Beginners Guide To Getting Cheap/Fast College Credit

Advice - College Credits

Please review the info on the degreeforum.wikia.com webpage for info. I have an online education guide.
Here's the link to the Basic Approach - The Basic Approach - Degree Forum Wiki - Wikia
I have a Beginners Guide in the forum as well, the info is more updated on the wikia page though.

The NFA and TEEX courses are from schools affiliated with FEMA but have ACE recommendation for credit.
FEMA by itself doesn't have ACE recommendation for the majority of their courses (All independent study).
FEMA only has a select few that are ACE recommended but those are "onsite/on campus modules".

NFA has 3 courses and 1 credit each = 3 credits total (easy, quick to finish)
TEEX has 3 courses and 2 credits each = 6 credits (lengthy, time consuming to finish)
Do the NFA first, then TEEX, with the course material open in one screen/window, and test open in another.

My suggestion is not only to finish these easy courses for 9 credits. But if you have time and require Math courses.
You should subscribe to ALEKS and get 5 courses done for $20 dollars/month, you can finish all 5 in 1 month!!
The steps are in the guide, I did 5 courses in that one month for 15 easy credits and it cost me just $20 only.

My other suggestion is, if you would like 9 credits cheap. Another option is to take 3 History courses at Shmoop.com
Here's the thread: Low cost ACE reviewed history courses from Shmoop.com
One month subscription for $25, 3 courses can be completed in that time frame or faster. 9 easy non proctored credits.

If you have more questions, please reply back. I highly suggestion spending just $20 on ALEKS and $25 on Shmoop!
They are well worth that monthly subscription, if you aren't working, you can probably finish all of them in 1 month.
If you are working, I would split it into two months, 1 for Shmoop first as their pricing may rise, and 1 month after for ALEKS.
As they are non proctored, you can have "online calculators" for ALEKS, and you can have "other resources for Shmoop!".

Last word: I know you are in a rush and also may be strapped for cash, but there are other cheap courses offered as well.
These are the most recommended, and I also would recommend Saylor Academy for ACE credit.
Each course is free, but there's a proctor fee $25 for final exam at ProctorU.
Essentially, it's $25/3 credits, it's unbeatable in value and they have 22 courses!

 

Side Note: Test Anxiety - First Course From Straighterline

On a side note: I also have an issue with test anxiety (I'm very much an introvert as well, yet no one knows).
In addition to my previous response to you, I would like to get more info on what you want to accomplish.
If you are wanting to use the free and cheap credits to ladder to an Associates Degree, it's very possible.
I have two in mind for you already, an AAS at WVUP or AS at COSC, they take ACE/NCCRS, COSC takes FEMA too.

For myself, I am taking Saylor/Straighterline courses as well. This is after the free and cheap courses at ALEKS/Shmoop.
Because my major is in Business, I had to take several courses at Penn Foster for upper level credit (online/no proctor).
My suggestion to you is, after you take the free and cheap courses, to start taking Straighterline Intro To Communications.
There's a $99 monthly membership, and courses range from $49 to $99. This course is the BEST starting course for SL.

It will prepare you for any other course they have, two I've taken don't have proctored finals (English Comp I and II).
They have numerous courses that have a proctored final, but it's all open book for everything including the proctored final.
For example, I have a 99% grade in Medical Terminology, for 3 easy credits. I finished the course and proctored final in 3 days.
I am on track to completing 7 courses for the month, if I finish faster, I can take 1 or 2 more at $49/course for 3 credits each.

Note: Straighterline has both open book & closed book proctored finals, do the courses with open book finals first.
Do not take any developmental courses at any institution, I think it's a waste of membership/money to take those.
They are designed to "help you get started", there's no need to spend on that when you can get credits for cheap and easy.

When you finish taking some Straighterline courses, you'll be familiar with how online proctoring works, it won't cause you any more test anxiety as you have gone through it several times. You should then start with the cheap Saylor courses as it all counts on that one final exam. Easiest way to get through them is practice the unit quizzes and practice final with a second or third account.. this is all in the guide, but it's the cheapest/easiest/fastest way to get enough credits for your AAS or AS degree..

