BA in 4 Weeks

HOUSEKEEPING
Most of the material in these articles I originally posted in AED in 1997, 1998 and 1999. This is a partially revised and moderately expanded version. Older posts to in the AED archive are, for the moment, not accessible

Note that prices have gone up since the articles were first posted or last revised. I've gone through the texts and made
adjustments where discrepancies caught my eye. It was not an exhaustive search and a few numbers may still be off a bit.
Shouldn't be by too much though.

I've had many old and current complaints that there is no treatment of 2nd and 3rd year BA requirements. I'm adding these.

Lawrie Miller March 2001


BA in 4 weeks - INTRODUCTION

This series is primarily written to benefit mature adults who, for whatever reason, failed to start or failed to complete an
undergraduate BA or BS degree, and who now seek some method of demonstrating and translating current competencies into
academic credit and thence into an accredited, and universally recognized college degree.

The series of posts collectively provide a road map detailing the nuts and bolts of the process of gathering credit by examination and converting the credit into a bachelor's diploma, and why it is that you, the motivated intelligent student will likely succeed in that endeavor.

You may have spent the past ten or twenty years providing for and caring for your family, or have subordinated your academic ambitions to finance or otherwise help support those of your spouse or partner. You may have blown an earlier chance on a mis-spent youth and have long regretted the consequences. Whatever the reason, one way or another you probably feel you have paid your dues and that . . . now it's your turn again.

The title of the series is "BA in 4 weeks". Four weeks is the practical minimum amount of time in which this process can reasonably be completed. The process includes the completion of all degree credit requirements. There will probably be an additional delay while administrative gears whir and turn, before the actual degree diploma is cranked out.

It's estimated that 15% to 20% of motivated adults could complete the process in under a month if inclined to do so. I think it entirely likely that fully 60% of motivated adults taking on this project, could complete degree requirements within six months. I am as sure as I can be that close to 90% of motivated adults could complete degree requirements within a year.

My opinion is based on the practical experience of having earned two bachelor's degrees largely by examination, encompassing forty proficiency exams for a total of 190 semester hours credit. I note that 92.6% of all credit hours appearing in my Regents/Excelsior college transcripts
were awarded for passing proficiency exams.

There is nothing in the actions proposed in this series that I and others as average adult learners have not already proved doable, and that you, at least our equal, cannot do too. This series is not borne of theory and wishful thinking but of practical experience and demonstrable accomplishment.

PORTFOLIO CREDIT
It should be noted that examinations are not the only route to college credit. Portfolio assessment is one alternative. This method requires that you map some demonstrable skill to a college credit course. For instance, assembly language programming 301 and (say) microprocessor systems design and peripheral interfacing 457 (from XYZ university) course requirements might be met and competency demonstrated by presenting narrative, source code, and schematic, of a Z80 based single board computer *you* designed in the 1980s (liberal arts credit - engineering credit would be time limited). You may have written a killer budget report for financial year 1995/1996 that could be used in evidence
to garner credit in the equivalent Financial Management course FIN3AXD at UCLA. Alternatively, you may just play the banjo like a banshee and have sniffed out a college credit course that maps to that demonstrable skill. The key point is that the competency for which you request credit must have a corollary in some accredited college course. You choose the course and the college. Very flexible.

TRADITIONAL CREDIT
The other main source of credit is via the traditional route of class, assignment, exam/assessment. Many if not most adult learners starting out on this journey will already have some credit, though it be decades old, upon which they can call. Note though, that for the purposes of this series we assume no prior credit.

BE ECLECTIC
It is likely that most people will earn their degree using credit earned in a variety of ways. The game here is not necessarily to earn all credit via examination, or by way of portfolio assessment, or even to do it all in a month. The trick is to make efficient use of your existing credit and your native talent to achieve your goal. "BA in 4 weeks" seeks to provide a template that you can apply to your particular set of circumstances where and when you think it appropriate.

Note:
All references to colleges and universities are to regionally accredited institutions. "[A]ccredited" where it appears means
regionally accredited.

 

WHICH COLLEGE TO CHOOSE AND WHEN TO ENROLL

WHICH COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY?
Many if not most colleges and universities in the U.S. accept credit earned, or will themselves award credit for, proficiency exams. However, most limit as a proportion of the total required for a degree, how much of that credit can be culled from standardized examinations.

There are three institutions that will accept 100% of credits required for a degree, from proficiency exams.

These are:

Charter Oak State College (COSC),
Excelsior College,
Thomas Edison State College (TESC).


These three are known as assessment institutions, since they can be used to collect and collate credit from disparate origins. When enough credit of the correct type and in the correct proportions has been earned, these institutions will then award the student an accredited bachelor's degree that will find near universal recognition in the United States and in large portions of the rest of the world (excepting the FRG by all accounts).


WHICH OF THE THREE COLLEGES SHOULD I CHOOSE?
A number of factors should be considered before that decision is made.

1)
COSC and TESC are state funded, Excelsior is not. If money is tight, COSC and TESC can sup at the public trough but Excelsior cannot.

2)
Both COSC and TESC evaluate portfolio credit. Excelsior accepts portfolio credit but does not evaluate it, that is done elsewhere (COSC).

3)
Excelsior has a very comprehensive and easily accessible online library of catalogs, sample test papers, and other student related reference documents. These make life much easier for self-starters to act as their own best advisor. This is a big factor in favor of Excelsior in my opinion.

4)
Excelsior awards letter grades (from which GPA may be calculated) for proficiency exams, COSC and TESC do not. Some believe that a GPA is unnecessary for grad school. I would (and have) argued strongly to the contrary. Most graduate schools and most graduate programs require some minimum GPA (usually 3.00 for the last 60 hours of credit). It may be a candidate will be accepted into a particular graduate program without a GPA, but he may not. Not having a bachelor's degree with a GPA would likely reduce one's options down the road. Excelsior College is the only one of the three assessment institutions that letter grades proficiency examinations.

The foregoing is a double edged sword, of course. If you're scoring "C"s in the exams, that fact might be best left unrecorded by opting for a college that only awards pass/fail grades.

5)
Excelsior awards generous credit for a good pass in GRE subject exams. COSC awards less generous credit in GRE subject exams but accepts a mediocre pass score. TESC awards no credit for GRE subject exams.

6)
Name matters. State institutions such as COSC or TESC may find greater acceptance than Excelsior. Some feel more assured by a state college. Some feel the name "Excelsior" leaves much to be desired.


THEN CAN I DELAY A DECISION ON A COLLEGE BUT START TAKING EXAMS FIRST? WHAT ABOUT CREDIT BANKING?

Yes, you can take exams and apply for credit later or you can bank the credit right away with Excelsior. There are a few things to consider before choosing these options too. These are discussed in the next.

ENROLL NOW OR WAIT?

BANKING CREDIT
The Excelsior College Credit Bank allows consolidation of existing and new credit in the form of a recognized college transcript. The cost of the service is about $200 and $25 per subsequent credit update. The resulting transcript can then be hawked to your institution of choice. There is no guarantee, however, that the receiving institution will accept all or any of the credits, though they may be more likely to accept these credits than award credit for raw proficiency exam passes garnered outwith their "care".

ALTERNATIVELY
If you are sure you will enroll in one of the assessment institutions there is nothing to stop you going over the degree requirements, then simply sitting the relevant exams. You can send the results to which ever institution you like at some later date.


