Two questions about CLEPS and Career Options...

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by MisterTEB, Apr 2, 2009.

Loading...
  1. MisterTEB

    MisterTEB New Member

    Hi, guys!

    Regarding this whole BA IN 4 WEEKS scenario, I would love to know what are the exact circumstances that would allow you to finish a bachelor's in say...a year.

    I am really willing to put in the time and effort, and yes, I know that Masters and Doctoral degrees are an entirely different beast, I intend to do post-graduate work through the old fashioned way, but how do I go about idoing the fastest BA degree possible?

    Take into consideration that I havent
    worked in anything that will allow me to get life experience or portfolio credit, so basically I will have to self-teach everything, again... (But I have the drive and the time to do it)

    Is there any general list of the books that most entry-level college classes require (General studies) in order to be able to ace the CLEP/DANTES exams?
    Not necessarily talking about study guides (though I know those will come in handy too) but general textbooks, EG- What books should I be familiar with to be able to take a CLEP test in English Composition or Biology...you know what I mean?

    To be more specific: I am aiming to get a bachelor's degree in something that could lead me to taking on a Master's Degree in Social Work and if there is such a thing, I wanna try to get a law degree at the same time, but I really want to speed up and maximixe the time doing my Bachelors.

    And after reading what I want to do, what kind of Bachelor's should I try to achieve?

    Is there a step by step, extremely detailed, articulately structured explanation guide as to how to do a BA In 4 Weeks-style accelerated Bachelors?

    Thanks for being so patient and thank you for all your help, guys
     
  2. Well, the first stage would be to look at, no surprise, www.BAin4Weeks.com. Ignore the "4 weeks" part and look more at how it's put together.

    Do you know what you'd like your BA/BS degree to major in? Is a major important?

    Second, take a look at www.123collegedegree.com. There is some additional info there.

    At this point, you need to narrow down your choices to (likely) Excelsior, COSC or TESC.

    You don't mention if you have any existing college credit that you'd like to apply, but let's assume that you have none. Once you've picked your desired major/specialization and the school, you can then start to lay out the course requirements. If you're interested in social work then perhaps a logical degree might be a BA in Psychology or BA in Sociology.

    For an Excelsior example, take a look at:

    https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/School_of_Liberal_Arts/Bachelors_Degrees_in_Liberal_Arts

    You can then sign up for access to the publications request page, click on "Create a MyEC User Account" link and follow the directions. You can then download the Liberal Arts calendar:

    https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/My_Excelsior_College/Publications/Liberal_Arts_Catalog.pdf

    Read it - especially the General Education and other requirements. There are two useful charts on pages 25 and 27 that highlight the credit distribution requirements for the BA and BS degrees. The following pages then talk about the specific requirements for each major. Look at the one you want.

    At this point you might want to use a spreadsheet or some sort of chart to map out the credit requirements to the potential classes. Make sure you understand which ones are upper and which are lower level.

    There are also specific degree guidelines, such as:

    https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/My_Excelsior_College/Publications/Guidelines_for_the_Major_in_Psychology.pdf

    When you map out your "courses", you have several options to you:

    - CLEP exams (lower level credit) - http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html

    - DANTES/DSST exams (lower and some upper level credit) - http://www.getcollegecredit.com/

    - ECE exams (descriptions available on the Excelsior Publication Request page)

    - TECEP exams - http://www.tesc.edu/701.php

    And of course, regular classes, either online with Excelsior or elsewhere.

    Once you've got that done, and after comparing your proposed degree plan with the Excelsior guide, BAin4Weeks.com and 123CollegeDegree.com, you can then come to some basic conclusions:

    1) There are a bunch of "safe" general education requirements that can easily be fulfilled by CLEP or DSST exams. As long as you're not duplicating some (such as taking CLEP Social Science and History as well as CLEP Psychology, where there may be an overlap preventing full credit) you should be safe.

    2) There are others that you may not be sure of, that apply to your major. You can ask more here, or hold off of them.

    Also look at this guide to tell you what Excelsior considers upper/lower level credit, etc.

    https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/My_Excelsior_College/Publications/Student_Guide_and_Assessment_Catalog.pdf

    You can then go and take a few exams BEFORE you register with Excelsior. Remember, if you can get your degree done in a year you only have to pay Excelsior twice - once for the registration/matriculation and once for graduation. If you go over the year you have to pay another fee, so my suggestion is that if you're motivated, try and knock off 30 or so credits BEFORE applying.

    Another tip - if you have good knowledge in French, Spanish or German (written/spoken/reading) then consider the CLEP language exams to be a gem - you can get 12 credits in a single exam. Also, if you are somewhat literate, CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature is also a virtual freebie for 6 credits. Lastly, DSST's Here's To Your Health is easy.