If you want, reply back and I can send you a spreadsheet on cost of each course and a degree plan for you! FREE.
This can help you keep your job and even apply to be in a more senior position or go elsewhere without fear of not getting up the corp ladder, you'll have more on your resume to succeed in that jump to another organization or if you're changing careers.

 

Additional Advice - College Credits Continued

Here's two links I'm sending you. First link is to the Beginners Guide where I have already placed the info you're looking for.
Beginners Guide To Getting Cheap/Fast College Credit - Page 5
Second link: The Basic Approach - Degree Forum Wiki - Wikia - choose page 3) Several Sources Of Cheap Credit - Reference

You should do the Institute Ethics 312 course, NFA courses and the TEEX courses as these are free and easiest 11 credits.
For the Ethics 312 and NFA courses, have a window open for exam, and another open for course material, just do the exams.
There are no course work for any of these, it's all exams, for the TEEX, do the same thing as well...you have 5 attempts.
You should be able to finish this all in 1 week or less if you just go straight at it... I finished them all in 3 days (long weekend).

Note: For the Ethics course, choose the FREE option and don't choose the wrong course 311 as it's just a preview/overview of 312.
It's a waste of time taking the course 311, as some people including myself, accidentally took that for nothing! When you are done with each and every one of these, send them to ACE Credit Registry as a storage of all your credits.

In regards for storing your other credits such as CLEP, DSST, or courses taken elsewhere, they should be held by their respective organizations as if it's not ACE recommended, you can't "store" with them. I don't want to overwhelm you too much, but it's easiest to have them in one place, but if they don't "store" it for you, then there's not much you can do but leave it as is...

To recap, take the free courses above. If you need more cheap/fast credits, ALEKS and Shmoop for monthly subscription.
They don't have any proctored exams and you can use "other resources" to get a passing grade.

Straighterline should come afterwards, if you are at the level of taking SL courses, please make sure to use a coupon ASH100 to save $100 on your first month membership (free!) and a cheap course such as MicroBiology for $25. Your second purchase should be Intro to Communications, for $74 but immediately use coupon code EZSAVE for $20 off (you can't use two coupons at a time, and the EZSAVE won't work for anything less than $49).

Thanks for your comment, I try to help and there are many nice people out there you haven't met yet.

 

CLEP, DSST, ACE, NCCRS - Equivalency

Unfortunately No. For example: CLEP is a VISA, DSST is a MasterCard, ACE is an AMEX.
Think of CLEP, DSST and ACE or other courses as Credit Cards - They're different brands.
They're all "credit", but they're not going to be sending you one card to use for all three. It's one card each.
The balance can't be paid by another credit card, you have to pay off the balance with the card provider.

Your credits that you finish from CLEP will only be held by CLEP, DSST will be held by DSST. I get scared if my course is only pass/fail with one test. I like to have my eggs in more than one basket, cheapest/easiest/fastest... ACE will be able to help you store all your ACE credits from different educational providers, another reason I like ACE Credits is that their courses are all online based and can be completed faster and easier than any type of CLEP/DSST or another Credit By Exam.

Note: CLEP is recognized by 2900+ schools, DSST recognized by 1900+, ACE is also recognized by 1900+, and then there's NCCRS that's recognized by 1500+ institutions. You should attend a Regionally Accredited school that accepts all types of credits, including all 4, and other school CBE (Credit By Exams) such as TECEPS/UEXCELS or CSU Global CBE's. For that reason, I recommend choosing the Big 3 (COSC, Excelsior College, Thomas Edison), the Competency Based Degree providers, Patten/Hodges/WGU and WVUP.

No worries, I am a work at home dad...
I have plenty of time to help others, including yourself.

The answer to ACE being equivalent to CLEP and DSST is a big YES, it holds the same college credits.
However, it all depends on your receiving institution... Each one will review the course equivalency differently.