If you enroll in Excelsior, all existing credit will be transcribed at no extra cost. All future credit will be transcribed at no further cost. All credit can be transferred to another institution (transcript issued) for around $8 to $25 (for rush service). Most institutions are more likely to accept a regionally accredited college's transcript than raw examinations. This wont matter in the case of exam credit transfer to COSC or TESC, they're enlightened, but other institutions may be wary of accepting such credits "in the raw" (there may be a problem where COSC is concerned related to the order in which exams are taken - e.g. taking advanced psy exams *before* psychology 101 - at Excelsior and TESC you can take exams in any order).


OTHER CONSIDERATIONS - (ENROLL NOW OR WAIT?)

Let's assume you are familiar with the requirements of the degree you are seeking (Liberal Arts component, UD credits needed)
..............................................................


It may pay you to wait. Three factors to consider.

1)
The amount and level of credit awarded for GRE subject exams and your likely performance in these tests.

2)
That Regents College awards letter grades to CLEP, DANTES and RCE exam scores, TESC and COSC do not.

3)
The pass threshold of CLEP general exams.


If you do well in the GRE exams and/or in the subject exams, you have the option of choosing Excelsior to harvest maximum credit and/or an impressive GPA.

If you do not perform well in the GRE exams and/or the subject exams, you can plump for COSC and salvage the best possible GRE credit (COSC) and/or hide poor "C" letter grades as pass/fail grades (COSC or TESC).

Since the pass threshold for CLEP general exams varies by institution, and because the general exams are necessary to fulfill a major part of the General Ed. requirement (it's assumed you want to do all of this be examination), this may be an important factor. Excelsior are probably the most generous, requiring a score of 420 to pass, TESC the least, requiring a score of 500, and COSC a mix of one at 500 and the rest 470.



..............................................................................



It may *not* pay you to wait. The moving target factor.

1)
Regents, TESC, and COSC, can and frequently do change their rules and regulations year to year, and normally not to the benefit of students.

For example, in 1997, Regents (Excelsior) changed its requirement for English Composition, and after September of that year would no longer accept the CLEP exam taken after that date, and submitted by students enrolled after that date.

Once you are enrolled, you are locked into the current set of rules and regs. If Excelsior should suddenly decide to stop awarding GRE credit, and you are an enrolled student who has not yet written the GRE exam, you should be entitled to proceed under the old regulation in force at the time of your enrollment. If you are not an enrolled student, and have not yet written the exam, you are out of luck.

(Note that if you have not enrolled but have written the GRE exam prior to the rule change, Regents would accept submission of the scores for the award of semester hour credit under the old rules.)

.......................................................................



GRE details to consider. . . ..

Regents awards credit for GRE subject exams on a sliding scale. A score above the 80th percentile will net you 30 sem hrs credits. A score above the 35th percentile will net you 3 sem hrs. In between, credits are accumulated in 3 credits per 5 percentile increments.

Charter Oak State College (COSC) Awards 18 or 24 credits for GRE subject exams for any score above the 40th percentile. 24 credits are awarded for quantitative exams, 18 credits are awarded for non quantitative exams.

Thomas Edison State College (TESC) does not award credit for GRE subject exams.

In addition to the above, it should be noted that Regents awards the first 12 credits as lower division (LD) credits. That is, a pass above the 50th percentile will yield 12 LD credits. All additional credits awarded are upper division credits (UD). So, a score above the 80th percentile yields 12 LD and 18 UD semester hour credits, for a total of 30 credit hours.

COSC awards 15 LD credits + 9 UD credits in the quantitative GREs, and 15 LD credits + 3 UD credits in the non quantitative GREs, for a total of 24 and 18 credit hours respectively.

(COSC breaks LD credits into basic level and advanced level, but to all intents and purposes they are LD credits so far as I can establish. COSC graduates may know better.)

 

BA in 4 Weeks - EXAM TIPS AND BOOKS

EXAMINATION TIPS

STARTING POINT - OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT
Use practice tests in the first instance to assess your current knowledge level. Once you have some objective reading of your current ability, you will be able to tailor study to fit the gaps.

Princeton Review's Cracking the Clep is useful for the CLEP General exams. It is comprehensive and can be a very accurate predictor of performance in the actual exams. The Official Guide from the College Board covers all the exams (from the horse's mouth), but suffers from the relatively merge question sample size. Nevertheless, it is essential you read this book and practice these example questions too.

SCORING
One thing people often fear when practicing for these exams, is their apparent poor performance. This is a standardized test. It would be very difficult to determine a range of performance if contents were skewed to produce an average "pass mark" of 90% (common in the U.S.). Instead we have to have enough questions and grades of quality of questions, that will accurately assess and reflect a range of abilities of the total population of examinees. Bottom line, look for 40% to 45% raw score for a standardized score of 50 (out of 80) in the subject exams, and 500 (out of 800) in the General exams. This score in the General exams is enough for a pass at TESC (500 required) and Regents/Excelsior (420 required) and COSC (500/470).

RULES OF THUMB
1)
As a general rule, to be sure of passing a CLEP exam, ensure you're hitting 50% raw score, and you WILL pass each and every one. Raw score is the net result of correct answers minus one quarter incorrect answers.

2)
As a general rule, to be sure of scoring an "A" (Excelsior students only), ensure you're hitting 77% raw score, and you WILL score an "A" every time.

3)
In the penalty exams (CLEP and GRE subject), IF YOU CAN ELIMINATE EVEN ONE OF THE FIVE POSSIBLE CHOICES - PICK AN ANSWER - DO NOT LEAVE THE QUESTION BLANK. If you eliminate one choice as definitely wrong, your chances of randomly picking the correct answer are 1/4. If, for
the entire exam, for all the questions, you could only eliminate one choice per question, and had to randomly pick the answer from
the remaining four possibilities, you will, on average come out 18.75% ahead. That is, in a test of (say) 100 questions, you haven't a clue
but CAN eliminate one in five choices per question, your score is 25 - 75x0.25 = 18.75. On the margin, if you are struggling to pass or to make an "A", such things matter. As someone recently pointed out, other treatments of this issue appear in various test prep books, this is not an original thought.

[The core of this piece was originally written to answer a poster - "SA", I think, an American TEFOL instructor in Korea - who argued that a monkey could, on average, score 25% in a GRE subject exam. While that was clearly disproved, SA's posts moved one less charitable reader to comment he was not convinced that lower primates contribute to AED, and that monkeys can teach English as a foreign language.]

In the no-penalty exams (RCE and DANTES), MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE NO QUESTION UNANSWERED. Don't have a clue? Don't matter, pick an answer ("One should never miss an opportunity to state the obvious", Confucius).

. . . . .

CONTRASTING EXAMS: PERCEIVED DIFFICULTIES

People often ask if one type of exam is easier than another. It seems that the RCE and the TECEP exams in particular are thought significantly more difficult. There *is* one type of exam more difficult than the rest, and that is the GRE subject exam, but that is because it tests the student with questions covering undergraduate freshman to senior years across a whole academic discipline. It is a comprehensive exam, but one that yields a great deal more credit than any of the other types. Looked at in terms of credit-yield-per-unit-effort, GRE subject exams are not more difficult than other exams. If a Regents College exam is akin consuming a ham sandwich, the GRE subject exam is like eating a six course meal in approximately the same period of time.

On the Regents College exams, my experience offers no evidence that they require different study or revision approaches than those applicable to CLEP, DANTES or the GRE subject exams. In fact, in the case of RCE multiple choice tests, I found that most of these 3-hour exams could be completed in an hour or an hour and a bit. In comparison, I took the full 2 hours and 50 minutes to complete the GRE subject exams and the full 90 minutes to complete most of the CLEP exams (though a few CLEP exams took only 60 minutes (30+30). DANTES exams do not have a time limit, but most agree 90 minutes is appropriate, and, for these exams I took at least that amount of time to finish.

