Restrangled - Thanks for the info. As I mentioned previously, I'm pursuing my RN degree online. I'm getting it through Excelsior college. I recommend it to anyone. However, for anyone thinking about doing online education, don't do what I did and get sucked into a plan like The College Network or Chancellor's - they are only publishing companies that make study guides for taking CLEP or Excelsior exams. You get your degree from whatever college you enroll in, but you pay through the nose to The College Network for the study guides. Long story short - you don't need the "middle man." If you go through Excelsior, just order your books and study guides through them. You'll save A LOT of money. The College Network's study guides are good. I've gotten 4 A's and 1 B from them. But they are WAY too expensive, and they have ways of locking you into buying ALL of the books you'll need at once. You can't just order one at a time.
Fantastic opportunities for advanced education on line
by restrangled 26 Replies latest jw friends
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restrangled
btt
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restrangled
However, for anyone thinking about doing online education, don't do what I did and get sucked into a plan like The College Network or Chancellor's - they are only publishing companies that make study guides for taking CLEP or Excelsior exams.
Great point! For CLEP I've used the College Board Official Clep Study Guide 18th Edition which has dozens of subject practice tests and cost under $30. The other invaluable asset for me is Instacert which costs $20 per month and allows unlimited access to learning tools for any of about 45 total CLEP, DANTES and ECE subjects. It is not $20 for each subject area, it is $20 per month for unlimited access to all subjects. The ECE subjects are limited and don't cover all of the Nursing specific subjects. They do however include:Psychology of Adulthood & Aging, Foundations of Gerontology, Abnormal Psychology, Research Methods in Psychology, Social Psychology, Labor Relations and World Populations.
Like I said in the earlier post the Instacert forum has proven invaluable as well, because eveyone gives tips on the tests and resource material used to pass them. You will know what you are in for with each test and get great feedback for each subject test.
Another thing I learned in studying for these tests, is that most books that are now released also include an online tutorial and review section. As a result I will google for instance "Business Law powerpoint" or "Business Law Lecture notes" and within a few clicks I will have access to a professors lecture notes in written and/or powerpoint form. It narrows down the field to the most important information you need to take the subject tests.
For a variety of subjects like Statistics, Algebra, Economics, there are entire series created for teachers that are free to view at places like http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html This helped me tremendously to get an indepth overview of Economica and Statistics.
If you decide to go the route of purchasing books, please keep in mind that under most circumstances you can get used books online. One tale of caution is to make sure that if you are taking a class that it is the current edition and contains the learning Cd's. For me, I looked up the current books being used at popular business colleges and ordered them from Amazon at anywhere from 50 to 90% off the retail price.
I asked my sons who both took the same Algebra, English I and II courses , if they exchanged books or bought any online. Their reply was no to both. So in my previuosly mismanaged household, I paid $150 for Son A's brand new Algebra book, who then traded it in at the end of the semester and kept the $25 dollars for himself. Then a semester later I paid $ 150 for the same Algebra book for Son B. You get the point....I'm older and wiser and found my sons latest $180 retail Calculus book online from a graduating student for $60.
r's hubby
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Btt, for my records.
Thank you, great info. Would love to go for a degree!!
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restrangled
Btt ....important info above for those who have not seen it.
r.
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restrangled
btt see above info.
r.
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Who are you?
For those looking to test out of some college credits..... in the past two and a half months, I've taken and passed around 51 credits through CLEP and DANTES tests. I recently took and passed one 6 credit CLEP that was very doable, required little or no study time and might be a good start for some.
The CLEP that can add 6 easy credits to your transcript is Analyzing & Interpreting Literature (usually considered a second year course). The test consists of about 80 questions and is timed (90 minutes). They give you 10 or 12 passages from poems and present 6 or 7 questions to test your ability to recognize common literary devices like metaphors and similes. You can't really study for the test other than brushing up on literary devices. Beyond that, since there are 6 or 7 questions on each passage, if you start down the wrong road, you can usually get back on track quickly. You do not have to be thoroughly versed on the classics to do well. This test is as much about problem solving as it is about literature.
The other two that I thought were pretty easy were the Humanities 6 credit CLEP and the 6 credit Social Sciences and History CLEP. (Both very general...especially SS&H)
How it works....CLEP tests are given at most Community Colleges and Universities. You pay $15-$20 to the test center and $65 to CLEP.
Most tests are taken via computer, so at the end of the test you immediately know your score and if you've passed. The day of the test, you can choose to send your test results to your college or compile your test scores with CLEP and later send them to any college for $20.
Check with your school to make sure that CLEP credit is given for any given test....over 2900 schools take CLEP.
There is no penalty if you fail, other than you can't retake the same test for 6 months.