07-12-2006, 10:01 AM
snazzlefrag Wrote:Hi Spazz,
Most of the members of this board are testing out of most, if not all, of the required courses that make up their degree.
CLEPs are all lower level and mostly general education type subjects. But there are several degree-specific exams too.
DANTES, ECE, TECEP, and OHIO State offer upper level exams as well as lower level exams.
If you can prove you know the subjects, it is possible to fulfill most or all of the requirements for several different kinds of degrees.
A majority of schools accept CLEP exams, and many schools are actually certified CLEP test-centers themselves. Usually, a college will accept up to 30 credits via testing. Some allow 60, and a very select few (three) allow you to test out of all 120 credits. As long as you are able to learn on your own, and can pass the required exams, you can earn your entire degreee through a combination of CLEP, DANTES, ECE, TECEP, OHIO and/or B&M classes.
The "Big 3" Regionally Accredited schools that allow you to test out of an entire degree are:
http://www.excelsior.edu
http://www.charteroak.edu
http://www.tesct.edu
Of course, this means that you have to be able to study on your own and master each subject sufficiently to pass up to FORTY different exams at the lower and upper college level. It's no easy feat. But it's doable, and many on this board are doing exactly that.
As for the GRE, there are actually two different kinds of GRE. There is the general GRE exam, which is what many colleges use to evaluate readiness for graduate study, and there are also the GRE subject exams. These are subject-specific exams which provide a means to evaluate whether a student has mastered all the individual subjects which make up their given major. For example, the GRE Psychology exam would test your knowledge of subjects like Social Psych, Abnormal Psych, Lifespan Psych, Research, Educational Psych, Behavioral Psych etc. These 'subject exams' are not the kind of exam you can just cram overnight for and pass. It takes a real depth of learning to prove that you have the required knowledge that goes with earning a major in a particular subject.
For this reason, some schools will award credit on a sliding scale based on how well you perform on the subject GRE. If you score higher than the vast majority of already graduated Psych majors who took the exam, it is possible to be awarded up to 30 credits towards your Psychology major. In effect, you have tested out of an entire major with one (admittedly mammoth) exam.
Hope that helps,
Snazzlefrag
Those schools are not accreddited by any sound organization. What most online/distance learning schools do is create their own accrediation organization, then say they are accreddited. Use common sense to figure it out, if these schools lack sufficent faculty and research, how are they going to be accreddited by an sound organization?
Uhh? The subject GRE are used for graduate admissions. I have never heard of people getting credit for passing the GRE (seems like these online colleges went over board in EVERYTHING). Another reason why you would not be admitted into a graduate program with a lib arts degree.
The only thing left to do is give credit to students for watching tv or some other activity you do to relax. This is absolutly ridiculous.