So, all else being equal (knowledge of the specific subject), which it seldom is I grant, these data would indicate the RCE tests are in fact easier to pass AT THE SAME LEVEL (upper or lower division) than other proficiency exams. Looking at the results in terms of grade or percentile ranking, my performances were remarkably similar for RCE, GRE, DANTES and CLEP examinations, i.e. the outcomes were about the same.

As with the other exam types, I used none of the recommended preparation material for the RCE tests, too expensive, with the exception of the free tests and notes downloaded from the Excelsior web site. These notes are a vital preparation tool. It may be however, that the exam-specific proprietary study materials available directly from Excelsior College, will prove valuable to some learners.

Incidentally, for the TECEP examinations, TESC offers a book detailing all of the tests for about 20 bucks. You get a bonus DANTES test book thrown in. Though I ended up taking no TECEP tests, I did intend to do so, and used the practice exams in this book to revise. I found it most useful. Most TESC exams have a passing score of 60% and may be a tad more difficult than DANTES or CLEP due mainly to the higher pass threshold. The book is the "TECEP Examinations Test Description Book", which to repeat, comes with a freebie DANTES test book.

Bottom line, don't be afraid to take the RCE or the TECEP exams, they are not significantly more difficult than any of the other proficiency exams, level for level. You do not necessarily need to buy Excelsior College study materials to pass their exams (RCE). In fact, you do not need to buy the recommended books to pass any proficiency exam. You *do* have to make sure you understand the subject material before
writing the test of course. O, would that it were otherwise.


BOOKS

Standard texts generally work well. The Cliff Notes versions if you can (i.e. any abbreviated text). You don't want to go too deep into the subject if your goal is simply to pass the exam at the appropriate level. That is why doing the example questions first is so important. They provide a benchmark indicating how much you need to know and whether or not you already know enough. If your target is a simple pass and you're scoring 50% - sit the exam. If your target is a sure-fire "A" and you're scoring >77% - sit the exam. If you are not reaching your minimum requirement, use the test as a map to where you must invest your efforts. What categories within the subject area are you failing on? where within those failure might maximum credit be gained for study effort?

The texts I used were whatever I had to had in my library, what I could find on the net, and if I had to shell out for a book, whichever was the cheapest. Least expensive and time consuming of all will be where you have tried the mock exam and found you needed no further study (you met your target score). Then you need do nothing but take the test. This may happen to you with comforting regularity. I hope so, but if not use the following algorithm:

WHILE (NOTPASS) DO
MOCK TEST - REVISE - MOCK TEST
(repeat until pass)
SIT EXAMINATION


CAUTION
There's a series of books called "ACT proficiency Series. Rudman's questions and answers on the PEP", from National Learning Corporation. These are ostensibly geared for use with the ACT/PEP exams (now RCE AKA ECE). You might think then that these are ideally suited for RCE exam revision. I tried to use a couple of these and found them worse than useless. I mention it because if you have to buy them, with shipping, it's likely to run you about $25 a pop. If I thought you'd benefit in the slightest from using these things, I'd say nothing, but as it is . . .


BOOK LIST

Below is a listing of the exams I've taken and the books used. All but one of the books are in the range $5 to $15. Where "None" appears, the exam concerned was taken with no study/revision, but I've suggested some titles/sources that might prove useful. Note that in all cases, sample or mock exams were used to asses my competence before any decision to test or to review was taken. Remember, I used these books because I already had them to hand, or because they were cheap. I do consider them equal to the task, however.

Another list follows the first detailing the difficulty of the exams on a scale from 1 to 5. "5" the most difficult, "1" no sweat at all. Clearly, everyone's view of hard or easy will be affected by their degree of prior exposure to the particular subject matter and their innate talent relative to the specific discipline. Those not at least semi computer literate should add one point to the difficulty index for computer related exams.

USEFUL BOOKS FOR SPECIFIC PROFICIENCY EXAMINATIONS


CLEP Examinations

Introduction to Educational (Barron's EZ-101 Psychology)
Social Science None (Princeton Review Cracking the Clep)
Introductory Psychology (Barron's EZ-101 Psychology)
Information Systems and Computer App. None ("For Dummies series")
Macroeconomics (Cliffs Quick Review Economics)
Principles of Management (Barron's EZ-101 Management)
English Composition with Essay None (practice writing 45 min essays, Princeton Review Cracking the Clep)

Principles of Marketing (Barron's Business Review Marketing)
Microeconomics (Cliffs Quick Review Economics)
Natural Science None (Princeton Review Cracking the Clep)
Humanities None (Princeton Review Cracking the Clep)
Introductory Business Law (Barron's Business Review Business Law)
American Government (HarperCollins College Outline Into to Gov)
Principles of Accounting (Barron's Business Review Accounting)

DANTES Examinations

Management Information Systems None ("For Dummies" series)
Principles of Finance (Barron's Business Library Financial Man'gment)
Business Law II (Barron's Business Review Business Law)
Principles of Supervision (Barron's Bus Lib Human Resource Man'gment)
Contemporary Western Europe None (Suggest any simple Euro primer)
Money and Banking Various Sources (could obtain no recommended title)
Criminal Justice None
Fundamentals of Counseling None (suggest basic HR and psy texts)
Principles of Financial Accounting (Barron's Financial Man'gment)
(+Accounting books detailed previously)
Drug and Alcohol Abuse (Practicum)

RCE Examinations

Abnormal Psychology (HarperCollins Outline Abnormal Psych)
Ethics Theory and Practice (HarperCollins Outline Ethics)
Fundamentals of Gerontology (Princeton Review Cracking GRE Psych)
Labor Relations (Learn Federal/State Labor Laws from the WWW)
Lifespan Developmental Psychology (Princeton Review GRE Psych)
Organizational Behavior (Barron's Business Lib Human Resources)
Psychology of Adulthood and Aging (Princeton Review GRE Psych)
English Composition None (Suggest buy the RCE English primer)
Business Policy and Strategy (Strategic Mangment, Wheelan)
Human Resource Management (Barron's Business Lib Human Resources)
Production/Operations Management (Prentice Hall Vest-Pocket MBA)
Research Methods in Psychology (Princeton Review GRE Psych)
World Population None (www CIA World Fact Book)

GRE Subject Examinations

Psychology (Princeton Review GRE Psych)
Revised Political Science (History of Western Political
Thought J.S. McClelland, Pub. Routlege)

. . . . . . . .

INDIVIDUAL EXAMINATION DIFFICULTY INDEX ("How hard is xyz examination?)

Likely relative difficulty an average motivated adult learner would experience scoring at least a "B" in selected proficiency exams

1 = No study required
2 = Light revision required
3 = A reasonable effort required
4 = Some real study required
5 = No messing around a good score requires significant effort.

For a simple "pass", reduce difficulty index by 1 in each case.

CLEP Examinations

Introduction to Educational Psychology 2
Social Science 2
Introductory Psychology 2
Information Systems and Computer Appl 1
Macroeconomics 3
Principles of Management 2
English Composition with Essay 1
Principles of Marketing 3
Microeconomics 4
Natural Science 2
Humanities 3
Introductory Business Law 2
American Government 2
principles of Accounting 4

DANTES Examinations

Management Information Systems 1
Principles of Finance 4
Business Law II 4
Principles of Supervision 2
Contemporary Western Europe 1
Money and Banking 4
Criminal Justice 1
Fundamentals of Counseling 2
Principals of Financial Accounting 3
Drug and Alcohol Abuse 1

RCE Examinations

Abnormal Psychology 3
Ethics Theory and Practice 3
Fundamentals of Gerontology 3
Labor Relations 3
Lifespan Developmental Psychology 3
Organizational Behavior 3
Psychology of Adulthood and Aging 3
English Composition 3
Business Policy and Strategy 5
Human Resource Management 3
Production/Operations Management 3
Research Methods in Psychology 3
World Population 1

GRE Subject Examinations

Psychology 4
Revised Political Science 4

 

BA in 4 Weeks - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


[What is credit by examination?]