    How do you study? You can buy books (each exam/course typically has a recommended reading list - get them used from half.com), or use a site such as www.instantcert.com which uses a "flashcard" approach with sample questions.

    Hopefully this should get you started. If you're still confused, you might want to consider registering with Excelsior (or COSC or TESC) now and let them guide you, but my own experience with Excelsior is that it's better to present them with a degree plan and have them approve/correct it. And when you get approval, make sure you get it in WRITING.

    A final tip to keep you motivated and honest - once you come up with your degree strategy, map out how many exams/courses you'll need and their schedule. Then look at your local colleges to see who gives CLEP and DSST exams and their schedule (some require advance registration, some don't). ECE exams have to be given by Prometric I believe.

    You'll find you will probably need to take something like 35-40 exams for your degree. To do this in a year you'll need to average around 3 a month, so while this seems really daunting you will find by matching "easy" exams with more difficult ones you can get this done. I used this approach myself and took slightly more than a year (with some time off) while working full time. I did many exams over lunch hour at the local college.

    Good luck!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 2, 2009
  3. MISin08

    MISin08 New Member

    Guitarmark's answer is so thorough it could probably be made a sticky, and about all I would add is the Free University Project offers study outlines for several popular exams. The downside is he has has not updated in some time, while the exam content has moved on, in some cases. (If you use his material, archive.org is your friend in dealing with dead links.)

    The value that persists even without updates IMHO is you can get a concrete idea of how to organize a study outline for yourself and figure out how to successfully mix learning for college with your own ways of thinking and learning. This way, you can look at an exam's content outline and have an idea of what you will have to do to get there. Also, if you have a good public library system and skills with a search engine, finding materials to study with is both do-able and educational in itself.

    Phillip
     
  4. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    I started my Excelsior business degree with 60 B&M credits and I finished the additional 60 in under a year. I also took a bit of time when doing it and could have done it faster. Are you a good test taker? That is really the key to testing out in under a year. I do really well at exams like these and was able to study for 1-2 weeks for an exam before taking it. I passed every exam on the first try. For some of the CLEP/DANTES exams, I doubled up and took two on the same day as I had to drive a little over an hour away to take them. I used various study guides for the exams. (REA, Barrons, etc.) and I think I might have used a textbook for one or two of them. If I did, I only used it to review the chapter summaries. Check out the instacert site for study materials for these exams. It's $20 a month but you get access to all sorts of flashcards etc. We have a section here as well with info on the various exams.
     
  5. MisterTEB

    MisterTEB New Member

    MisterGuitar, thanks a lot for taking the time to answer in such a thorough manner, I really appreciate it.

    I am still trying to sorta understand the whole thing, but here are some specific questions/comments:

    I am of Spanish descent, and I am fluent in Spanish, how exactly do I go about taking those language exams that might allow me to get 12 credits, and do they even qualify to be a requirement of the Psychology Bachelor's? (I will most likely do that, since I am interested in social work)

    I didn't see a BA in Psychology at the schools mentioned, btw.


    And another thing, has anyone around here truly finished a Baccalaureate in a year's time?
    I know I have the dedication, and right now I do have the time, but I wanna hear some feedback and stories about others who have done it.

    I also need to understand what lower and upper level classes are exactly and how is it that I will take online classes, meaning the actual process? Do a bunch of people go online at the same time and "chat"?

    Thanks again.
     
  6. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    Excelsior college offers a BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Psychology. I'm sure that would probably work for you. As for Psych credits, one way to try to get a large number is to take the subject GRE exam in Psych offered every spring and fall. Your score is based on a percentile against the others taking the exam, but if you get an 80% or higher, you get 30 credits! It's by no means an easy exam but with some hard studying, you can do ok. Excelsior awards credits on a sliding scale meaning you don't have to get an 80% to get credit. They have a chart somewhere showing the you get 3 credits for a certain score, 6 credits, 9 credits, etc. all the way up to 30. The exam is $130 and it's a cheap way to possibly pick up a bunch of credits.

    As for upper level, Excelsior and the other schools like it usually have a table somewhere that lists which exams are considered upper and lower credit. I would go to Excelsior's and Thomas Edison State College's web site and download the catalogs for the liberal arts degrees. They would probably have the info in them that you need.
     
  7. retake

    retake New Member

    Before you CLEP out of too many courses, I suggest you talk to an admissions adviser at the grad school you plan on attending in order to ensure that they don't require a certain amount of graded credits.

    Otherwise, you'll end up retaking a bunch of undergrad courses.
     
  8. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    Excelsior awarded letter grades for most of my CLEP, DANTES and ECE exams.
     
  9. Note that there are "general education" credits that can make up just about ANYTHING, as long as they fit into the relevant bucket. Look at the CLEP site for the Spanish exam, which will give you up to 12 credit hours. I took the French exam and got 12 credits, and in my first month knocked off close to 30 credits between this exam, two of the 6 credit hour CLEP General exams and a couple of DSSTs.

