Can you please help out a beginner. Any advice appreciated!

[dfrecore]

Yeah I'd love that spread sheet! It would be extremely helpful. Can I take courses and CLEP exams without being enrolled in a college?

Of course. The only issue is that you have to pay for them. If you're planning on getting financial aid, you might want to finish the GED first, and then apply for FAFSA and then work out the tests and courses. There are experts on this forum who can help you figure out how to make the most of your financial aid money, I'm definitely not one of them.

But if you want to start on something inexpensive, here are some options:

Kaplan PLA (3cr free): https://openlearning.kaplan.com/kuopenlearning/LRC100/ (don't do the PLA, just take the quizzes, at least 70% on each one)

Insurance Ethics (2cr free): Preserve the trust on which insurance transactions are based with an understanding of ethics (you don't have to take the course, but you have to pass the quiz with 70%)

TEEX Cybersecurity 101, 201, 301 (2cr each, free): https://teex.org/Pages/Program.aspx?catI...ersecurity (10 total modules between the 3 courses, takes a while to get through them all)

NFA courses Q0118, Q0137, Q0318 (1cr each, free): Advanced course search

ALEKS math (up to 12cr, $20/mo): https://www.aleks.com/highered/math/course_products (start with Beginning Alg, then Intermediate Algebra, then College Algebra, then precalculus if you want, although it's necessary at EC for business degree, then statistics - you can take all of the 8 courses, but some duplicate depending on what school you're at - can't hurt to get them all on the ACE transcript)

Saylor (courses are free, proctored finals are $25 each): Earn College Credit | Saylor Academy (only the courses listed on this page are ACE-approved or NCCRS-approved

That should get you started on the least expensive options! Hope that helps.