Unixman's CLEP Oddysey :)

Hey Unixman! What's the Oddysey update?

 

Thank you!

What a motivational thread! I've been hesitant to leap right into the testing, but recently decided to start with English Composition and American Government. I saw a thread on American Government where this thread was linked and am glad i followed the link. I've bookmarked this to use as a study guide. I think I'll register for my tests, finally.

Thank you!

 

unixman

I like your strategy of testing then starting school later. Reading your past posts, you mentioned you are going to pursue a BS BA degree at TESC.
How close will you be to finishing your degree when you actually start school? Did you base your CLEP subjects on the BS BA curriculum? Just curious.

Thanks,
m-golf

 

I used istudysmart for Humanities. It is expensive and it uses a textbook. They ask a question and tell you what pages the answer is on. You type in your answer and go on to the next one. It doesn't tell you if you are correct or not. It's just another way to take a course.

Instantcert is not bad, especially at $20 a month. I used it for US History I and II, and now for Intro to Business & American Govt. It's easy to go section by section and then combine them. The only problem I have with instantcert is that they ask the question backwards. The word or concept they want you to have should be a blank at the end, not the beginning.

 

Re: unixman

Hello all, and sorry that I hvae been absent from the boards. Been busy with non-school things. Leave it to life to throw the ocassional monkey wrench into your plans.

To answer the question above, I have already started doing portfolios for prior learning assessments at TESC, and I still have some tests to go yet, so I'm sort of mixing and matching at this point. I decided to start on the portfolios, as I needed a break from cramming and testing. Currently, I have 60 credits in the bank, and 60 to go.

Cheers.

 

Very glad to hear from you. Hope all is well. We were wondering how the sabbatical was going...

You did a really great job of getting some folks fired-up. Thanks for that.

 

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been over a month since my last posting.

I've been busy as a bee over the past few weeks, mostly doing portfolio assessments for TESC. I thought I'd post another update for those who are trying to stay motivated, and provide some things I've learned along the way. I've caught the proverbial "second wind" recently, and have made some good progress.

So far, this is what I've accomplished in 7-8 months worth of testing, PLAs, etc.

Code:

TESTS I'VE ALREADY COMPLETED:

CLEP  - Engish Composition with Essay                   6
CLEP  - Humanities                                      6
CLEP  - Social Sciences/History                         6
CLEP  - Information Systems and Computer Applications   3
CLEP  - Microeconomics                                  3
CLEP  - Macroeconomics                                  3
CLEP  - Business Law                                    3
CLEP  - American Government                             3
CLEP  - Principles of Management                        3
CLEP  - Principles of Marketing                         3

                                             [B]Subotal : 39[/B]

PRIOR LEARNING ASSESSMENTS I'VE WRITTEN (PLAs/Portfolios):

PLA   - Introduction to UNIX (CAP-261)                  3
PLA   - Advanced UNIX (CAP-345)                         3
PLA   - UNIX Shell Programming (CAP-361)                4
PLA   - C Programming (COS-116)                         3
PLA   - Advanced C Programming (COS-216)                3
PLA   - Painting I (ART-111)                            3
PLA   - Web Page Development (CAP-350)                  3
PLA   - Systems Analysis & Design (CIS-320)             3

                                             [B]Subotal : 25[/B]

OTHER CREDITS I'VE EARNED

XFER  - U.S./Georgia History & Constitution             2 (converted from quarter hours)
XFER  - Assembly Language Programming I                 3 (converted from quarter hours)
XFER  - Assembly Language Programming II                3 (converted from quarter hours)
XFER  - ACE/AARTS (credits for my military experience) 15 
FEMA  - IS-7 Disaster Basics (through Frederick CC)     1

                                             [B]Subotal : 24[/B]

UPCOMING EASY (FOR ME) TESTS:

DSST  - Management Information Systems exam             3
TECEP - BASIC (lol!)                                    3
TECEP - Database Management                             3


                                              [B]Subotal : 9[/B]

STILL TO DO:

CLEP  - Accounting                                      6
TECEP - Business in Society                             3
TBD   - Principles of Finance                           3
TBD   - Business/Managerial Communications              3
TBD   - Pre-Calculus Math Requirement                   3
TBD   - Statistics                                      3
CLASS - Business Policy                                 3

                                             [B]Subotal : 23[/B]

That comes to 120 credits total, which is obviously what I need for the BS in Business Administration (CIS area of study) from TESC. All of my PLAs have not yet been submitted/graded, but they've all been written, and I have no worries. I feel strong in all of the areas I am attempting, so for all intents and purposes, I'm counting them as done deals.

