Last summer I researched all of this and planned out what I was going to do. Psychology major with the subject GRE being a big part of how I would get my credits. Now, I am wondering if I should use lots of CLEP and DANTES to replace the GRE subject exam. I am hoping to get some detailed advice on the negatives of doing so. I believe it would cost a bit more, and it definitely takes more hours of testing and driving to the tests, BUT I am thinking I might prefer it. Because for the GRE I felt I would have to spend a large amount of time preparing, and with these other tests it's a lot easier to retake them. I usually do great on standardized tests however, and obviously wanted to not retake many of the CLEP, etc or else cost and time go up even more. I guess a lot of the pressure I feel is because I wanted to get the highest level of score on the GRE, but I would want that on CLEP's as well to graduate with high GPA. Should I just try the GRE? Another issue that's tied in is that I am considering doing a Business major instead of Psychology for my bachelor's degree at Excelsior. Do they still offer this for a BS (or BA)? I don't see it listed on https://www.excelsior.edu/portal/page?_pageid=57,55694&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL but Lawrie's site has it, but maybe that's old? Anyway IF Excelsior offers it, is there any reason I should do psychology instead? Ease, cost, etc? The only reason I could think of is that with psych I have the option to do the one test (subject GRE) to cover lots of credits. Oh, and originally I had thought I would avoid ECE's as much as possible since CLEP & DANTES seem more cost effective? (If it matters, I have a bunch of basic credits already, like freshman year and some sophmore I think, and I also have some other business type coursework that I am needing to do for another reason, some of that can apply here I'm sure to either Major.) Thanks, I really appreciate the help! Amy
Check this Excelsior page out instead: https://www.excelsior.edu/portal/page?_pageid=57,53421&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL They still have business degrees. I graduated from there wiith a BS in General Business in 2003. I followed Lawrie's site pretty much but I did have some general ed coursework completed from some previous colleges I attended. I didn't have any business credits and tested out of all of them. You can't completely avoid the ECE courses if you plan to test out. Lawrie's site should list the required ones that give you upper level credit which you need for your degree. The GRE exam is going to be the hardest of all the exams you mentioned above. I'd recommend studying hard. The nice thing about Excelsior is that if you finish your business degree first, then pass the Psych GRE with an 80% or better, you get a second degree in Pysch. If you don't pass it, no harm, you still have a business degree. As for getting a Psych OR Business degree, for me, it would have been a wash. I was earning about 6 credits a week when I was testing out of business credits. It would have taken me at least a month to be prepared for the GRE exam. I would have earned 30 psych credits in that month vs. 24 business credits. It comes down to which degree you think would be more helpful. The pass rates on the CLEP and DANTES exams are pretty low actually making them a bit easier. Some of them require slightly better than a 50%.
Thanks for your input. With Psych major I would be able to only take one ECE I believe whereas probably need many for Business. I think those are like 4 times the cost (?), and more difficult compared to CLEP/DANTES. But other than cost, it shouldn't be too much different, and I would like to have the degree in Business. And yeah I should totally think about the double major/degree actually since it's like I just take one more test (Psych GRE).
I had to take 6 ECE exams for my business degree. ETHICS: THEORY & PRACTICE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR LABOR RELATIONS PRODUCTION/OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT BUSINESS POLICY & STRATEGY I got an A in all of them except for a B in Ethics. I didn't find them to be really that difficult. They are more expensive as you said.