1)
For our purposes it can be defined as college semester hour credit awarded for passing standardized proficiency exams of various hues.

Exams are offered by:

CLEP - College Level Examination Program
DANTES - Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Educational Support
RCE - Regents College Exams (AKA "ECE" Excelsior College Exams)
GRE - Graduate Record Exams (subject exams only)
TECEP - Thomas Edison College Examination Program

There are other exam programs, but these are the ones we'll be detailing.


[Can I earn a bachelor's degree entirely by testing out?]

2)
Yes. You can earn an accredited bachelor's degree exclusively by way of proficiency examinations.

[Where and how can I earn a degree by examination?]

3)
"Where", would be

Charter Oak State College, CT (COSC)
Excelsior College, NY (formally Regents College)
Thomas Edison State College, NJ (TESC).

"How", is the subject of this series . . . read on.


[but are these "real" colleges or scams?]

All three institutions are regionally accredited. Regional accreditation is *the* standard of fundamental legitimacy for colleges and universities in the United States. AED is consumed by debates focusing on nuances of accreditation which often quickly descend into theology. However, you could do worse than adopt a utilitarian approach by following the admonition: if it's a US school it has to be regionally accredited to warrant consideration.

(Incidentally, if you are currently in an undergraduate program at a U.S. non regionally accredited school, you may want to consider British polititian Denis Healy's First Law of Holes: when you're in one, stop digging. There are many regionally accredited distance undergraduate programs available rendering reliance upon non regionally accredited offerings unnecessary. This point, of course, has for years has been a mantra
of the eloquent grandee of DL, Dr. John Bear.)


[How many semester hours do I need to get a bachelor's degree?]

4)
Normally you must accumulate 120 semester hours of credit in the correct ratios defined by kind (lib arts, science, etc), subject, and level (upper and lower division), in order to qualify for degree conferral. If all of the earned credit were to be derived from testing, this would most often translate to between seven and thirty-five examinations.


[At the higher end, is it really likely I can pass all these exams?]

5)
It is entirely possible to take and pass all exams necessary to meet the requirements for a BA or BS degree without extensive study (details follow).

It is entirely possible if adequately prepared by life's experiences, through occupation, prior formal education, general reading, personal interests (e.g. politics, history, physics, literature), to review and test out in all necessary disciplines, in four weeks.


[Isn't it impractical? There aren't enough hours in the day to do it.]

6)
The average 3-semester hour credit takes 90 minutes to complete, not three hours. It is easily possible to sit three examinations per day and I (and I expect many others) have done so on many occasions.

Where 3-semester hour exams are three hours in length, it is *still* possible to sit three exams per day. It is not true that if an exam is completed in less than the allotted time, you cannot immediately move on to the next exam, you can. Again, I have sat three 3-hour exams in one day (more than once) that have taken an average of one hour to complete, and have immediately moved on to the next exam, and I am no genius.


[Are there venues that will allow multiple testing on consecutive days?]

7)
Enough test stations will allow you to take more than two exams per day. US military bases will allow you to take as many exams per day as you can cram into their test station's hours of operation. All Sylvan centers (RCE exams) will allow three 3-hour exams per day Monday through Friday. You can knock off three RCE exams in about 3 to 4 hours. That's nine semester hours credit.

The exceptions would be GRE subject exams where it is not possible to sit multiple exams in a day, but in these cases, a total of 30 semester hours can be granted for a pass above the 80th percentile. A score above the 80th percentile is very doable. I have done so on two occasions, others here have done so on three or four occasions. Those who can't meet that requirement can still garner 18 or 24 semester hour credit with a pass above the 40th percentile if enrolled in COSC.

[Wont it end up costing more than portfolio assessment, and be slower?]

8)
The cost per 3-semester hour test varies by exam type, and prices are always subject to change, but, including administration fees, average cost are in the ball park of $35, $54, $120, $240, per 3-semester hours, for DANTES, CLEP, RCE objective, RCE essay. Note that further saving can be had by using CLEP
General Exams at around $54 per 6-semester hours, and GRE subject exams at around $100 per 30-semester hours. Note again, that prices include all exam administration fees and transcript fees.

If a learner enrolls in an Excelsior College program, there is no fee for transcription of credits. The initial enrollment fee is around $720 and a graduation fee of around $440. The total amount paid to the college therefore, need be no more than $1200.

Total costs including books, exam fees, transcripts, and all college fees, will be around $3000 odd, to complete a 120 semester hour bachelor's degree, from scratch in around four weeks.


[Isn't it better to use portfolio assessment?]

9)
I had plenty of prior credit going into my first degree, and a bunch of documented evidence to support any claim to credit via portfolio assessment. After doing a couple of competency exams, I decided it was clearly the way to go. Your mileage may vary. There's no doubt that it's quicker to do the exam if you know the subject and if a suitable exam exists. If not, portfolio is certainly a good way to go. Portfolio may also be *your* best choice in the first instance. You must decide that.



[Exactly how could one complete any entire degree in four weeks without recourse to GRE subject exams?]

10)
To complete an AS degree in two weeks or BS degree in four weeks (a comfortable period) without using GRE subject exams, military bases are the only viable option I know. I guess you could travel from test center to test center, doing the usual two exams per diet, then traveling to the next center for another two exams and so on. Not very practical.

By way of practical example consider the following. VAFB near Lompoc, CA (University of La Verne base outpost) will allow testing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all day and Thursday part of the day. When you work out the practicalities behind the numbers, this restricts you to three exams a day. Three exams a day is also a comfortable pace that can be sustained over a period of weeks (my experience).

Given the need for some revision, nine exams per week spread over three consecutive days of four consecutive days, is practical and sensible. Note that at least some of the exams will have to be RCE to meet upper division (UD) requirements.

Since the first five exams should be the CLEP general exams, each worth six credit hours, the freshman year can be completed before the second day's testing has ended. Yes, that's right, a year's worth of college credit in less that 48 hours. By the end of the second day of the second week, the sophomore year will be in the bag. This leaves seven days testing over the next two and a half weeks to complete the junior and senior years. Plenty of time for revision and altogether a walk in the park. NB- RCE English Composition required in the case of Excelsior College, not CLEP English with Essay.

Note that the practical limit on RCE exams is three per day. Each of these exams is three hours in length. However, most can be completed (and passed) in about an hour. Most Sylvan centers are open at least nine hours per day excluding Saturday and Sunday (Saturday a half day normally). I'm not suggesting spending nine hours at a stretch testing, but you can schedule it that way. As previously noted, most RCE exams can be completed in about an hour, and those administering the exams will allow you to start the next scheduled exam early if you have completed the preceding one in short time.

Of the thirteen RCE I've taken, only two required the full three hours, English Composition and Business Policy and Strategy. Both of these are written (non-objective) exams. So, in the main, you should be in and out, and nine UD credits to the good in less than four hours for each day of RCE testing, on average.

In two weeks (AS degree) or four weeks (BA or BS degree), you will have completed all degree requirements without prematurely turning gray. All that is then required is that you send in the graduation fee and wait for conferral. The diploma should arrive in the mail a week or so thereafter. Mount in a suitable frame for viewing and keep it out of direct sunlight.

 

Lawrie,

WOW!!

Thank you for probably the most comprehensive and useful contribution yet made to degreeinfo.

