Psychology GRE: idea for non top-scorers

Rosie got 12 credits from Excelsior College for her GRE subject exam in Psychology. She recently wrote to the Excelsior advisors to ask: Which of the Excelsior College Examinations and TECEP exams in Psychology would not duplicate her GRE credits?

The response: Only "Life Span Developmental Psychology" would be duplicative. She could get credit for any of the others.

The advisor did point out that "Research Methods in Psychology" would duplicate "Research in Experimental Psychology". I presume the two "Abnormal Psychology"s would duplicate each other as well.

I haven't veified this, but all the exams except "Life Span Developmental Psychology" and "Psychology of Women" seem to be upper-level.

http://www.excelsior.edu/exams/xms_list.htm
Abnormal Psychology
Life Span Developmental Psychology
Psychology of Adulthood & Aging
Research Methods in Psychology

http://www.tesc.edu/students/tecep/teceplist.php
Psychology of Women (PSY-270-TE)
Research in Experimental Psychology (PSY-322-TE)
Behavior Modification Techniques in Counseling (PSY-339-TE)
Abnormal Psychology (PSY-350-TE)
Psychology of Personality (PSY-352-TE)
Organizational Behavior (PSY-361-TE)
Industrial Psychology (PSY-363-TE)
Introduction to Social Psychology (PSY-370-TE)

 

confused

so if she got 12 credits for the GRE and only Life Span Developmental Psychology would be duplicative, what are her other 9 psych credits?

Life Span Developmental Psychology = 3
Intro to Psych? = 3
Educational Psych? = 3
???? = 3

 

We don't know, either. Her Excelsior "Student Status Report" (similar to a transcript) just says "Psychology", and doesn't divide the credits into courses. The only hint is that the 12 credits are all lower-level.

 

Interestingly, Excelsior awarded upper-level credit for the TECEP exam "Psychology of Women", despite its lower-level number (PSY-270-TE).

At this point, Rosie has an A in the Excelsior College Exam "Abnormal Psychology", a P in the TECEP "Psychology of Women" (Excelsior does not award letter grades for TECEP exams), and an A in DANTES "Fundamentals of Counseling" (which Excelsior awards "Applied Professional" credit for, and which it also considers non-duplicative with the Psychology GRE). She is 6 credits away from her degree.

 

Congratulations to Rosie!! from all of degreeinfo. Very cool.


Tony

 

Rosie took the Excelsior College Exam "Psychology of Adulthood & Aging" this morning. She would like to warn people that the exam has many questions on marital satisfaction, and some on suicide rates, neither of which she had studied for. She got a B (but learning about the 58% failure rate should make her feel better).

She has now completed all the requirements for an Excelsior Bachelor of Science degree, including an Area of Focus in Psycholgy:
Psychology GRE: 12 credits
Excelsior College Exam "Abnormal Psychology"
Excelsior College Exam "Psychology of Adulthood & Aging"
TECEP exam "Psychology of Women"

Excelsior has told her she can have a Major in Psychology with 9 more credits:
3 credits in Statistics
3 credits in Research Methods in Psychology
3 other credits in Psychoogy
and they're pretty flexible on the last one. They approved her choice of the TECEP exam "Behavior Modification Techniques in Counseling".

However, Rosie is seriously talking about calling it quits at this point, and applying for graduation with what she already has. Any advice or words of encouragement?

 

Has she determined which undergrad courses are needed for grad school? Better to take the courses at undergrad prices than at grad prices, I'd think.

 

Has she decided on a Stats class? What did you find when you looked? I found a Stats in Psychology at BYU that COSC would take for regular stats and it looks like it might be promising for a non-math person. Have you found anything else that might be open book non-proctored?

 

The goal here is gainful employment as soon as possible, not grad school. And yes, we recognize that employment prospects for people with Bachelor's degrees in Psychology are dismal:
http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/07/pf/saving/q_jobless_grads/index.htm

We cannot afford to take another whole semester for her to finish the degree, which leaves us with the original plan for Statistics: January course from Coastline Community College (which has proctored exams), with the DANTES exam as a backup. Excelsior College has approved these for her.

 

Should have had another coffee before posting. You wrote of graduation and I read graduate school.

