I found a place to get really cheap credits if you are in Law Enforcement. The website is The Backup Training Corporation | Home They offer courses on CD FREE to those in Law Enforcement and through an agreement with North Idaho Community College you can get up to 17 credits for a mere $10 a credit hour. The only other cost is shipping to receive the CD's which runs at $6 per CD.

I have completed 4 of the courses so far and have found them to be very informative and useful professionally. On the main page if you click on frequently asked questions you can find which courses you need to take to get credit. You also get a certificate for each course you complete. They have over 45 courses to choose from.

According to their website:

*Those qualified include: any sworn law enforcement, military, or corrections personnel who act in a law enforcement capacity.

Satisficing

I learned it while studying principles of management.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come up under dictionary.com satisficing - Definitions from Dictionary.com

However, these do

Satisfice satisfice - Definitions from Dictionary.com

Quote:verb
decide on and pursue a course of action satisfying the minimum requirements to achieve a goal; "optimization requires processes that are more complex than those needed to merely satisfice"

Quote:verb
decide on and pursue a course of action satisfying the minimum requirements to achieve a goal; "optimization requires processes that are more complex than those needed to merely satisfice" [syn: satisfice]

Hi all...

Very thankful I found this website!!!! Have just spent like 8 hours reading through thousands of posts!

OK, based on what I've learned here and elsewhere, my goals are:

1- Bachelor's from Excelsior (to get a GPA)
2- Prep for and take the LSAT
3- Apply to local ABA accredited law school (Stetson).

Now here's my scenario:
They skipped me from 7th grade to HS and there I took double everything and wound up graduating at age 15 already with AP courses in computer science and English under my belt. I mention my age back then, not to boast or anything but because:

I then attended U of Maryland (out-of-state, ouch!) for one semester... I was TOTALLY unhappy there, they placed me in an "honors dorm" where 99% were juniors and seniors... which meant they were in their 20s and I was 16... not a good mix. Plus, it was the first time I was separated from all friends and family, cold turkey. All-in-all the other students were pleasant, but no friends or anything. Sooo... I became disinterested in the whole thing and learned how to juggle beanbags for $15,000. Wound up with I think an A or B in English and a C in something else and D's and F's for the rest... quite a shock for my family. First grade lower than a B for me in my life, I just shut off what can I say.

I then left the country and immediately got work as a computer programmer (back in 1993, this was top notch) because of a gas station management app I made up... and ran a small cafeteria as well.

That company was sold and the owner started a taxi and radio communications company in 1995 where he brought me in as a network administrator. The head electronics and radio technician turned out to be fleecing him and they asked me if I could substitute for him (only installing the radios supposedly) while they got someone else. They never did, so I wound up getting really involved in electronics and setting up radio communications systems, repeaters and phone patching. Meanhile, I took an interest in photography as a hobby.

Next in 1998, I became frustrated with the lack of growth of that company due to mismanagement and decided to move back to the US... got married and did so.

My first job here was as a Field Service Admin for SYSCO Foods... managed their Unix servers and a fleet of 200+ laptops and remote client desktops. I also moonlighted in photography for kicks and started dabbling with selling stuff on eBay.

This was up in Philadelphia (which I can't stand, but needed the family support to start from zero) so as soon as I could, I packed up a u-haul (Pennske really), quit a perfectly good Fortune 500 company job and moved to Tampa in 2000, never having been here before.

I quickly got a job as a Network Admin for a mortgage company and continued with my eBay stuff... in less than a year that company was shut down by the Feds...

I then was hired by JP Morgan Chase to provide IT support to their processors and loan officers, within a few months was promoted to handle support and reporting for their entire automated underwriting system... and realized I knew the mortgage industry front and back, inside and out, and that I was on the wrong side of the payscale. I also moonlighted as a translator while there.

Sooo, I quit an excellent job at a fortune 100 company and became a mortgage broker... this job left me NO time for side businesses. After a year there I disagreed with the abusive charging practices / management style of that company and decided to set up my own shop... that was 2 and a half years ago and despite the turmoil in the industry I run my small company and can charge fairly and by keeping expenses down, and living within means, not worry too much about the lost revenue of the last year.

Anyhow... I have NEVER believed in "needing" a college degree to be financially successful in life... and I think I've proved this to myself, no. :p
Now, if someone asks me if they should get a degree, I always say "Not necessarily", unless you SERIOUSLY want to pursue a career where it is mandatory . By which I mean, doctors, lawyers... etc.