With your permission, at some point in the near future, I would like to take your post and copy it into the not-yet-developed content portion of degreeinfo, as I think that this will be of enormous value to working professionals looking to complete a degree quickly for employment or promotion purposes.

 

BA in 4 weeks - FIRST YEAR


Completing first year college from scratch in two days.................

CLEP GENERAL EXAMS

1)
Do the general CLEP exams. If enrolled in Excelsior College, substitute the RCE exam "English Composition" for the CLEP "English Composition with Essay".

2)
There are five CLEP general exams. Each is worth 6 semester hours credit. Each is 90 minutes in length, split into two 45 minute sections. Successful completion of the five exams will fulfill freshman year requirements at COSC and TESC. Excelsior students should substitute RCE "English composition" as noted above.

3)
The five exams can be completed in two days of testing. The exams are:

English Composition with Essay (or RCE English Composition for Excelsior students)
Humanities
College Mathematics
Natural Sciences
Social Sciences and History

4)
If you have the choice (i.e. not an Excelsior student), avoid RCE English Composition and go with the CLEP English composition with Essay, it's far easier, not to mention a lot cheaper. The RCE English Composition exam is three hours in length and consists of three one-hour essays. As I remember it, essays are a "contrast and compare", an advocacy letter/report, and an article critique. There is no "English interpretation" section in the RCE exam. As stated, the CLEP English Composition with Essay is 90 minutes in length, and consists of one 45 minute objective English interpretation section, and one 45 minute essay section. The essay is a response to some talking point. Mine
instructed the examinee discuss what event or invention he/she thought had the greatest impact on the Twentieth Century.

5)
These are general exams and as such cover a very wide area of, for want of a better term, "general knowledge". Except in mathematics, I do not know that your chances of passing these exams would be significantly improved by any sort of cramming, precisely because the tests are so wide ranging.

I think the best strategy is to try the mock exams and use the results to guide your study efforts. The shallowness of the tests mean that much of the knowledge deficit exposed by the mock exams may be filled by quick reference to information on the world wide web via a search engine like Google.

For the RCE English Composition exam, you might want to consider purchasing Excelsior College's proprietary English exam package. Certainly, you must download and study the mock exam PDF file, available free from the Excelsior web site. For the CLEP English exam, do the mocks to get the objective part down pat, then practice writing the 45 minute essays.


5)
CLEP Required materials .............................

First off , get hold of the "CLEP official study guide" from The College Board. You can buy this at many bookstores, from amazon.com on the Web, or it can be ordered from College Board Publications at 1-800-323-7155. This book has sample questions covering all CLEP general and subject exams. The questions in this book mirror those you will encounter in the exams in degree of difficulty and in focus. Alas, most of the other guides do not.

However, as in the case of the GRE subject exams, there is one exception. The Princeton Review "Cracking the CLEP". This book covers all five general examinations with a full complement of questions for each. There are detailed notes in the answer section. Most importantly, the difficulty and scope of the tests match (pretty nearly) the genuine article.

The REA offering only serves to mislead. The questions do not match the difficulty level found in the actual CLEP exams. As with some of their GRE guides, the questions are a higher order of difficulty than those found in the CLEP exams proper. This is not simply a matter of opinion. I have old score sheets of the mock tests taken within a day or so of each other using the REA tests, the Princeton tests, and the results of the actual exams. Where REA predicted 50%ile (a fail or a bare pass) in Humanities, Princeton indicated 93%ile; actual was 89%ile. REA prediction for Social Science/History 62%ile, Princeton 99%ile, actual 99%ile; Natural Sciences REA 68%ile, Princeton 99%ile, actual 96% and the pattern continues for all the other exams taken. These are empirical data. The results speak volumes about the relative utility of the guides.

Note that you don't have to score high in absolute terms to do well in percentile or scaled-score terms in these exams. For instance, a raw score of 50 out of 120 will get you a pass in the Natural Science exam (=500 scaled). That's under 42%. So don't fear that a pass is unattainable, it is likely comfortably within your reach. Remember that the passing scores in these exams are meant to reflect the average
performance of a freshman student 18 years old. Cannot speak for others, but at 18 my main interests and goals in life were sex, booze and getting into show business. You bring many advantages of experience, maturity and focus to the fray. You have managed to
hold down a responsible job and perhaps have raised or are raising a family. Most freshman can't keep their room clean!

Get the Official CLEP Guide and the Princeton Review. Try out the mock exams. If you're scoring greater than 500 scaled score, sit the exams without further ado. Remember, a pass at 500 yields exactly the same credit as a pass at 800. There are no grades attached to the general exams. In the unlikely event you do fail, you can resit the exam and suppress the failure..... no one will know, or care.

Note that the passing score at Excelsior College is 420 for the CLEP general exams. At TESC, I believe the passing score is 500. At COSC, 500 and 470.

The exam guide for RCE English Composition can be found at Excelsior.edu.

BOOKS
CLEP Official Study Guide, The College Board - about $20
Cracking the CLEP, Princeton Review - about $20
The Best Test preparation for the CLEP, REA - about $20
Course Guide for English Composition, Excelsior College - $25

 

BA in 4 Weeks - SECOND YEAR

Completing sophomore year college in three and a bit days


1)
We have constructed subject and exam matrices that are synergistic. That is, the interrelated elements in the chosen subjects and the chosen test pairings of subjects mean that facts and concepts learned and absorbed in studying one discipline are directly applicable within one of the other tested disciplines. So, for example, elements of knowledge in Psych 101, Ed Psych, Supervision, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, are common, reusable and complementary.

2)
It is not enough to accumulate *any* 120 credits. There must be cohesion and depth in terms of disciplines and breadth in the range of subjects studied. So we must meet the Written English Requirement (WER), the Humanities, Mathematics/Science, and Social Science/History requirements.


3)
So, on to the second week. You have already earned 30 semester hours credit. This week you're going to pick up another 30 with a mix of not too difficult tests. You need to schedule for Monday a full day at a Sylvan center near you, and Tuesday and Wednesday at yourfriendly military base, community center, or other station allowing multiple testing. Thursday, one more exam at Sylvan.

MONDAY
RCE Ethics Theory and Practice
RCE Organizational Behavior
RCE World Population


You finished testing early Tuesday afternoon of last weekand and have been enjoying periods of relaxation interspersed with study. It's now the following Monday morning, 9:00AM.You've shown your ID at the Sylvan test center, had your mug shot taken, and signed in. The exam proctor escorts you to your seat. You disdain his offer of a pair of neon colored/guaranteed sanitized/made in ROK, earplugs (they itch). Ready, confident, you "press any key to begin", and begin.

"Ethics: Theory and Practice" will be one of the more time consuming RCE exams to wrap up. Not because it is difficult but rather that the scenario questions can take a while to read and digest. You should be through in about two hours or a bit less. When you have reviewed your answers and indicate you're happy, your score and grade will appear on the screen. That's a buzz. Immediate gratification.

You signal that you have completed the exam and go back into the proctor's office or wait at the access hatch. He will provide you with a printed and embossed/stamped scoresheet.

An hour to eat, drink (recommend a cooler with a packed lunch and sit in your car), and some light revision for the next exam. Forget about the previous test, it's history and you can't affect the result, but you can
influence the outcome of the next one. In every one of the 13 RCE exams I sat, I did significantly better than I would have predicted immediately after the test but before the actual result was revealed. I hope you will be similarly surprised. For many or most, I think it likely.

"Organizational Behavior" you start at noon. Expect to be through about 1:00PM to 1:15PM. Your next exam is scheduled for 3:00PM but you can elect to take it early, or you can do more eating, or snoozing, or light revision for the final exam of the day.

