Study.com - any trick to moving quickly through course material?

[chicagohh]

I am taking 301 Marketing Research.  Background:  I dropped out of a University with 88 semester credits and spent the first 5 years programming.  I transitioned to marketing (DIGITAL MARKETING) and have been working for agencies and large companies the last 20 years.  Currently a hands on manager of a team of 6 within a large (140k employees) organization.  Next promotion for me (Director) requires a completed degree.  I have been asked to get it done because they want me to take a larger / more strategic role.  

I thought this might be an easy class - and it is easy, but holy crap it's time consuming.  There are 12 chapters with each chapter made up of 6 to 9 topics. Each topic has a quiz.  96 total quizzes.  Then, 2 papers and a proctored final.  I am very familiar with the topics, but academia seems to use slightly different terms than the workplace so I am finding a need to review each topic of each chapter just to get the terminology down.

I keep reading about people claiming to knock out 4 or 5 classes per month.  I am on a path to complete it in perhaps 4 weeks.   Is there a trick people are using?

Thanks!

[jch]

Here's how I get through SDC courses quickly:
1) use the pre-test if it's available. When starting, many SDC courses will have a link to test out of material you already know. If you do well, you can skip a good chunk of courses. You can often take the pre-test again and again to test out of more stuff, though it usually won't revisit the same questions/topics. If the pre-test isn't available for your course, look for it on very similar courses (see the next point).
2) take a cluster of overlapping SDC courses. SDC re-uses content between courses, including quizzes. Your quiz completion carries over. If you take a bunch of marketing courses, you'll find many quizzes already done from your previous coursework.
3) jump right to the quiz. If you're already decently familiar with a topic, go directly to the quiz and skip the content.
4) be a good quiz-taker. Many SDC quiz questions include a few obviously wrong answers if you think about them. Use the process of elimination and make smart guesses.
5) use the quiz feedback. SDC quizzes will often give you explanations for answers, which you can use when you're taking the quiz again.
6) skim the readings. As any college student should know, you don't have to read everything. Look for key facts, and focus on the summaries at the end.
Using these tactics, I can often pound out the quizzes and exam for a course in a single day using the SDC iPad app. Then I circle back for the assignments once I know what scores I need to achieve.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

Everything said in the previous post, plus note that you can speed up the videos if you're watching them to shore up your understanding.

[bjcheung77]

@chicagohh, In addition to the above, I usually recommend more screen real estate, I use a laptop with a second monitor. Basically, it allows me to multi-task, such as reviewing questions on the laptop, and I would have the materials open on the second monitor (open book quizzes, research for assignment sources, reviewing my notes, whatever else I need to do on a second screen). In fact, for Sophia.org and other non-web cam based proctoring such as TEEX, I would use any open book materials and resources that are allowed. For courses that require web cam proctoring, I just remove my second monitor and take the exam...

[GameSlinger]

As PrettyFly mentioned, speeding the videos up will cut that time down. I just completed the Philosophy 301 course in 2 days by listening to all the videos at double speed.

Also important for all SDC courses is to make sure you get 100% on your quizzes. Use the first attempt to jump straight in and see how you do like jch mentioned. If you do not get 100%, make sure you read the explanation, then go back and skim the materials it pertains to before making a second attempt. If after 2 attempts, you are still not at 100%, slow down for that section and complete it normally with open book resources to ensure you get your 100% on the 3rd try. You only have 3 attempts to get 100% and it will take your highest of those first 3 attempts. If after 3 attempts you still haven't passed the baseline of 70% to proceed, you are allowed to take it more times until you get to 70%, but your graded score will remain as the highest of the first 3 attempts.

If you are feeling comfortable with the information but just not feeling like you are using the correct terminology for the course, skip to the last "chapter" and run through the flash cards and other review materials. That should give a good overview of most of the terms used in the course.

[dfrecore]

UL courses are just going to take more time - in addition to the material and quizzes, there are also the papers/projects. I think when people are knocking out 3, 4, 5 courses in a month, they're generally LL with no assignments to complete. Once you get to the UL, you're just going to have more work to do.

The key though, is which degree you're getting. Because if you're going to a traditional school, it's going to take a long time, so there's not a lot to gain by getting through an SDC course quickly. But if you're going to TESU or UMPI or something, then you certainly do want to go fast.

Another trick though - if the course you're taking doesn't have a placement test of it's own, you may be able to find placement tests for some courses that are related to it. For instance, if Digital Marketing doesn't have a placement test, maybe Intro to Marketing, Intro to E-Commerce, or Applied Marketing do. So check related courses for placement tests. You may cover some of the course with those.

[origamishuttle]

Another trick though - if the course you're taking doesn't have a placement test of it's own, you may be able to find placement tests for some courses that are related to it. For instance, if Digital Marketing doesn't have a placement test, maybe Intro to Marketing, Intro to E-Commerce, or Applied Marketing do.  So check related courses for placement tests.  You may cover some of the course with those.

This is very clever. Thank you!

[bjcheung77]

@chicagohh, furthermore, you shouldn't focus on how fast someone else is getting things done, they may be cutting corners by going straight to the quizzes, final, and then completing assignments (without reviewing the transcripts/videos as they're very experienced in that modality). Question: Which degree/school are you planning to go for?

What you might want to do is give us a few more details, like the hours/day you spend on your studies? You doing 2 hours and comparing someone taking 6 hours as they work part time, gives varying results... Last but not least, you might also want to do the addendum/template here for degree planning: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[jsh1138]

Read the courses, don't watch the videos, and try to take several courses in the same field so that as much material as possible is pre-filled. Also if you know alot about a subject take the pre-test and try to knock out some quizzes before you start