As I mentioned in the previous post, many schools accept all types of credits.
~~See the Note: Above~~

 

Secondary Resources - Straighterline Final Exams Prep

I personally think that all the materials within the Straighterline course and the exams, midterms will be great reviews for most courses. If you happen to be taking courses with an open book exam, nothing more is required. For the proctored final, they will ask you if you would like to use a sheet of personal notes, I keep saying no as the resources from the text is sufficient, if you want that sheet for extra help, prepare one...

If you are wanting to find out what courses are easiest or best, I would recommend taking courses with 4-6 exams, midterm and open book final that is 20-30%, or any closed book exam with a final grade weighted worth less than 20%. The next best are courses with a closed book exam worth 30% or less, this way, you virtually pass the class when you take the final.

Just look for their grading criteria in their course details/outline or syllabus, and this link for open book exams.
Online Exam Proctoring Details by Course | StraighterLine
View the bottom of this page for etextbooks or text that SL uses, if you have the right edition for open book exams, you are good to go.
Shop eTextbooks & Textbooks for Online Courses | StraighterLine

An example of how well I did and am doing on both open book and closed book courses.
Medical Terminology: Final Grade 99%, I had one exam at 98% and open book proctored final at 98%, done in 3 days.
Essentially, I did all the exams in two and a half days and final the third day, as I booked it immediately when I took the course.

Microbiology: I bombed the first exam and had 85% the second exam, after redoing the initial exam and completing midterm and additional exams, I am at 95% with the CLOSED book exam tomorrow. So, by calculation, I have 95% of 80 which is 76%. Essentially, I can get 0% tomorrow and have 76% final grade, but for personal reasons, I shoot for 90% or higher in every course.

 

Yes, I agree, the mentioned resources are the cheapest/easiest/fastest...

Yes, I agree, the mentioned resources are the cheapest/easiest/fastest...

Sunday wait times... even for Straighterline... haha
This is the first time ever I've seen that number higher than 1.




Straighterline was busy on a Sunday! Online chat had 8 people before me!
Whenever I go to their website and use that service, there were no wait times.

 

Anyone taking Straighterline exams tonight? From 10pm to now, it's been down!

I am such an idiot... their site had a warning and I didn't really pay attention to that warning, I can't do my exams now!

 

Low cost ACE reviewed courses from Shmoop.com

Listed below are the courses and how it would transfer to TESU:

Modern European History (College) - Shmoop Online Courses Will transfer in as HIS-221 European History II

U.S. History: 1492-1877 (College) - Shmoop Online Courses will transfer in as HIS-113 and will duplicate.

U.S. History: 1877-Present (College) - Shmoop Online Courses Will transfer in as HIS-114. US History II . It will not duplicate HIS-113

An update about the Shmoop courses, there's going to be 10 extra math courses, then some other courses added in a matter of weeks.
The pricing will be "bumped" to a higher price for the subscription, but well worth it if those 10 courses don't duplicate ALEKS.
I'll be waiting to see what other courses comes into light, hopefully, in the next month or so. Thanks again for a great find!

 

Shmoop.com has 3 history courses for you to take at less than $90/month if you complete all 3 for 9 credits for general education electives.
If your courses can be moved into other sections, you may only be required to take lesser courses.

Shmoop Just Added 10 Math and 12 Literature Courses to Their College Courses
View https://schools.shmoop.com/courses/ and catagorized under College

With the addition of these courses, it will now be cheaper/easier/faster for an BA English Lit or a BA Liberal Studies degree, or even a BA General Studies.

Tip: This is what I've done as I hate starting from scratch over and over again: Signed up with my google account.

Click Courses on the right. Under "I want to Learn" and Subjects: Choose History and Social Science
On the left "Grade Level" check college, select view course Modern European History (College)

Bookmark the next page as Modern European History (College) course and use this link to open the course next time.
Do this for the other two courses US History: 1492-1877 and US History: 1877-Present

Note: You will need to "test 1 unit", otherwise, you won't be enrolled in the course even if you do the quizzes.

Anyone find a way to "continue where you left off" instead of going from the beginning of the course? Here's a workaround.