Some of you may have seen my recent thread re: FEMA credits at TESC. I received my certificate for the FEMA course, and sent a notarized copy of it to TESC. I was told that the course "wasn't approved by ACE, and I would not get the 1 credit for it". So, I then applied for the credit to be issued on a transcript from Frederick Community College (FEMA's partner in this area). Hopefully, when I get that transcript, TESC will accept it.

I haven't decided on the method I will use to earn some of the credits on my todo list (the ones marked as TBD). I know there are standardized tests for most of them, but I hate math with a passion, so I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I'm open to advice here, of course. I am leaning towards cramming my butt off and staging an attempt at the CLEP for College Algebra/Trig for the pre-calculus requirement. But I fear I may need to take this class. I did well on the subject in high school, but that was a long time ago - lol. Statistics is up in the air - I may study and try the DANTES, or I may just take the class.

The "Managerial/Business Communications" course is also up in the air. Sad story here. I recently enrolled for the distance learning course on MAN-320 (I think) from BYU (Written Business Communications). I received the first half of the materials in the mail, and was all excited. I was hoping to knock this class out quickly. The first assignment was to write a "letter of introduction" to the professor. It had to contain certain things, and be in a certain format. Nevertheless, I got an "A" on it. On my first homework assignment, which looked fairly easy, I received a "D". I immediately threw the binder in the trashcan, and am now looking at alternatives. Personally, for me, going further with this course, and the approach I saw in it, was going to be more of a hindrance to my plan than anything else. I may try a PLA for this, as I have a veritable library of memos and other documents that I've written (good evidentiary material), or I may try the challenge course at Mountain University (if TESC will accept it). Open to ideas here as well.

Although this may change, "Business Policy" is the only thing that I absolutely KNOW I'll have to take via class right now.

I am taking the DSST (DANTES) exam for MIS in 2 days - no studying required, as that is the field I've been working in for 15 years or so. Same for the two TECEPs (BASIC and DB Mgmt). I will take them in 4 weeks or so, the delay existing due to TESC's time period for actually mailing them to my proctor.

I went into this thing with the goal of graduating before my next birthday (September). I won't make that, but I will be in my Senior year, which is an acceptable performance I suppose. If all goes well, I should meet all of my degree requirements sometime very early next year.

As you can see, I transferred in a total of 23 credits. Only 8 of those credits were actually earned in the classroom (from my VERY brief stint at a community college years ago). So far, all the rest of the credits have been earned from CLEP tests and TESC portfolio assessments (or PLAs, Prior Learning Assessments).

The 15 credits I was able to receive from AARTS was a bonus for me. I had no idea that I was even eligible for those credits until I came here and started researching. If you are a military veteran (like me), and you are not aware of this program, drop what you are doing and get thine arse over to:

http://www.acenet.edu/clll/military/index.cfm

And tell it what military branch you were in, and follow the prompts. You might just be surprised. Those 15 credits, for me at least, equates to about a semester's worth of classes. Not bad for a crusty tank gunner!

Another interesting thing has to do with "degree requirements" for the BS in Business from TESC. This may or may not apply to you (the reader), but it may give you some ideas, depending on your chosen school and degree. This is hard to explain, so I'll just use some examples:

• I hate math. With a passion! I'm ok at it, I suppose, but I just hate being timed and given a boatload of math problems to solve. Its probably all in my head, but nevertheless, that is my reality. Part of the degree requirement for the TESC/BSBA degree (after the required Pre-Calculus course), is at least 3 credit hours in another "Natural Sciences/Mathematics" course. Well, screw math, I said. That left "natural sciences". Don't know about you, but its been an awfully long time since I played with bunsen burners, so screw science! I needed a way to work the system. I was surprised to see that several computer programming classes actually fell under the "natural sciences/math" category! So, I am fulfilling this 3 credit requirement with a portfolio that I wrote on "C Programming".
• Similarly, the "general education electives" area of my degree plan called for 9 credits. Those credits could come from any subject in "Humanities", "Social Sciences", or "Natural Sciences/Mathematics". Hey, there's that "natural sciences" bucket again! I already had a CLEP American Government in that category, so that left 6 credits that I needed. A PLA on "Advanced C Programming", coupled with a TECEP on (get this) "BASIC Programming" does the trick.
• As I mentioned, years ago I attended a community college for one quarter. Blech. At any rate, those "quarter hours" are a mixed blessing. They convert to semester hours (I believe) by multiplying by 2/3 and rounded up, or something along those lines. At any rate, the two Assembly Language classes worth 5 quarter hours each, actually converted to "3.66" semester hours each (I'm not even worrying about the fractions for my plan, I'm just using the whole number "3" part of it). I thought, "hey, that's great, 6 credits in the bank!". That stupid "U.S./Georgia History & Constitution" class, however, only converted to "2" semester hours. Damn! Hello, FEMA ... took an online FEMA course, got "1" semester credit out of it (well, hopefully, see my note above re: FEMA). Those add up to 3, folks. Some creative shuffling of my electives, and I can apply them. That's an extra class I won't have to take.