 

I wrote:

> Interestingly, Excelsior awarded upper-level credit for the
> TECEP exam "Psychology of Women", despite its lower-level
> number (PSY-270-TE).

-- and then changed its mind.

21 Nov. 2003:
Excelsior receives the transcript for the TECEP "Pyschology of Women" exam.

26 Nov. 2003:
Excelsior awards it 3 upper-level credits.

19 Dec. 2003:
Excelsior tells Rosie that for the Psychology major, "you will need 9 more credits in psychology to include 6 at the upper level".

2 Feb. 2004:
Excelsior approves a lower-level Statistics course to meet the Statistics requirement for the Psychology major, and 3 of those 9 credits. Rosie proceeds with the Statistics course (which runs the month of February).

9 Feb. 2004:
Excelsior receives a transcript for the last of the 120 credits required for a BS (without a major).

13 Feb. 2004:
Excelsior evaluates that transcript. Rosie's Student Status Report is changed to: "Congratulations! It appears you have satisfied your degree requirements. Your file has been forwarded to the Academic Evaluation Specialists for further processing." The same day, Excelsior sends Rosie a bill for the graduation fee.

23 Feb. 2004:
An Excelsior advisor (one of the same ones who had previously done evaluations of Rosie's records) changes the 3 TECEP credits from upper-level to lower-level. We don't notice this at the time. If Rosie hadn't had 3 upper-level credits to spare, her graduation would have been voided at this point. She does have 3 upper-level credits to spare, so her graduation isn't voided. However, a hole is blown in her plans for the Psychology major. Of course, we don't notice that either. The same day, Rosie receives the bill for the graduation fee.

24 Feb. 2004:
Rosie sends Excelsior a fax, saying "Please add a Major in Psychology to my records."

25 Feb. 2004:
Rosie phones Excelsior to make sure it receives the fax. The advisor says yes, but tells Rosie to send a second fax asking to be taken out of the graduation pool.

26 Feb. 2004:
Rosie sends Excelsior the second fax.

27 Feb. 2004:
An Excelsior advisor leaves Rosie a phone message about the Statistics course: "the course that you were approved for is lower-level, and that will be a problem in terms of completing your degree requirement. [...] I don’t know whether you’ve already registered for the National University course, but there may be some other Statistics options that are upper-level, through another school." We misunderstand, thinking Excelsior is reneging altogether on its approval of the Statistics course. The same day, Excelsior rescinds Rosie's graduation bill.

1 March 2004:
Rosie sends Excelsior e-mail indicating she has already taken the Statistics course. "I spent a total of $1010.00 on tuition and fees. It is now too late for me to get a refund. I can readily document this." The advisor replies, saying, "The issue is not one of the course not meeting the Statistics core for the major (it will)--but rather, that the major requires that of the 30 semester hours required in it, that 15 of these need to be at the upper level." Rosie replies, saying, "I see that the problem is that my earlier TECEP exam, PSY*270 Psychology of Women, which was classified as upper-level credit on the Student Status Reports that Excelsior did for me on 11/26/03, 01/09/04, and 02/13/04, was re-classified as lower-level credit on 2/23/04. At the beginning of February, when I enrolled in a lower-level Statistics course, I could not possibly have foreseen that Excelsior was going to re-classify this upper-level credit as lower-level on February 23. Therefore, the lower-level Statistics course was a perfectly reasonable one for me to take. I think this may be grounds to file a grievance with your Ombudsperson. Does Excelsior have any explanation why it classified the TECEP exam as upper-level credit, then changed its mind at such a late date?"

3 March 2004:
The Excelsior advisor phones Rosie, and the Excelsior Ombudsperson is also on the line. No "explanation", but apologies and an offer to waive the fee for another Excelsior College Examination, "Foundations of Gerontology", which will supply the needed 3 upper-level credits in Psychology. Rosie accepts the offer.

Another example of studying a subject that doesn't interest one, merely because there happens to be a standard exam in it.

 

Wow, thanks for posting what happened. That had to be heart-breaking for you. Another reason to document everything when it comes to school. I hope it all works out and she has her diploma in her hands very quickly.