I know there's a syllabus section, but if I don't recall where I have gone through, it doesn't say where you're currently at.
I have to click a few before I get to the area I left off at.... so, to combat that, I do everything for one unit and the test before I leave it.

 

Updated Spreadsheets - TESU BSBA GM and TESU BALS

Both spreadsheets are using mainly Straighterline and Study.com courses.
The BALS, I have added Shmoop in there as there are so many cheap credits.

TESU BALS Spreadsheet

TESU BSBA GM Spreadsheet

 

My recommendation of WGU (or other competency based) programs are a better fit than just a regular BSBA CIS/BA CS program.
A few other programs that are IT/Software Development based as well from several providers other than WGU... You should check them out!

Brandman University MyPath Programs (See BBA IT or BS IT) - https://www.brandman.edu/mypath/degrees
Hodges University UPower Programs & Tuition - https://www.hodges.edu/academics/academicprograms/upower.aspx

Capella University FlexPath Programs - https://www.capella.edu/capella-experience/flexpath/available-programs/
Capella University FlexPath Tuition - https://www.capella.edu/capella-experience/flexpath/tuition/

Northern Arizona University Personalized Learning Tuition - Tuition | NAU Extended Campuses
Newly created program BS CIT - CIT | NAU Extended Campuses

WGU IT Programs - https://www.wgu.edu/online_it_degrees/programs
Tuition - https://www.wgu.edu/tuition_financial_aid/overview# , https://www.wgu.edu/tuition_financial_aid/tuition

University of Wisconsin - https://flex.wisconsin.edu/degrees-programs/information-science-technology/
UW Flexible Tuition - https://flex.wisconsin.edu/degrees-programs/information-science-technology/#tuition

Patten MBA IT - Online Information Technology MBA College Degree | Master of Business Administration | Patten University
Patten tuition - Online College Tuition Cost | Price of Online Degrees | Patten University

Note: I placed Patten in there as it would be a cheap/quick RA Masters degree when/if you wanted to do one after your Bachelors.
Several people finished the Masters program in 4 months and a grand total of $2 grand. You can't beat that with a rocket or a stick!

 

Updated Spreadsheets - TESU BSBA GM and TESU BALS
Hmm, strange, the links have changed. Here they are now...
BALS: BALS
BSBA: BSBA

 

TESU BSBA Area Of Study Options and Pricing Estimate

General Management Area of Specialization - $570
18 credits required, minimum of 12 upper level credits.
You must take at least 1 course in 3 out of the 4 areas (MAN, ACC, MAR, FIN)

Davar/Saylor - Corporate/Managerial Communications - $85
Davar/Saylor - Management Information Systems - $85
Intermediate Accounting I – Straighterline (Financial Accounting) - $100
Straighterline Managerial Accounting (transcribed as Cost Accounting) - $100
Straighterline Organizational Behavior - $100
Study.com Digital Marketing & Advertising (UL) - $100

Accounting Area of Specialization - $846
18 credits required, minimum of 12 upper level credits.

Intermediate Accounting I – Straighterline (Financial Accounting) - $100
Intermediate Accounting II – Penn Foster - $329
TECEP Federal Income Taxation - $117
Straighterline Managerial Accounting (transcribed as Cost Accounting) - $100
Study.com ACC 301: Applied Managerial Accounting - $100
Study.com ACC 302: Advanced Accounting - $100

CIS Area of Specialization - $567 to $617
18 credits required, minimum of 12 upper level credits.
(Fee's range as I want to take extra Saylor courses)

Programming Language – Straighterline Introduction to Programming in C++ - $100
Systems Analysis and Design (UL) - CSU Global CBE for Information Systems Analysis and Design (CIS-320) - $250
Saylor Management Information Systems (UL) - $25
Saylor Strategic Information Technology (UL) - $25
Saylor Computer Communications and Networking (UL) - $25
Saylor Software Engineering (UL) - $25
Study.com Digital Marketing & Advertising (UL) - $100
TECEP - Networking Technology (UL) - $117
TEEX Cybersecurity for Business & IT Professionals (4 UL free credits) - FREE

Marketing Area of Specialization - $897
18 credits required, minimum of 12 upper level credits.

