Big three Alternatives?

[Maniac Craniac]

That is what you think school is about.
Obviously not every one agrees with you.

Great point. I keep thinking about this. Just what IS the point of school? I am an idealist, for sure. I think school can give you something that nothing else can. However, I am at a loss to define it, exactly. If the point was the acquisition of knowledge, then BAH, HUMBUG! Knowledge is easily acquired from the library and from the internet these days. No, there is a lot more to it than that, and a part of it is the work that you put into it.

Some people have different ways of learning. It's unfair to discredit taking exams to get a degree.

Its not taking exams that I am disagreeing with, its the taking of multiple choice exams, and using them toward an entire degree. As you can see, I have taken a good handful of exams myself, but the exams were so easy and ill-conceived that I could just as easily have passed all of them without any study at all. However, if I did it that way, then what would the point have been? I would have learned nothing, gained nothing and would have proven no more knowledge than that multiple-choice exams are easily beaten.

The only exams that I truly believed served their purpose were the foreign language exams. You can't guess your way through those, nor can you pass without at least having some knowledge of the languages.

since I am already part of the workforce in the real world, I would much rather prove that I know the material by passing a CLEP or DSST, and then move on. For instance why should I sit through a Computer course for 4 months when I have been in the field for 20 years.

This is exactly the application of these exams that I agree with completely. The problem I have is that these exams are generally so easy that it does not require 20 years, nor even 20 minutes, of experience to walk away with a chunk of credit.

We all will get out of our degree only what we put into it.

:iagree: