AA Liberal Arts via CLEP only or close to it.

[spaceycowboy]

Hi, I want to earn an AA degree via CLEP only or close to it, which one of the big 3 will allow this to be possible? Can someone lead me in the right direction.

Thanks
Dave

[cookderosa]

Hi, I want to earn an AA degree via CLEP only or close to it, which one of the big 3 will allow this to be possible? Can someone lead me in the right direction.

Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave! Of course you can, in fact, any college (even your local community colleges) that has a generous CLEP policy will help you. The community college I taught for in Iowa accepted 45 CLEP credits toward 60 for an AA degree. The big 3 all accept any CLEP exam that fits into your degree plan. So, really, the only thing you CAN'T do is just pick any random credits you want- they have to match the distribution of the AA.

How to do this: Go to any college site and pull up the AA requirements. (AS will usually differ, be sure you want AA instead of AS)
Then, pull up that college's CLEP equivalency document. That's the page that says CLEP College Algebra = MAT121 or whatever.
Use the equivalency document to match up and plug into all the AA requirements.

If you have any open slots or places where you can't figure out a match, just ask!

[spaceycowboy]

Jennifer

Thank you for the lengthy response. I need to earn a AA in Liberal Studies within the next 2 years. If I plan to do this via CLEP would it make sense to enroll at TESC now or wait until I have the CLEPS done according to there criteria?

I want to make the best decision.

Thanks
Dave

[Life Long Learning]

All Community Colleges require 25% credits thru them (i.e., NOT exams). Exceptions is some SOC Military AA degrees for military only.

The big 3 are the best but Excelsior and COSC have become regressive and now require capstones courses etc....

TESC is the only one that still allows pure exams at the AA level.

[cookderosa]

Jennifer

Thank you for the lengthy response. I need to earn a AA in Liberal Studies within the next 2 years. If I plan to do this via CLEP would it make sense to enroll at TESC now or wait until I have the CLEPS done according to there criteria?

I want to make the best decision.

Thanks
Dave

I'll let someone with good TESC knowledge answer that directly, but I'll tell you people here complete 4 year degrees in that time frame with no difficulty at all. I tested out of my AA classes in about 6 months- and was a busy mom with 4 little kids at the time. It is much easier than it seems from the outside. I thought you had to be super smart and that the tests would be super hard- not the case. Some tests require more study, but these are multiple choice exams, so technically- the answers are all provided for you You just have to narrow it down and get a bit better than half the questions right. It's very user friendly.

If you took 2 exams a month, starting from scratch (rough estimate but realistic as an average) you generally earn 3 credits per exam. There are several exams worth 6 credits, so some months you could earn 9 and others 6 (give or take). Figure 15 credits every 2 months- and you're looking at 8 months. There are other things you can do, there are free self paced classes (TEEX) and online self paced classes that TESC will accept (Straighterline) that you can work at your own speed. People knock these 3 credit classes out sometimes in 3-5 days. So, really, the big variable is what you want to pay and how fast you are willing to go.

Have you read BAin4weeks? It's terribly outdated, but is gold. A must read. Lawrie Miller's BA in 4 Weeks. Online degrees by distance learning. BA degree and graduate degees - Accelerated Master Degrees by Distance Learning.

[dfrecore]

I agree with Jennifer.

Also, if you take exams in "groups" of similar types of tests that have some overlap and you can study for all of them, that makes it a very doable proposition as well. If you do ALEKS for math for example, and start working your way through, you could get Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Trig or Precalc, and Statistics all completed. Then, you could take the DSST Business Math, CLEP College Math, and TECEP Applied Liberal Arts Math as well. Not to say that you want to do this if you hate math, or that it's easy, but it's certainly EASIER if you're in "math mode" to study for and take a bunch of math courses/exams around the same time period.

You can do this with a bunch of different subject areas, math is just a good example. There are multiple options for Business, Science, Accounting, computer, English/Lit, History/Government/PoliSci, etc. If you find an area that interests you, do everything you can in that area that will fit into your degree plan. Kill multiple birds with one stone.