Suggestions for Excelsior's "upper-level" English credit

Greetings to all:

I'm working on a BA in English at Excelsior and I'm trying to get this done asap, in other words, doing as many courses by examination as possible. I'm going to be doing the Shakespeare CCE exams at Ohio U. I have also noticed that the upper level credit may be completed by doing two other exams @ OU~~"critical approaches to fiction" and "drama." Does anyone have any other suggestions for this part of my program?

Excelsior's requirement for upper level credits in English are:

1.) Literary periods or movements (courses such as Medieval Literature; The Age of Enlightenment; Romanticism, etc.).

2.) Literary Genres or Forms: e.g., Forms of Poetry; Studies in the Novel; The Short Story; Evolution of Drama, etc.

3.) Major Authors: Chaucer, Tragedies of Shakespeare, Milton, Joyce, the Poetry of Emily Dickinson, etc.

Any help would be welcomed. What's difficult about O.U. is that the credits are 4 qtrs. each, which = 2.67 sem's. Of course, I'm aware there are plenty of options by doing independent study and correspondence work. I'm mostly looking for any ideas about taking tests to test out of this portion of the degree. This may not be entirely possible. If not, that's fine, I'll just enjoy the courses.

Thanks for any help,

Chris

 

One Poss. Worth Checking Out...

One option is Athabasca University...They have a "Challenge for Credit" option--although I've found that reaching their profs can be a challenge in itself (albeit for other subjects, not English).

http://www.athabascau.ca/html/syllabi/areaofstudy.html#hum

--Orson

 

Orson's suggestion is a really good one.

Another possibility that comes to mind: the Literature GRE. You wouldn't have to get a full 30-hour score; just enough to bank 3 upper level hours in English.


Cheers,

 

thanks

Tom,

do you know if they (or at least in your excelsior days) give "upper" credit as well as "lower" credit for the GRE? I'm planning on taking that.

I also might take Orsons advice. I wonder if they would let me customize the "Engl 491" directed study class, with has a challenge option, towards "epic literature" and just bring my knowledge of Homer and Job into it.

Thanks for the ideas! I'll let you know how it goes.

Chris

 

by the way, Tom. I just want you to know that I didn't mean anything directed to you or implying religious "discrimination" in the post on "suggestion to moderators." I had wondered if you felt that way since you replied so quickly and you seemed to be a little defensive.

This forum has been invaluable to me. I also think you and Steve have been particularly helpful.

Blessings on your house and health,

Chris

 

Re: thanks

Yup--back when I took it, I got 15 lower-level and 15 upper-level credits. Worked out very nicely for me, though the score I got back then probably wouldn't earn a full 30 hours now.

Hmmmm... In this vein, you might actually try a master's-level course--some of them are undergraduate-level cheap, and they seem to come in a more interesting range of topics sometimes. I know you could do something like this as HUX (though I'm not sure if they let you take courses as a non-degree student), and Laurentian may already have a course like this.

Good luck!

BTW- Don't sweat the religious thread thing; no offense taken at all. I thought my post sounded a little defensive, too, and it was probably because I wrote it too quickly and didn't revise it.


Cheers,

 

Good Idea, Tom

Yes--Christopher--the GRE is a good idea. In addition to the usual GRE tes book, do know there is a good Princeton Review prep book for it!

--Orson

 

Re: One Poss. Worth Checking Out...

You'd be better off to write to the Registrar's Office for any info about challenging specific courses for credit. While the individual course coordinator or prof will ultimately decide what you have to do to obtain credit for a course, the Registrar's Office is in a better position to show you the "in's and out's" of the process, especially if you are not already an AU student.
As an AU student, I've never had any problems in contacting the course coordinator/prof for any of the courses that I have taken or wanted to take, but I do understand that it can be problematic for non-students to do so.

Darren.