"World Population" - we've left this for last because it's the easiest, and if you're feeling a little tired, well, this is nothing to get excited about. You should finish this within about an hour.

Let me repeat previous note in this series: you will know how you will perform with fair certainty by tracking your performance in the mock exams. I found the mock exams (listed elsewhere) very good predictors of actual performance on forty (40) occasions. I doubt that that would be a fluke, or an experience you would not share, if you were to follow the same bench marking strategy.

TUESDAY
CLEP Introductory Psychology
CLEP Introduction to Educational Psychology
CLEP American Government

If it's Tuesday, it must be the CLEPs (from July 2001 these will be computer based tests like the RCE exams). First up, "Introduction to Psychology". Your a mature adult and you intuitively understand many of the concepts to be examined. You've read the "Cliff Notes" version of Psych 101. You're ready, trust me.

Exam finished at 10:30AM and the next one is scheduled for noon. "Educational Psychology" is next. Make sure you've gone through and can answer the questions in the Official CLEP book and you should do fine.

3:00PM "American Government". Examinees educated in the United States should have little problem with this exam. If however, like me, you were educated in the ways of another, less confusing and more civilized political system, you may benefit from a primer. I used no primer.

WEDNESDAY
DANTES Fundamentals of Counseling
DANTES Principles of Supervision
DANTES Criminal Justice


Wednesday: Fundamentals of Counseling. Read Psych 101, have a look at a primer on human resources, apply common sense, and stir. A pass should not be a problem.

"Principles of Supervision" performance in exam benefits from reading Psych 101, Human Resource Management, and Organizational behavior. Should not be a problem for any mature adult. Almost all of us at one time or another, on one side or another, have had practical experience of many or most of the scenarios encountered in this exam.

"Criminal justice"? Watched any crime programs on TV? No problem then. Seriously, this was not a justice system with which I was familiar, but most of the answers were fairly obvious. No need for prior contact or experience with the U.S. justice system required. Do make sure you try the free DANTES sample questions, though. If you experience a significant problem, a primer may be in order. I think it likely most of you having come thus far, would have no difficulty.

THURSDAY

Back to Sylvan for the RCE Management of Human Resources. Use Barron's Business Library Human Resources Management book. Prior study for Psch 101, Organizational Management, Principles of Counseling, all contribute here. Should complete this exam in one hour to ninety minutes. If you've gotten through the other "people handling" exams, this will be a snip.


4)
SUMMARY

It's Thursday morning 11:00AM, the sun is shining and testing is over for this week. You earned 30 hours credit, with many of those credits in the upper division, and you have completed all lower division compulsory elements. You now have a total of 60 semester hours of college credit, and you're already halfway to an accredited bachelor's in well less than two weeks. Cool!

EXAMS TAKEN AND CREDIT AWARDED
RCE Ethics Theory and Practice 3
RCE Organizational Behavior 3
RCE World Population 3
RCE Management of Human Resources 3
CLEP Introductory Psychology 3
CLEP Introduction to Educational Psychology 3
CLEP American Government 3
DANTES Fundamentals of Counseling 3
DANTES Principles of Supervision 3
DANTES Criminal Justice 3


BOOKS
Barron's EZ-101 Psychology $6.95
HarperCollins Outline Ethics $12
Barron's Business Lib Human Resources $16.95
www CIA World Fact Book $free

 

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, whenever the content area is developed, feel free to included this series.

 

Lawrie, I'm still waiting for the book version.

Was Regents assigning letter grades to examinations when you did your exams?

I've actually had a rough time with a handful of exams: Dantes Statistics and Dantes Financial Analysis weren't too easy. I'm hoping the curve was adequately generous.

Next is Regents' operations management, ethics, freshman comp, strategic management, and labor relations. That ought to be it for my BS.

 

BA in 4 Weeks - 3rd YEAR

Completing college junior year in 3 and a bit days

By the end of week 2, the WER had been met, you had fulfilled the General Ed requirements with 12 credits in Mathematics/Science, 12 credits in Social Science/History, and 12 credits in Humanities. This crop more than meets General Ed needs for either the BA or BS degree.

Week three is about to begin. You're going to build on the foundations laid down during the previous two weeks. We will continue to add to the crop of upper division credit whilst filling out the rest of the program. This week's schedule will comprise:

MONDAY
RCE Abnormal Psychology
RCE Psychology of Adulthood and Aging
RCE Foundations in Gerontology

TUESDAY
CLEP Information Systems and Computer Applications
CLEP Introduction to Sociology
DANTES Drug and Alcohol Abuse

WEDNESDAY
DANTES Management Information Systems
DANTES Contemporary Western Europe
DANTES Here's to Your Health

THURSDAY
Labor Relations

For Monday's exams in Psychology, you have already completed a deal of the ground work in Psych 101, Organizational Behavior, Ed Psych. Books for these next three exams - the trusty Psych 101 primer, Abnormal Psychology Harper Collins, and the Princeton Review Cracking the GRE Psychology. For the mature adult who has had to deal with offspring and aging parents, much of the material in the 2nd and 3rd exam will be familiar territory. For the first exam, read and understand the slim Harper Collins work augmented by the even thinner Princeton Review Psych offering. These two will be more than adequate to see you through the exam.

Tuesday's tests are really a gift. The lower division Information Systems exam is very basic indeed. If you need a primer try one of the quick and nasty "For Dummies" series or another basic text. For the Sociology test there are any number of primers available if you find you require one after completing the sample CLEP test. Any $5 to 8$ text will be fine. Drug and Alcohol Abuse - I'd say 90% of the material you likely already know. Try the mock exam first and if you find need help, do a google search with keywords, "addiction drug rehabilitation alcoholism". The search results are free and equal to the task of readying you for the exam.

Management Information Systems, I thought surprisingly easy for an upper division exam. You can ready yourself for this exam with any foundation level MIS primer. If you are computer illiterate, we'll discuss substitute exams at the end of the series, but really, at least try the mock of this exam. "Contemporary Western Europe" I thought another near give-away, but many students from the U.S. might have slight trouble if not adequately prepared. Any history of Western Europe post 1945 will suffice. Just the basic facts. You can get as much for free by using a web search. Try "Europe 1945 to the present", "European integration", "History of the EC". Use the free DANTES mock exam to guide you. I did not sit "Here's to Your Health" because I thought it'd look lame on a transcript. Others though, have used it and come to no apparent harm. It is, by every account, another free gift, so I've included it here.

Thursday - one exam: Labor Relations. This test follows naturally on the heels of last week's Management of Human Resources. The MUST for this exam is that you read and understand the fundamentals of US labor law and dispute resolution agreements. That sounds like a lot, but most American workers will have some experience and familiarity with the basic system. I had no idea, and found it necessary to read-up on federal laws and agreements. That study, and the application of common sense, was enough for a good "A" for this foreigner, so U.S. nationals, bred in the system should be well placed for a good pass. Use the web to find the relevant labor laws and agreements. This new knowledge and that gained for the HR exam last week, will see you through.

SUMMARY

Week three has come and gone. You now have 90 semester hours of college credit under your belt. You have met the basic Gen Ed requirements, some depth and breadth requirements, and you have accumulated 27 upper division credit hours. There remains one week and 30 credit hours to go to complete the BA.