Marketing Research (UL) – Penn Foster - $329
Study.com Digital Marketing & Advertising (UL) - $100
TECEP Marketing Communications (UL) - $117
TECEP Sales Management (UL) - $117
TECEP Advertising (UL) - $117
TECEP Public Relations Thought & Practice (LL) - $117

 

Finishing off Bachelors - Looking into Business, IT Certifications & Masters programs
Next Goals: WGU BSIT Security or BSCIA, Patten MBA, Hodges MIS or WGU MSCIA

Read the Basic Approach - Online Education Guide (within my signature hyperlinks)
(Beginners Guide to Getting Cheap/Fast College Credit on the degreeforum wiki)

Quick Guide/Spreadsheet: TESU Bachelors Degree in 1200 hours (120 days or 4 months)
---This assumes you start the TESU Capstone course on the second month---
The spreadsheets were created by dfrecore and I customized it to reflect my recommendations

BALS: BALS

BSBA: BSBA

1st month: Free Credits & ALEKS courses, Start SL/Study.com
2nd month: Straighterline & Study.com, Start your capstone
3rd month: Straighterline & Study.com, Continue with capstone
4th month: Finish Capstone and remainder of degree requirements

1: For the BALS, you can take Shmoop courses for the AOS/Free Electives
2: For the BSBA, you take more required courses from SL/Study.com for AOS
3: All the courses in the BALS/BSBA are transferable to TESU

This is very much doable for someone who has time on their hands, example 10 hours/day.
The courses chosen for the degree spreadsheet are cheap/easy/fast and the style of learning.

Straighterline courses use ProctorU for the final exams, scores are displayed in real time.
I use Straighterline as they are "cheap/easy/fast" credits and you get to learn a little.

Study.com uses RPNow and you will need to wait 3-5 days for the final score to display.
I chose Study.com courses as they are "high school easy", and also learn a little as well.

 

You pay $199/month for 2 exams, if you fail, you can take the exam again. All other subsequent exams are $70 each.
People don't intend on failing, and it's not that hard, you just need a 55% on the final. Make sure to ACE the quizzes.

Most courses are 100 points for quiz (33.3%) and 200 points for final (66.6%), so, just try to get 100% on those quizzes.
A few have assignments/discussions, 33.3% of grade, quiz 33.3%, and the final 33.3%. These are "SL easy" in my view.

Study.com also drops the price down by removal/waiving of the Cornerstone requirement.
TESU Tuition: Thomas Edison State University | Comprehensive Tuition Plan
TESU Payment Plan: Comprehensive Tuition Payment Plan

TESU Study.com details: Study.com
TESU Study.com BALS/BSBA: How to Get Started
TESU Study.com Tuition: Costs and Tuition
TESU Study.com Transfer: Transfer Credits to TESU

Award of Degrees
*IF* someone plays their cards right, they can get TWO degrees from TESU just by having those extra 24 credits...
transferring in from another College/Uni is going to complicate things.
The BALS and the BSBA have similar general education requirements (~60 credits), the BALS has 27 Free Elective credits,
the BSBA has 24 credits business core and 6 free elective credits.

Technically, those 90 credits can be the same thing. There's only roughly a ~30 credit difference between the two degrees.
The only main difference would be the Area of Study (AOS), those would be the 24-30 new credits someone would have to take it in...
I'll give two examples, someone who wants a BSBA CIS and a BALS Computer Science.

Basically, there's a limit of 90 credits from one source that transfers to TESU and a total of up to 117 (not the capstone).
And that is where I would recommend you take your BSBA General Management because of the 3 reasons I chose them over COSC and Excelsior
1) They got upgraded to University 2) Received programmatic accreditation - ACBSP 3) Courses are easier to find at the UL and for cheaper.
If you read my Beginners Guide sticky, I have the BALS/BSBA templates in a spreadsheet view and mainly using Shmoop/Straighterline/Study.com

 

You apply and pay $75 for the application fee. You have 6-12 months to enroll in a course or TECEP (do it before 6 months) at $117/TECEP.
This allows you one year for enrollment purposes, if you need to extend that, take another TECEP for $117 next year.
It will lock you into the catalog year that you apply (even if you FAIL the exam). Don't take any courses but the capstone at TESU.
In regards to the Study.com, you can do the required courses - for example of a BALS/BSBA, check the Beginners Guide, I recently updated it this month...
When you pay, it'll be for two fees, one for the capstone you take, the other for grad/residency waiver fee when you apply for graduation.

