The Story of My Degree (1st Semester)

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by BA4Me, Jan 21, 2004.

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  1. BA4Me

    BA4Me New Member

    Okay, I've been spurred on my the encouragement I've received from some of the other testing posts to add my experiences to the board. As way of background, I graduated high school at 17, and was not at all prepared for college life. I attended college for a couple months and all I remember is that euchre and Long Island Ice Tea go well together. (I did so poorly that the courses I took don't even show up on my transcript.) I hit college again in '94 and took a course. That and a MS exam, and I've got 3 college credits (best guess at what will transfer in).

    After reading this board, I decided it was time to take the plunge. I turned 30 in June, and while I have not 'needed' a degree to succeed professionally, I have always felt a little disappointed in myself for not getting that 'piece of paper'.

    I don't have the cash at the moment to enroll with Excelsior, but that's the plan. Since I'm starting pretty much from scratch, I have a lot of testing I can do to cover the general education stuff. Last night I took my first two tests.

    First stop Analyzing & Interpreting Literature. I studied using the ebay guide, 2004 Collegeboard book, and a textbook I got from my girlfriend (high school english teacher). The worst part of this exam was the "The tone of the narrator in this passage is (a) contrived and humourless (b) ironic and solemn..." you get the idea. That and really difficult poetry. I took almost the whole time for this exam, but I was forcing myself to go slowly, and read each passage twice before answering any of the questions.

    Score (scaled) 71 out of 80 (FIRST POST-SECONDARY A!!!)

    Next stop Humanities. I used the ebay guide, and the princeton review and collegeboard books. I felt somewhat unprepared for this test--couldn't get my artists and periods, composers and periods, and who did what right. There were quite a few questions on the test that were almost the exact same as the princeton book, and I was able to eliminate at least two choices on the questions I didn't know. I didn't mark anything, but went through the complete test twice, just to be sure. I changed a lot of answers the second time through (probably generally a no-no...) One question I got right only because I had seen Mona Lisa Smile two nights earlier.

    Score (scaled) 71 out of 80 (yes, the exact same on both tests)

    Obviously in hindsight I probably spent way more time on the Humanities than I needed to, but who cares. First semester is completed!
     
  2. seekinghelp

    seekinghelp New Member

    Wonderful, congrats to you. How do you like the ebay guides? I think they are helpful. Keep up the great work.
     
  3. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Congratulations and good luck.
     
  4. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Wow! Congratulation on the way to College. It is an amazing story. I think I am going to put the same foot-step into your. I had done many MCI (Marine Corps Institute) exams, and received about 55 college credits from American Council on Education. I took couple of CLEP exams; which is free for military active member. I didn't get a good score because I only remembered what I learned from High School, and use the practice exam by Collegeboard. Sounds like Ebay has a good study guide. I'll check that out.

    ......On the way to Excelsior College.


    Semper Fi,
    Tekman
    "Born to fight, trained to kill, ready to die, but never will!"
     
  5. Congratulations! A great start. There's nothing like the feeling of instant gratification when you complete an exam and get great results like you achieved.

    Keep us posted on your next steps...
     
  6. MichaelR

    MichaelR Member

    As someone who was not ready for college when he graduated from HS I have to say you will find College easier at 30 than you did at 18. Mainly because you are now doing it for yourself, and not trying to please the units..... After flunking out of 2 state universities, and jr college I went back to school in my late 20's early 30's and mangaed to obtain both of my degree's from ITT. My over all GPA from my AAS was 2.8 and my overall for my BS was 3.49 (they couldn't give me a 10th of a point so I could have honors) Granted I am in major debt, but it was the best birthday gift I ever gave myself.
     
  7. BA4Me

    BA4Me New Member

    An Update - I'm a Sophomore

    I've done some more testing, so here's an update.

    April 19th - CLEP Natural Science
    This one was a toughy. I used the CollegeBoard and Princeton books, as well as my husband's old college Biology textbook. This one was 50% biology. There also was a lot of physics, chemistry and geology--which I thought I did pretty poorly on. I completed the test in just over an hour, the last 20 min of which was reading over all my guesses. I scored a 61.

    April 19th - CLEP Biology
    The Biology test was also very difficult with little review. I was counting on my powers of recall from Grade 13 Biology (now 12 years ago). I was really hoping for more genetics questions--the only part of Bio I enjoy. I passed with a 55, and for the amount of time I invested studying, it's a great score. To be honest I got about 8 questions at the end about female reproduction, and I think that's how I squeaked by.