At any rate, more later ... keep on keepin' on! I'm getting closer, and so should you be!

Cheers.

 

Forgot to add: I have a big spreadsheet that I wrote to actually track my degree progress. Partially because I think TESC's online "degree audit" reads like an advanced Physics text. Actually, it reads more like the old CICS mainframe screens we used to write when I worked as a programmer at a bank, but that is another story.

I am seriously considering porting it to a web application, and allowing people to use it online, if there is any interest.

Cheers.

 

Oh heck yes I'm interested. Please do that, it would help me in a big way and hopefully others too! I am going for the TESC BSBA too!

Keep up the good work!

 

Indeed. Very good work.

Unixman's CLEP Oddysey has become a degreeinfo classic.

 

Just got back from taking the DANTES MIS exam. I won't have my grade for 2-3 weeks. Here are my initial thoughts:

There were 89 questions on the exam covering a fairly wide range of topics, ranging from the incredibly simple to overly nebulous.

Example of an easy question (from memory):

Which is smaller.

A) Record
B) Field
C) Byte
D) Bit

Example of a nebulous/gray question (for which there could really be more than one answer):

A social security number is an example of which type of data:

A) Real
B) Integer
C) Text
D) Float

Well, it wouldn't be a float, but depending upon how it was stored, it *could* be stored as text, an integer, or a real number. I chose "text", because I assumed they meant it to be stored with the dashes. But who knows.

The rest of the questions were broad, and covered the SDLC, prototyping, end-user computing, decision support systems, and general MIS decision making. There were also a few questions about telecommunications (asynch vs. synch, define fiber optics, multiplexing, etc).

Cheers.

 

As Erwin Rommel once said, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

Degree-seeking plans are no different (as many of you have experienced first hand). I have had to reshuffle/reorganize my degree plan a bit more. This time last year I had his grand plan that would carry me through. I've changed it several times, and now I find myself in a familiar spot - changing it again.

This time, its really more shuffling than changing.

The time frame on these overlaps a bit, but basically, here is my final plan for what I have left on the degree, in the order in which I will attempt them:

JUNE (this month)

• DANTES MIS (completed, I feel confident that I passed, but you never know)
• Study for next month's CLEP

JULY:

This will be a very busy month, with 24 credits on the line.

• Submitting the 4 PLAs that I've already written (C programming, Advanced C Programming, Systems Analysis and Design, Painting I).
• TECEP BASIC
• TECEP Database Management
• CLEP Accounting

As I've already written the PLAs for submission in July, and the two TECEPs will be "walk-in-cold" tests for me, I'll be spending most of my July time prepping for (and taking) the CLEP for Accounting, and the rest of the time studying for next month's DANTES.

AUGUST

A bit lighter, but I'm using a lot of this time to prep for the DANTES Finance next month.

• PLA: Managerial Communications
• PLA: Web Page Development (already finished writing it)
• DANTES Statistics

SEPTEMBER

My birthday month. I hope its a good one.

• Begin class: Business Policy
• Begin class: Pre-Calculus for Business
• DANTES Finance

OCTOBER-DECEMBER

• The two classes above continue
• At some point, work in the TECEP for Business in Society

Assuming I can hit all of that, I'll be done.

Cheers.

 

Another small update. As many of you may know from my other threads/posts, I am beginning to explore graduate school options, as I can now see the light at the end of my "undergraduate tunnel".

I came across a school with a great graduate offering that I'd like to share with everyone.

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (uccs.edu) offers a distance/online MBA that is perfect for me, and probably some other folks here, too. Why? A few reasons:

• The MBA is fully AACSB accredited
• You can actually waive the GMAT if you have substantial work experience, which I do.
• You can actually waive several of their core classes if you have taken certain CLEP or DANTES exams!