EXAMS TAKEN AND CREDIT AWARDED

RCE Labor Relations 3
RCE Abnormal Psychology 3
RCE Psychology of Adulthood and Aging 3
RCE Foundations in Gerontology 3
CLEP Information Systems and Computer Applications 3
CLEP Introduction to Sociology 3
DANTES Drug and Alcohol Abuse 3
DANTES Management Information Systems 3
DANTES Contemporary Western Europe 3
DANTES Here's to Your Health 3


BOOKS
Barron's EZ-101 Psychology $6.95
Harper Collins Abnormal Psychology $12
Princeton Review Cracking the GRE in Psychology $20
Any MIS primer about $20
Introductory Sociology primer $5 - $8
www search of US labor laws and federal labor agreements
www search of drug addiction diagnosis, management and treatments

 

How do grad schools feel about schools like Excelsior that is exam based rather than course based? Good grad schools can be very picky and will they look at poorly at the bachelor's degree?

Won't it be difficult to take so many exams on subjects that one may not be that well versed in?

 

Hi Michael, best of luck in your remaining exams. Hope you graduate soon. Any book would be too late for you, now. Sorry.

Yes. The then University of the State of New York, Regents College, implemented letter grading in 1996 in response to requests from graduate schools who found it difficult to assess the quality of USNY graduate applicants solely on the basis of pass/fail transcripts. I enrolled in USNY, Regents in 1997. All of my proficiency exams, with the exception of the GREs and the CLEP general exams (which are percentile graded), are letter graded.

I didn't do the stats since I already had it at the 400 level. I don't know what exam "Financial Analysis" could be. Is this new? I sat the Principles of Finance and the Financial Accounting exams, but never heard of the one you detail. The Principles of Finance was tougher than I expected but the result came in just fine. As you say, it all depends on the distribution curve. You'll do just fine.

That sounds like you're going for the BS Business degree. I thought you were doing Technology?? Anyway, if it's Business, hold on, I'm going to do a BA-in-4-week treatment specifically for that degree I've sat the exams you list here and can tell you that Strategic Management is the toughest. You can get the recommended reference books but I strongly suggest buying "Wheelen and Hunger's Strategic Management and Business Policy". It cost an outrageous $76 but is worth every penny. It need be your only reference for that exam.

Looks like your nearly there, Michael. Keep pitchin' and good luck.

 

I was accepted into three graduate programs on the basis of USNY/Regents degrees. None of the three institutions would be considered prestigious. A fourth school did a provisional screening to check eligibility to take their courses. They didn't seem to bat an eye at the content of the transcript.

No doubt though that some schools will not look kindly on this kind of degree. Question is, how many, and what if any impact such discrimination will have on the average graduate who earns a degree using the method.
I see no evidence indicating a regionally accredited undergraduate degree earned by examination is particularly susceptible to the kind of discrimination you detail. There is much in the way of anecdotal evidence (supplied by Excelsior) to suggest it is not a common problem. We do need better data, though.

It will be problematic for a candidate to *pass* any exam in a subject he does not well understand. The less he understands, the more difficult it becomes. Clearly.

The question is, does he understand the subject well enough to pass at the level dictated by his credit needs (pass, "A", "B")? It may be that, in the main, one need not be particularly "well versed" in a subject to pass at the required level. My experience is that it is possible to be "well versed" enough in most subjects to pass in short order.

 

BA in 4 Weeks - 4th YEAR - BS Degree

Completing senior year College in 3 days and a little bit.

We're on the final lap. You have earned 90 semester hours credit to this point. Another 30 are required to meet degree requirements. Let's get going.

Because of differences in distribution requirements for BA versus BS degree, we will examine them individually. First we will go through requirements for the BS degree.


BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE

Two depth areas are required for the BS Liberal Arts degree, which you have already fulfilled and then some. You also require a total of 30 semester hours at the upper level and currently have 27. 21 of the 30 upper division credits must be in the arts and sciences. You currently have 18 upper division credits in the arts and sciences, the rest being applied/professional, so one more course needed there. Additionally, 60 of the 120 total credits required for the bachelor's degree must be in the arts and sciences. You've already met that requirement too!


RECAP - Requirements for the BS degree

Total credit required 120 - we have 90 and need another 30
UD credit required 30 - we have 27 - require 3 (see next)
Arts and Science UD required 21 - we have 18 - require 3
Arts and science 60 credits - we have 66* - OK
WER 3 credits - OK
General Ed requirement 24 credits - OK
Depth area 1 - Psychology at least 12 with 3 UD - OK
Depth area 2 - Business at least 12 with 3 UD - OK
Hum special req - met by Ethics credits (3) - OK

* [DANTES Criminal Justice has recently been designated a Social Science exam by Excelsior Liberal Arts Faculty (was Applied/Prof)]


Final week's Schedule . . .

MONDAY
DANTES Introduction to Law Enforcement
DANTES Basic Marketing
DANTES Human/Cultural Geography

TUESDAY
CLEP Introductory Business Law
CLEP Human Growth and Development
CLEP Principles of Management

WEDNESDAY
CLEP History of the United States I
ClEP History of the United States II
CLEP Western Civilization I

THURSDAY
RCE Research Methods in Psychology

Most of these exams are "fillers". You can substitute any one with another subject more to you liking, but one exam must be in the upper division in the Arts or Sciences. Throughout this series we've gone for the easiest set of examinations available rather than the least expensive. I've tried to steer clear of mathematics and the sciences as much as possible because most people prefer it that way. If you feel more comfortable with math or physics, chemistry, or maybe a foreign language, now is the time to make those substitutions. Others may want to consider accounting, economics, and production management.

Well, that's it. Congratulations, you've just earned an accredited Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts. Not too shabby. Now What?

Next time we'll look at a practical example of the use of GRE exams to earn a bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in Psychology and then back for the Bachelor of Arts version of this degree.


SUMMARY


EXAMS TAKEN AND CREDIT AWARDED
DANTES Introduction to Law Enforcement 3
DANTES Basic Marketing 3
DANTES Human/Cultural Geography 3
CLEP Introductory Business Law 3
CLEP Human Growth and Development 3
CLEP Principles of Management 3
CLEP History of the United States I 3
ClEP History of the United States II 3
CLEP Western Civilization I 3
RCE Research Methods in Psycholog 3

BOOKS
Barron's EZ-101 Psychology $6.95
Princeton Review Cracking the GRE in Psychology $20
Barron's Business Review Marketing $12.95
Barron's Business Review Business Law $13.95
Barron's EZ-101 Management $5.95
Houghton Miffin Reader's Companion to American History $10 (on Sale)


COMPLETE LISTING OF EXAMS TAKEN, CREDIT AWARDED, EXAM LEVEL
RCE World Population 3 U
RCE Abnormal Psychology 3 U
RCE Psychology of Adulthood and Aging 3 U
RCE Foundations in Gerontology 3 U
RCE Ethics Theory and Practice 3 U
RCE Organizational Behavior 3 U
RCE Research Methods in Psychology 3 U
RCE Labor Relations 3 U
RCE Management of Human Resources 3 U
DANTES Management Information Systems 3 U
DANTES Drug and Alcohol Abuse 3
DANTES Here's to Your Health 3 L
DANTES Criminal Justice 3 L
DANTES Contemporary Western Europe 3 L
DANTES Fundamentals of Counseling 3 L
DANTES Principles of Supervision 3 L
DANTES Introduction to Law Enforcement 3 L
DANTES Basic Marketing 3 L
DANTES Human/Cultural Geography 3 L
CLEP Introductory Business Law 3 L
CLEP Human Growth and Development 3 L
CLEP Principles of Management 3 L
CLEP History of the United States I 3 L
ClEP History of the United States II 3 L
CLEP Western Civilization I 3 L
CLEP Introductory Psychology 3 L
CLEP Introduction to Educational Psychology 3 L
CLEP American Government 3 L
CLEP Introduction to Sociology 3 L
CLEP Information Systems and Computer Applications 3 L
CLEP English Composition with Essay 6 L
CLEP Humanities 6 L
CLEP College Mathematics 6 L
CLEP Natural Sciences 6 L
CLEP Social Sciences and History 6 L

L=lower division; U=upper division

 

Lawrie,

Thank you for this valuable information. After nearly 2 years of struggling part time through Community College, my wife (>40 years old) is ready to scream. Even though she's got a 4.0 GPA she's just not enjoying school as she thought she would. She's determined to get that AA degree (2 more semesters) and really wants the BA degree. Problem is, she just doesn't care for the hassles of the classroom, the commute to class, etc. She also has a lower back problem that makes it very uncomfortable to sit in class. Your information may just be the answer - thanks.