There are just so many ways to make a great living, not incur the debt, and spend more time with family, by taking industry-specific courses and training... now, this was before I knew about legitimately "testing-out"... here we get the best of both worlds. Very manageable expense, plus the magical line on the resume (for those that need it)... I just can't stand to see people incur 50k in debt to get an accounting degree and then work in marketing! Where if they would have taken that same 50k and started a small marketing company and ran it for 4 years, they would easily be hired at a higher salary than someone with no experience and only the degree. Except they probably would have no need to get another job! Just my opinion... not the point of this post.

Anyhow again... my last moonlighting venture has been interpreting for the federal courts for about 6 months now. This fits in perfectly with my mortgages because it's only short periods of time and on an as-needed basis. The pay is extremely good too, since the federal cert that I got (just for kicks) is highly regarded. It has a 97% fail rate (and most that take it are career translators/interpreters already, so that's 97% of a specialized pool that fail it)... sooo... this has really gotten me enamoured with the judicial system... I LOVE being involved in the process and witnessing how laws get interpreted and applied.

So, I've gotten bit by the law bug... but of course... "no law school" = "no attorney". And worse: "no degree" = "no ABA law school"... Hence, my roadmap all the way at the top of this mountainous post...

Now, my question to you pros here... should (or can) I start from zero with Excelsior? Is there a way to get credit for those AP classes in HS which did give me credits at Uof Maryland by the way? Should I request a transcript from them knowing I bombed all those courses just to salvage my one or two good grades? Or will this bring in the bad stuff too? Is it even possible to not have them consider my old colege scores, or is this attached to my name somewhere like a credit report for grades?

Lastly, do you think Excelsior will give me credits for my "coveted" :p interpreter certification? How about my A+ cert from ComptIA? Oh, I also have a private pilot's license, does that count for anything? Mortgage broker license?

I want to aim for a high GPA with Excelsior, and totally kill the LSAT... to increase my chances for Stetson... hopefully with my crazy background they can be a bit lenient on my testing out of everything since I want as few traditional courses as possible... well, till law school.

Thanks!

WantaJD

I'm trying to gauge my readiness to test tomorrow and having trouble finding the tools to do so. I see that Prometric doesn't offer a practice test and have only found a few web quizzes so far.

Anyone have any recommendations for gauging whether I'm test-ready? ( I couldn't find anything in the Specific Exam thread, either.)

I'm currently leaning toward rescheduling (next available test is 1/8), since I can't determine how heavily dates are tested (always a weak point for me.) Will I need to know the precise dates of major battles or is month & year sufficient?

Thanks in advance -- this is my first UL test, so I'm more nervous than usual.

Hello, i just took the Psychology clep and got a 68 using this site and the REA Book. I was wondering if anyone has recently taken the Biology Clep. This one looks a lot tougher than the Psy. and I was curious to get anyone's feedback/advice on taking it. Also, i wanted to see if anyone recently passed it and with what materials? Thanks in advanced!

Has anyone taken either of these 3 tests? Can I use IC only to study for them or should I try them cold? Let me know your general impression of the tests and any recommendations you have will be greatly appreciated

hi , anybody took microbiology exam in excelsior college??
anybody knows any companion site for some book that has some multiple choice questions??

thanks for any help

Just a personal note to all....

This evening my son - Brian (Jr.) graduates from the [SIZE="3"]University of South Florida[/SIZE] with a [SIZE="3"]Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology! [/SIZE] He completed his requirements a full semester ahead of all of his classmates moving from the Class of 2008 to the Class of 2007.

After graduation he will be taking a short break (3-weeks) before beginning the Police Academy and then starting his new job as a Police Officer.

[SIZE="4"]

Chimps and college students as good at mental math
By Julie Steenhuysen2


Chimps performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests non-verbal math skills are not unique to humans.

The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game.

Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects.

"This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke, whose work appeared in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology (PLoS Biology - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal).

"It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance," Cantlon said in a telephone interview.

Her study pitted the ape math team of Boxer and Feinstein -- two female chimps named for U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California -- with 14 Duke University students.

"We had them do math on the fly," Cantlon said.

The task was to mentally add two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen.

The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. Both chimps and humans typically answered within 1 second.

And both groups fared about the same.

Cantlon said the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said.

The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language -- which allows for counting and more advanced calculations -- in the evolution of math in humans.

"I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said.

As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each -- enough for a beer or two.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Chimps and college students as good at mental math - Yahoo! News

Can anyone recommend a school that offers online courses for intermediate and beginning algebra? I'm basically going to have to take those to get to College Algebra and my work schedule doesn't allow me to take them at the local community college, and they don't offer either course online. I'm not looking to register for a degree, just want to get maybe 3 or 4 basic courses out of the way w/o paying a lot for it. I think Excelsior has them online but i think you have to pay a pretty large size enrollment fee, and I really don't want to do that for just a few courses. Thanks