    It's there, in the catalog for Liberal Arts.

    I'm sure you'll hear other comments, but it IS possible, IF you have the time and dedication to do it.

    It depends if it's synchronous or asynchronous. Most classes are the latter - you have assignments, forum postings or tests/exams to take and never have to interact with others except if you're paired in a group. Some have defined times/dates you need to be online to hear a lecture, but this isn't the most common scenario.
     
  10. I understand that the new DSST exams are computer-based and until they have sufficient sample size Excelsior is only giving pass/fail. CLEPs vary, but they seem to give more P/F than they used to. ECEs are always graded.
     
  11. If the grad program has pre-requisites (like "B grade or higher", etc) then this is certainly a good idea. Or, if there is a GPA requirement (e.g. "3.0 or higher for the last 30 credits") you need to make sure you have at least that number graded.
     
  12. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    As to the question of a degree in Psych:

    I have my BA in Psychology from Thomas Eidson State College. It is, however, only noted on my transcripts as a concentration in Psychology. The actual degree itself only states Bachelor of Arts Degree.
     
  13. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I bet you have a lot of life experience that could be converted to credit via portfolio (however this tends to be an expensive approach these days). I wrote several learning experience portfolios for the University of Redlands (but then I moved to the East coast so I got no credit). Topics were rock climbing, marriage, and my job specialties. Steve Levicoff (an occasional poster to this board) obtained a large amount of credit via portfolio but I lost the link to his writings on the topic (I recall that it included credit for playing a musical instrument).



    The CLEP and DANTES sites have a list of study materials for each of their exams.
     
  14. MisterTEB

    MisterTEB New Member

    Wow, thanks again, guys!!!!

    Now on to some inquiries I have:


    What does B&M stand for? (I apologize if it has been mentioned somewhere, I just want to make sure I am following and understanding everything)


    ANother thing; I hear "that exam will give you 30 credits" or "that alone could give you 12 credits", but how does having 30 credits from one single exam help me?

    I mean...can those 30 credits in say, a Spanish CLEP, be awarded for BA requirements that have nothing to do with Spanish?
    Do I have to use those 30 credits as the electives?

    Guys, I am sorry that I sound like a moron, but it's something I just don't quite understand yet. I want this so bad and I know I have the drive and the will to succeed and the time, but it just frustrates me not to know these details already, things that are probably quite easy to grasp....

    (THANKS again for so much help.)
     
  15. MisterTEB

    MisterTEB New Member



    If I decided to go to TESC, could that particular matter with the degree title affect my getting into Graduate school?
     
  16. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    B&M stands for Brick and Mortar and is in reference an actual, physical university as opposed to an online school. Some of my 60 credits that I transferred to Excelsior came from Penn State University and a local community college I took night classes at.

    As for the awarding of credits, it depends what your major is. If your major is Psychology, the Psychology GRE credits earned would apply in towards the courses that are required for the major. If you earned the full 30 credits, Excelsior would consider all your Psychology courses for the major as completed. Additional to your major requirements (usually 30 of the 120 credits) there are also a number of free elective credits required. The number various but you might be able to take 21 credits in whatever subject you wanted. This would be the area that you could apply your 12 credits of Spanish, etc. If you were majoring in Spanish they would count towards your major and the Psychology GRE would be counted as the electives, etc.

    Both Excelsior and Thomas Edison State College have a pretty good guide as to what exams are considered equivalents to their requirements. You should be able to look those over to get an idea of what exams you'll need to take to meet required classes and what exams you might be able to take to fulfill the electives.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 3, 2009
  17. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    I doubt it. Grad schools usually require a certain number of credits in a subject. They would look at your transcript to make sure you met the pre-req requirements. For example, someone might have a degree in History but took additional courses in Business. They would still be able to apply for MBA programs even though their actual degree is in History. This degree would most likely have the pre-reqs you need as it's really a Psychology degree. You might have a little more difficulty if you were applying for a PhD in Psychology instead but for a MSW, I think you'd be fine.
     
  18. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

     
  19. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

     
  20. MisterTEB

    MisterTEB New Member

    Checking the Thomas Edison State College website, they do offer a degree that is basically a Baccalaureate in Social Work, their official name is:
    "...The Bachelor of Science in Human Services (BSHS) degree program in Social Services is designed for providers of social services to clients in a variety of settings. To complete the Advanced Level Practicum, students must have current work experience in the field of social services."

    http://www.tesc.edu/3745.php


    What does this mean exactly?
    So I can't do this if I am not working in the field?

    What have I missed?
    Isn't that the purpose of a Bachelor's? To get you to work? Why do I need to be working in order to get this?


    Of all the colleges mentioned, this seems to offer what I want...


    BTW, how about West Governor's University? Any opinions about that one?
     

Share This Page