Per Credit Tuition - Capstone Tuition is paid when you take the capstone, you pay the graduation fee/residency waiver fee when you graduate.
Take TECEPS for enrollment purposes. For Human Resource Management, you should take it at Study.com as the CC level courses all will come in as a lower level course (unless it came from a 4 year college at UL). While taking the course, I recommend also taking the Intro to Statistics from Study.com OR the Straighterline Business Statistics, unless she really wants to take it at the CC.

 

I did a comparison for myself: Several of the Competency Based Degree providers at the Masters Level.
The main three that I chose were Hodges/Patten/WGU just because of Cost and the programs they offer.
I broke it down to the provider and degrees are as follows: Patten MBA, Hodges MIS, WGU MSCIA
Ultimately, If I had time, I would do all three of them, haha... if not, I would choose WGU because of one factor.

Networking with alumni, I mean there are well over 50 thousand graduates from WGU already.
Patten and Hodges combined are probably less than HALF of that (each at 11,000+).
Another reason I wanted to do all three is because, the costs involved would be cheaper than 1 degree at a "major" university.
Other options came into mind like Amberton, Fort Hayes, and the list goes on, but these are not competency based.

For Undergrad, I actually did the same thing. Even though Excelsior has well over 150,000 graduates vs TESU at 50,000+ and COSC at 11,000+...
I had chosen TESU because of 3 reasons, it's a University, its BSBA was going for programmatic/secondary accreditation, courses transfer easier.
For competency based programs, there's a list on my beginners guide page, I would highly recommend Hodges/WGU for IT programs.
For other IT programs, there's Brandman, Patten, NAU, etc

If you can find any other college/university that is either NA or RA with this type of tuition rate, you'll be laughing... it's hard to beat.
Practically that means in 4 months (1 term), it would only cost $1192 for an undergraduate term of unlimited courses.
For graduate study, it's 1900 flat for a 4 month term... some people can finish a Masters - MBA, and that's the only fee!
As I mentioned in a few of my posts, that's the cheapest I have ever found (unless you go non-accredited OR offshore).

No test out at Patten, there are hardly any masters that allow it be test-out-able... unless you look outside the US.
There's the well respected Heriot-Watt Masters for $15 grand, 10 tests, 10 days and you're done - it's a good program.

 

The reason I looked at the Hodges/Patten/WGU options is because they are competency based and because they were cheap/easy/fast... without many prerequisites or entry requirements. What appealed to me is the majority of their programs were available online/self paced and can be completed without much additional materials/resources. I can do it as fast as possible with the current knowledge I have in the respective degree fields.

I would rank the three in this order for business programs - Hodges MPA (IACBE program accreditation, may take 1 or 2 terms, specialize in non-profit and/or government agencies), WGU MBA/MSML (can finish in 1 term if student is speedy), Patten MBA (even though this is cheapest, it is the third option in my list). Hodges has the MIS/MS Visual Communications which I also like... *sigh*. Hard choices to go for... but these are my top 3.

They were, if memory serves me right, University Now actually purchased both Patten and New Charter, but because they wanted to make some quick cash, they sold New Charter to focus on Patten... The fee structure is the same, as the pricing is identical ($1497/3 months vs $1997/4 months), that's roughly the same $499/month or around there...

For those who want to do a search on business schools. Here's the search window links.

AACSB School Search DataDirect - https://datadirect.aacsb.edu/public/profiles/search.cfm
ACBSP School Search - Search - ACBSP
IACBE School Search - IACBE - Member Status Information