    [I know there may be overlap here with the Nat Sci, but until Excelsior tells me different, I'm counting the credits in full.]

    April 20th - CLEP Social Science & History
    Once again, collegeboard and Princeton guides were my main study material--although I did review some history QuickStudy outlines. Passed both sample tests which >55%, and decided to wing it. Well, boy did I feel unprepared. To me it seemed heavy on the social science, and light on the history. Nonetheless, I passed with a 61. I finished this one in about 40 minutes.

    April 20th - CLEP Algebra
    When I finished SS&H, the test admin asked me if I wanted to do another one, since I drove 1.5 hours to get there, and there was plenty of time left in the day. This was the only one I thought I could pull off with no preparation (except for all the pre-calc I did studying for the GRE that I didn't write). To be honest, I found it quite easy. I wasn't prepared for the fill-in-the-blank questions (there were about 5), but it wasn't too bad. I did use all my time though. Passed with a 69 (A).

    May 3 - ECE World Population
    Rumours of the ease of this test are pretty accurate. I began studying Friday afternoon, and wrote this morning at 7:30. This is a long test--160 questions. There were alot of questions near the end that I don't even feel that I read.. After 50 minutes, I just could re-read any of the questions. When I clicked the Finish button I was anticipating seeing a C, or worse. Thankfully I got an A, and my first upper-level credits.

    Here's the standings so far:

    B&M: 3
    Microsoft: 2 [Don't ask me why!]
    CLEP: 33
    ECE: 3

    41 of 120 completed--and I'm a sophomore!
     
  8. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Well, keep watching movies--it seems to work! Congratulations on your progress thus far.
     
  9. BA4Me

    BA4Me New Member

    Thought I'd provide an update on my saga, since I enjoy reading everyone else's so much.

    May 8 - ECE Ethics
    It may just be me, but man are these ECE tests long. I stepped through the content guide on this one, and looked up most of the theories, etc. on the web. There were a lot of situational questions, and the reading got very tedious. Near the end I felt like I was just answering the questions without really reading the text. There were only a few concepts that I came across that I hadn't covered at least in a cursory fashion. Took me about 1 hour, and I passed with an A

    May 10 - French Language
    They say everyone meets their match eventually, and I met mine with this one. I didn't do much studying for this one--I scored okay on the practice test, and I was kind of hoping 2 semesters of college french would be less than 10 years of elementary and high school french. Wrong. I missed this one by 4 points--scored a 46.

    May 10 - Human Growth & Development
    I learned a little too late that this test was psychology and not physiology, so I had to do some late cramming. I wrote this one right after the French one, so I took almost the whole time. I marked almost every question, and probably answered only about ½ the first go around (I usually go through once and that's it.) I took a full hour to do this one and passed with a 59.

    May 12 - American History I and II
    I studied quite a bit for these two (I'm taking DSST Civil War next week). Scores: I-63, II-60

    May 13 - ECE Organizational Behaviour
    A heavy traveling/testing week this week caused me to run out of study time, so this one only got a cursory glance. My work experience obviously paid off on this one. Score: A

    Here's the standings so far:

    B&M: 3
    Microsoft: 2
    CLEP: 42
    ECE: 9
     
  10. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Excellent progress!

    A word about the Civil War exam....a friend of mine took it a few years ago, he said it focused a lot on the Reconstruction period, so make sure you include that in your study time.
     
  11. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

    Re: An Update - I'm a Sophomore


    Whatever works for you! :D
     
  12. BA4Me

    BA4Me New Member

    Update

    I'm now a junior!

    May 17th - CLEP Principles of Management
    Sat this one cold. I did come across references to Fiedler's study, and an Ohio State leadership study. I felt a lot of the questions were common knowledge for one experienced in the business world. Passed with a 71 (A).

    May 17th - CLEP Principles of Marketing
    Did some minor "cheat sheet" review for this one. The key questions on this one for me were marketing mix, market differentiation/segmentation, and shopping/convenience/specialty goods. I also came across a couple questions about characteristics of a service (intangeability, etc.) Passed with a 67.

    May 17th - DSST Here's to Your Health
    I'd definitely agree with other comments that this one is pretty easy. Of the 100+ questions, I'd say there were maybe 20 I was somewhat confident of my answer, and about 3 that I guessed at. The remainder I was fairly confident about. I'm guessing I earned at least a B, and probably an A.

    The standings:

    B&M: 3
    Microsoft: 2
    CLEP: 48
    DSST: 3 (anticipated)
    ECE: 9
     

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