Excelsior College Exams

I need some help from someone who has taken the Excelsior exams at Prometric.

I plan on graduating from COSC, but i need Excelsior exams to fullfil requirements. My question, Do i just call and register like the day before i want to take my exam, or do i have to do it way in advance? I plan on taking some in April, should I start the registration process now?
Also, according to Lawrie Miller, the ECE's are pretty similiar the CLEP. Does everybody agree with this? If not, how are they different. Thanks in advance for any info on this.

Frank

 

It depends. If you register by phone with Excelsior, you should appear in Prometric's database within a day or two. Each time I registered, I was able to get an appointment at Prometric within 3 days of my call.. but there are about 6 Prometric sites local to me, so that probably helped.

Yes. You're still somewhat in "prime time" for the GRE and GMAT, both of which are also administered at Prometric.

Eye of the beholder.. I doubt that EVERYBODY will agree. I found the ECE Statistics exam to be about as difficult as the CLEP College Math exam, and the ECE Abnormal Psych exam to be at about the same level of difficulty as CLEP Educational Psych. The required preparation for all of them was similar. The formats are similar, they're both (now) computer-based, and neither has a "guessing penalty." Both give the immediate gratification of a score at the end of the test, and the only significant difference I saw was in the cost of the exam.

 

Better to start the process now. You will receive an "authorization to test" from Excelsior after you have submitted the request to them and paid the fee. When you have that authorization, you can go on line or call the Prometrix/Sylvan test station of choice and try to book space when you want it. You may not get it if you leave it late. Best book early, especially if you intend to sit multiple exams in the one day. Test centers require 24 to 48 hours notice.

Well, that's not really what I said. For the sake of accuracy and to offer other readers some feel for comparison, the following has been culled from BA in 4 Weeks. These are my impressions formed after sitting 14 CLEP, 13 ECE, 10 DANTES, and 2 GRE subject exams.

In passing it is worth noting that I provide an "Exam Difficulty Index" table on the web site that lists each individual proficiency test, and that this is a far more useful and precise tool in estimating relative toughness of exams. See:
http://www.geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks/examdifficultytables.html


From the BA in 4 Weeks guide . . .
"People often ask if one type of exam is easier than another. It seems that the ECE/Regents and the TECEP exams in particular are thought significantly more difficult. . .

On the ECE/Regents 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 ECE 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 - paper and pencil version). 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 ECE/Regents 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 ECE, GRE, DANTES and CLEP examinations, i.e. the outcomes were about the same. . .

Bottom line, don't be afraid to take the ECE or the TECEP exams, they are not significantly more difficult than any of the other proficiency exams, level for level."


Lawrie Miller, author BA in 4 Weeks
http://geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks

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Lawrie, I have just one quick question. On your BA in 4 weeks guide, what is the "concentration" of the B.S. degree located here.......

http://www.geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks/BSdegree.html

thanks,
Frank

 

That is the Excelsior College BSL (Bachelor of Science Liberal Studies degree), in their Liberal Arts degree program. It is not concentrated. Its use in the BA in 4 Weeks guide was deliberate, to allow readers the widest choice and flexibility in the application of disparate old and new credit to their degree.

A BS or BA degree with Concentration can be had by appropriate substitution of a cohesive assemblage of credit comprising 30 semester hours. One convenient method of gathering the necessary credit for a Concentration in certain subject disciplines is by way of the GRE subject test. The strategy is delineated in the BA in 4 Weeks 2nd degree guide, but can equally be applied to a Concentration in a first degree. See
http://www.geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks/2ndDegree.html

Maybe I should introduce a new offering that specifically addresses the needs of a first degree with concentration, but the methodology is so similar to that detailed in the existing BS guide and 2nd degree guide, I thought the exercise redundant. Perhaps not.

Lawrie Miller
author BA in 4 Weeks
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