Anyone here have small kids?

[burbuja0512]

Thank you to everyone who replied, its really encouraging to hear from all of you who have done all of this with kids, homeschooling and jobs. Im going to ease into testing with Intro to Sociology - going to try for the second week of September! One thing I need to figure out is the testing center situation. There are quite a few where we'll be moving to so Im not sure which to call yet. How does scheduling usually work? Do they administer certain tests at certain times or are you usually able to regiater for the test you want any time during business hours?

If you're in a city that has more than one college, you probably have a lot more choices than you realize. Testing centers are all very different and it may take a few tries to find the perfect one for you.

I started off with a larger university in my area that allowed me to sign up online and the testing center fee had to be paid in advance at the time of sign up. I thought that scheduling online was convenient, but in order to do this, I had to register at least 5 days ahead of time. As I got more comfortable with testing, I knew that I didn't always know 5 days ahead of time which test I wanted to take or even if the time would work for me. So, I started to seek out other choices and ended up finding a community college much closer to my house that allowed for drop-in testing. Their fee was cheaper and they only asked that I call before I went over just to make sure that the kept a testing computer open for me. (They only had 3 computers with CLEP/DSST software loaded on them)

The community college was the one I finished up my testing with and I didn't ever go to another place, however, I did have to take my DS to a completely different community college for his last test and it was just as easy. Call, let them know you're on the way and then show up.

If I were you, I would make a list of all colleges and universities within reasonable driving distance, google the college name and testing center, make a call to each place and take notes. Find out all of the possibilities open to you. Usually the fees will vary by 20-30 dollars so if this is a factor, make sure to find out pricing. Also, keep in mind that while I find it a hassle to schedule a week or more in advance, this did motivate me quite a bit when I started testing. I would think "well, I've already scheduled and paid the testing center fee online, so I HAVE to study." If you have the pre-scheduled/pre-paid option for a testing center, it could be a strategy to keep you going, especially at first when testing seems so overwhelming. At first it really does feel like you'll never finish, so any extra motivation might help.