen. I didn’t want to take that chance and asked them to call DSST. DSST confirmed they would NOT be on the computerized version and they should supply me with a paper version (which DSST was to have previously emailed, but did not.) Thankfully, they had a set lying around from the old paper/pencil version. I also had to request to take in the calculator. They gave me a basic 4 function.

The chart in the last section of the InstantCert flashcards with the sample problems for Future Value of an Annuity has completely different values than what was provided at the testing center. Frankly, I was so surprised that I didn't even use it at all since the calculations didn't seem to line up. I can’t explain the difference. Has anyone else found this to be true?

Study Tips:

1. For me, it was sufficient to study the InstantCert flashcards and the PowerPoint slides at Chairman's Greeting

(The slides give a good overview and seem to fill in a lot of the gaps. Since most of the test is a working knowledge of cause and effect, I found this to be a critical tool.) I also got a broad overview by reading the Chapter Summaries in the Foundations of Financial Management textbook.

2. While it's good to understand the reasoning behind the formulas and ratios, it didn't seem necessary for me to memorize them. I understood the ratios from accounting. If you know what they do and what they are used for, you will be fine. IC flashcards explain this. There were only a handful of actual calculations using them. So, don't stress out. Focus on a good understanding of the basics!


Testing Tips:

1) It was critical for me to not get bogged down with the math questions. Many of the more simple problems required some basic calculations, which I could do quickly with the standard calculator provided. For the more challenging problems, I did some basic reasoning and just took an educated guess.

Because the "Future Value of an Annuity of One Dollar for N Years" table that was provided was so different from InstantCert's [I was tempted several times to get up in the middle of my test and ask the proctor to check the chart since it was taking me like five minutes to figure out one problem], and because I was having a great deal of difficulty in getting an answer close to those provided, I just took an educated guess on the problems that required calculating future values with annuity. Maybe I was using the provided table wrong, but I did get 35 out of 35 correct with the last set of InstantCert flashcard problems the night before taking the test, so I’m not sure why there was such a discrepancy – be forewarned.

2) I discovered that there were several blocks of more basic knowledge questions scattered throughout the test, so it was imperative for me to keep moving!

This test was challenging, but not as hard as I had thought, based on my interpretation of some of the posts. My advice is to do your best to study the main topics until you have a basic working knowledge, and then go for it!

Enjoy!
Dan

--OK moderators--- eliminate the 'fluff' and move to exam specific thread, please.

just wanted to get some feedback on this dante? i am studying now for it, this will be my last 3 credits I need for my degree, and I am super nervous. how much did everyone study for this particular test, and what should I be on the look out for? any advice would be much appreciated. thanks!

If I pass a Statistics CLEP how much time do I have to credit bank it or
is there no hard fast rule. If I open a credit bank at Thomas Edison and
bank some courses do I have pay a yearly fee till I apply them to a program
or once I bank them they are banked even if I don't pay a yearly fee or plan
to bank more. Would I have to pay a yearly fee to get a transcript if I'AM
passed the bank period. I couldn't get an answer.

I've successfully passed 9 clep/dantes test. I know kind of what to expect and I've scoured the post for anything with the word statistics in it. I'm having a really hard time studying for this one. Just when I think I've got it, I take a practice test and bomb it. I have the Idiots Guide, The Dummies Workbook, a BAII Plus calculator, InstaCert, and a statistics textbook. It just doesn't to stick. I'm scheduled to take this test next Saturday (the written version) and I'm so afraid of failure. What makes it really hard, is I work about 28 hours a week, I'm a mom of three kids, and I'm taking two on-line (7 week) classes. I HAVE to pass this test. I read my book, and I'll be like "what did I just read?" I guess I'm just venting and wondering how prepared most of you felt before you took it. I've studied on and off for almost a month. Oh, and I've watched the Annenburg Videos (some). I've decided to skip over sample statistics and confidence intervals, because I'm not getting it. I have 5 more test to go plus 8 classes, and I'm done! I'm in two of the 8 classes right now. If I can pass the last 5 test, I'll be done by August! This is what I face.. Stats (Sat 1/19), Adv Comp (Competancy Exam on 1/26/08), Finance (2/16/08), Macroecon and Business Law (3/13ish). I think I can pass the last two... not sure sure about the first three though. I'm not very good at math, and the subjects bore me (not the econ doesn't). The advanced composition one is where I have 3 hours to write an argumentive essay. It has to be apa formatted. I'm not very good at writing papers either But, I've got to try. I'm just going to say a big prayer before I take these and hope God will carry me through. Because I just feel like I can't do it. Sorrry to be a downer. I'm just scared and overwhelmed.

I am on a super tight study schedule and have an outlined exam schedule so that I can finish my testing by the end of February. I have had to spend an inordinate amount of time studying for the college math exam and could use more study time. I need to test out by Tuesday of this week to keep up with my scheduled list. I usually take at least 2 exams per week and need to do both by Tuesday.

I was going to take organizational behavior, but can see that Technical Writing requires much less time to prepare. I can do either for my degree plan. Does anyone know if organizational behavior will set me up with more knowledge for any of the psych or human resources management (ECE) that I will be taking in the next few weeks? I have Human Growth and Development, Educational Psych, and most of the upper level ECE psych tests for my depth that I will be doing over the next few weeks.

Also, does Educational Psych give any foundation for the other exams? I may substitute something else for that as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!

Hello All,

I wanted to ask for some advice. I have enrolled into UoP and 4 weeks into it, I definatley would like to make a change into one of the "BigThree". I have about 24 credits from the Juunior Colleges that I have attended prior.

I have loans, financial aid and dont know how to go abouts switching colleges. also when choosing between ECE and TESC. since TESC takes 35 credits tranferred from FEMA wouldnt that be the better choice to choose? those are a pretty easy 35 credits from what I read.

or is excelsior still less expensive?

also... should I CLEP & DANTES before I enroll? or should I just enroll and CLEP?

But I need to chose one that I can finish in 2 no later then 3 years. I would like to join the AF as a officer before the deadline cutt-off age.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Will2k