A lot of schools will allow you to waive certain MBA core courses if you have an undergraduate degree in business, but this is the first I've seen that will do it for DANTES/CLEP.

From their web site:

Not a lot, but it helps. I've already taken the CLEPs for English Comp w/essay and Macroeconomics, and I will take the DANTES exam for Statistics soon. If I choose this school, I may take the DANTES for Public Speaking just to get out of one more class.

This MBA is also a bit cheaper than most other AACSB accredited MBAs, and they offer several areas of concentrations for the MBA (Finance, Healthcare, Project Management, Technology Management, Information Systems, International Business, etc.)

http://business.uccs.edu/

Given all of this, I have added this school to the list of schools that I will apply to, along with Univ. of Florida, UMass/Amherst, Syracuse, and Indiana U.

Cheers.

 

Strange - this question was there on the CLEP as well, except it was "arrange in order from smallest to largest", which makes it slightly more difficult.

Cheers,
Mark

 

CLEP SMEP!

I cannot begin to tell you what an invaluable read this thread has been. I JUST started studying for the American Government CLEP yesterday, and purchased the following books:

Cracking the Clep (4th Edition) - Has SQUAT on American Gov. but I figure I can use it for subsequent CLEPs.

Cliffs QuickReview American Government (which should prove to be very helpful)

The Free University Project website for American Government (there are additional ones as well, and look to be very comprehensive and follow the subject matter covered on the CLEP exam.)

I also bought a book for a $1.84 that was recommended: HarperCollins College Outline Introduction to Government

After reading this thread, I am going to change my tactics, and hopefully save some money. As an unemployed IT Professional, every penny saved helps!

I too am going to be getting my BS in Information Systems via COSC (and I live in CT). I went to three different colleges (in two different states), with nary a degree to show for it, but I do have about 40 credits to date, and am planning on CLEPing as many more as I can prior to actual matriculation (will do that once I'm ready to work on my concentration).

I will continue to check back to this site for continued inspiration and hope I can reciprocate in kind.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, unixman!

 

Re: CLEP SMEP!

ITChick, glad to hear that you've found it to be of help.

Yes, that book is a fantastic study source for the general CLEP exams ... all of which are typically 6 credit exams.

Cheers.

 

A small update:

Just got the score back from my DANTES Management of Information Systems MIS) exam - cha ching, 3 more credits to the pot!

I am currently buried doing 7 PLAs (portfolio assessments) with TESC - along with studying for the CLEP Accounting exam.

This month, July, will be a big month for me. Between the 7 PLAs I have outstanding, the 6-credit CLEP Accounting exam, and two TECEP exams (BASIC and Database Management), I have 33 credits waiting to be earned ...

Cheers.

 

great job !!!

That's awesome! keep it up. here's a link to the master of PLA/PA Dr Stephen levicoff. He earned all but about 6 credits through potfolio assessment. I earned about 30 credits this way.

http://www.degreeinfo.com/static/forum_archive/1/11949/thread_11949_page_1.html

I hope that helps. it helped me. Have a great fourth of JULY !!!

 

Re: great job !!!

One toke over the line, sweet Jesus...

 

Well, I find this thread interesting, and inspiring. I myself have CLEPed out of alot of tests. I have 2 more to do, and I think I will retake US History I to bring my grade up from a C to an A hopefully.

I had alot of credits from being prior military (69 Credits) , and alot from certification tests (31 Credits) I have taken. I also had 6 credits from a class I took in high school 15 years ago.

Anyway here is the list of what I have taken and passed in the passed 1.5 years.

Social Sciences and history (Pass) 6 credits
Natural Sciences (Pass) 6 credits
College Math (Pass) 6 credits
Ethics in America (A) 3 credits
Technical Writing (A) 3 credits
Principles of Public Speaking (A) 3 credits
Organizational Behavior (B) 3 credits
History of the US I (C) 3 credits
Principles of Microeconomics (A) 3 credits
Humanities (Fail then Pass) 6 credits
Total So far (42 Credits Clep/Dantes/ECE)

I took 3 classes at a local community college (9 Credits), and am going to take 3 more (9 Credits). I am taking System Analysis and Design and Calculus I next quarter, then Computer Architechture the following quarter.

I am going to take 2 clep tests within the next 2 weeks.

Principles of Macroeconomics (3 Credits)
US History II (3 Credits)

So, I should have my degree completed by Christmas hopefully. Maybe a little later. All total I will graduate with 172 Credits. Way more than needed, but I had to get their core requirements done.