Also, your outline appears directed towards those who don't have a BA degree. My BS is in Physics but I've always enjoyed subjects in Anthropology, History and Philosophy. I'd like to consider obtaining a second degree in one of those areas (for personal satisfaction) sometime in the future (a few years) after I complete some additional graduate work. What would be the process for those who want a second undergrad degree? 30 credit hours of testing in specific subject areas? Do you know if COSC or TESC or Excelsior allows one to persue a second BA?

Bob

 

One thing that I didn't see discussed in the first few paragraphs was the issue of academic major.

While I think that Lawrie's plan is doable in principle, I think that it would only work in one special case, in which one was seeking a BA in Liberal Studies. In effect that's a general education bachelors without an academic major, and is usually intended for elementary school teachers.

That is probably fine for the person who just needs a generic bachelors degree in any subject in order to qualify for a job or something. But it will be of little use if a person needs a bachelors degree in a particular field.

So a person who already has a bachelors degree would have little reason to earn another one this way. And the lack of an academic major might make it difficult to enter those graduate programs that expect an undergraduate degree in the field of ones proposed graduate work.

 

That hasn't really been my experience (speaking as a guy who moved from a BA in liberal arts to a not-much-more-specific MA in humanities, but I digress...); except for special cases (like Stanford's MSEE, where folks ideally come into the program with an ABET-accredited bachelor's), students usually have the option of taking bridge coursework for a semester or two to qualify for a program. And some schools aren't even that picky, particularly if the student has an exceptional amount of life experience (ex: someone who has held a management job for eight years applying to an average MBA program). So I don't know; I think Lawrie's plan would fit the needs of most nontraditional students, and the rest can always take a few extra courses as a non-degree student to make up the difference.


Peace,

------------------

Tom Head
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)

 

Well, as it happens, Bill, that's the subject of the next two series. A BS in Psychology (concentration), and a BS in Business (major) - by examination. You might also note that my two USNY and Regents degrees are in Political Science and in Business. That is, it isn't a question of theoretical possibility, but of demonstrable fact. My final transcript lists 92.6% of total credit derived from proficiency examinations, but it could easily have been 100%. You will also note that I hold no degree in Liberal Studies.

I was accepted into a regionally accredited MBA program, and exempted from all prerequisites, on the basis of my business MAJOR earned by examination. I was accepted into a regionally accredited MS Computer Systems on the basis of my degrees. I do not teach elementary education nor do I intend to do so.

In the next post, I'll detail how another contributor, who already holds a BS degree, might earn a second BS degree, and NOT in Liberal Studies.

You say you think "it" (obtaining a degree by the process that is the subject of this thread) would only work in the one special case already demonstrated i.e. BS LA in Liberal Studies. Why would you think that, Bill? Did you check any of the reference materials from the colleges in question before posting? It's clearly not correct. A little research would have told you this.

 

Hi Bob,

Thank you.
Yes, you can earn two degrees from any of the three assessment institutions, COSC, Excelsior, or TESC. I have two degrees from what is now Excelsior College, one a BS Political Science (concentration) and the other, a BS in Business. Excelsior does not let their Liberal Arts graduates do a second BS or BA with concentration, but will allow Lib Arts graduates of other schools to do a BS or BA with concentration. COSC will allow a second degree, but it will be in General Studies with a specialization or concentration (COSC degrees are all General Studies by major). TESC will allow a second degree BA with general concentrations (not what you want, I fear) in Humanities, Math/Science, or Social Science/History. They also allow a BA with a specialization (much like the Excelsior concentration) in a variety of subjects. Additionally, they offer degrees with majors - BS Applied Science and Technology, BS Business, and BS Human Services.

From what you say, the Excelsior BS or BA with concentration may suit you. Before I knew of the restriction detailed above, I'd planned to do a second degree in Psychology and had accumulated all the necessary credit (and then some). From what you say, an Excelsior degree using the GRE may be ideal. Only problem is that the subject GREs are fast disappearing and there are now very few to choose from. Unfortunately, the Social Science exam and the History exam are toast. They dumped them. They're gone. I think there may once have been a Philosophy exam but it's long gone, too. Political Science exam, gone. If you're interested in a second BS or BA in Psychology, stay tuned to this thread, I'll be adding a post outlining the method and the requirements. You can earn such a degree by taking just one 2 hr 50 minute exam for around (these days) $120. There's an exam diet scheduled for April I think, and you just have enough time to book yourself a place You can set it up and pay the fee by card over the internet at the ETS.org site. Briefly , for Psychology or another offered discipline (GRE exam offering), the procedure would be as follows.

Go to the ETS.org site and register for the exam of choice. Time is running short so this has to be booked soon. For a BS or BA in Psychology, get the ETS exam book "GRE Psychology 3rd edition" ($13). Get the Princeton review book Cracking the GRE Psychology 4th edition ($18). Get the REA "Problem Solver Psychology", (NOT the REA GRE Psychology primer) $25. Read and understand every single line written in the Princeton Review cracking the GRE Psych - not hard, it's a very slim volume and plainly written. Augment this with the case studies in the REA Problem Solver book. Do ALL of the exams in the ETS booklet, revise using the Cracking the GRE Psych, then do ALL of the exams in the ETS booklet again. Repeat the foregoing until you're scoring above the 85th percentile and you've drummed the various concepts deep into your consciousness. Sit the exam. You WILL score above the 80th percentile in the real exam. Can it be done in a month? Yes, absolutely.

Have ETS send your GRE results to Excelsior. When you receive your score (from ETS), and if it's above the 80th percentile, immediately enroll in Excelsior College (they will already have your GRE scores) and, in addition to the enrollment fee, pay the graduation fee, for you have already met the requirements for a second degree BS or BA in Psychology - 30 credits in the concentration of which at least 15 must be upper division, you would have 18 UD + 12 LD for a total of 30 credits. Total cost including exam fees, books, college enrollment fee and graduation fees, $1200 even. Congratulations, Bob!

I'm not pushing you, am I?

 

I didn't do the stats since I already had it at the 400 level. I don't know what exam "Financial Analysis" could be. Is this new? I sat the Principles of Finance

My mistake, I meant Principles of Finance. Math is not an easy subject for me.

I didn't find statistics very easy to learn on my own....probably has more to do with my math aversion than anything else.

That sounds like you're going for the BS Business degree. I thought you were doing Technology??

I was originally looking at an MIS focus but decided upon General Business instead. It became apparent after studying the exam requirements that G.B. would be the easiest to complete by examination. All of the other focuses would have required taking conventional courses. I don't want to spend my time in a classroom.

books but I strongly suggest buying "Wheelen and Hunger's Strategic Management and Business Policy". It cost an outrageous $76 but is worth every penny.

Thank you for the recommendation! I've actually been buying used textbooks for each course and reading them completely through; I'm doing much more work than is necessary to pass the exams. I'm planning on an MBA after this and I want to be well prepared.