I'm not sure where to begin.

I should start with a big thank you to everyone on this forum and to InstanCert. Thank You.

Just a quick and condensed background to explain why I'm getting this degree. I'm 46 years old. My brother, mother and sister all died within twelve months of each other a few years ago. My father is my only surviving immediate family and he lives in Florida. We don't have any family here. My wife is from Florida and moved to NY with me when we got married in 1988, so I could take over a family business. She has all her family still in Florida. Long story short - I found out in Feb. that "we want to move to Florida". I sold my business and bought a house (with mortgage) in Hudson FL and we are moving the day after school is out.

So now I have a wife and two kids to support, with the help of my RN wife. She already has a job starting July 2nd - so that helps. I think I want to teach, still not sure - but a degree will help no matter what! With a BS in Psychology I can get a temporary teaching certificate in FL to teach 6-12 grade social studies.

In the middle of March I decided I needed a degree. My brother retired from the Coast Guard and got his degree through Excelsior.

I found out about the GRE subject Exams and the only one available was April 14th and I had missed the registration deadline. I found out about standby and took the test. I only got to study for a week, overslept and got there late (luckily she let me in). I lucked out and got a 610 which gave me 15 credits and took care of the two Psych requirements that don't have tests.

I started with 64 credits from Ole Miss and the Air Force (24 credits from DLI, 12 upper 12 lower with a P grade). My starting GPA - 1.70, with five D's .

Then I read BAin4weeks and found InstantCert. I sold my business on May 1st.

First thing I did was get 7 easy credits through FEMA.

Using almost exclusively IC:

May 9th:

DSST Intro to Business 68 - A
DSST Prin of Supervision 62 - A
DSST Personal Finance 70 - A

May 16th:

DSST Drug & Alcohol Abuse 63 - A (maybe those years @ Ole Miss helped here hilarious )
DSST HTYH 62 - A
DSST Intro to Law Enforcement 66 - A
DSST Criminal Justice 57 - A

I took the IL in here.

May 25th:

DSST Statistics 63 - A
DSST Intro to World Religions 62 - A
DSST General Anthropology 54 - B (Statistics wore me out:mad: )

The World Religions, Anthropology and 3 credits from the GRE will duplicate and get rid of three of the D's from Ole Miss.

I currently have 117 credits of which 108 apply to the degree. I still need four UL ECE Psych exams before I move on June 23rd. If I can get four A's I should be able to graduate with just over a 3 GPA. I need a 2.5 for teaching cert if I go that route for employment. I took DSST's because they get letter grades.

This forum has helped me. That is why I wrote this, so others can see how do-able this can be.

Thanks again,
Doug

Good news: Stats stands between me and a degree. Bad news: I'm freaking out about my complete lack of knowledge regarding this subject while needing to pass it within 3 weeks. If not, I face a $500 annual renewal fee from Excelsior because my anniversary date is approaching and I need to have all requirements (stats) completed within 3weeks to avoid paying for another year!!:mad:

I have read through every thread on the subject and I'm left with the following questions:

1) Do you need to memorize all of the formulas/symbols or just simply know how to solve the problems without knowing the formulas? In other words, will the exam ask you to solve a problem by simply showing you a formula or do they spell out what they want solved (if that makes sense)?

2) Also, I have no idea how to use or incorporate the TI36X calculator that I just purchased. All of the buttons look completely foreign and look nothing like the symbols used in the formulas (keep in mind that I have not read the calculator instructions yet...hopefully that will do the trick). Did you all go through all of the material before figuring out how to use your calculator to solve problems or as you went along?

3) I will be using IC and the Dummies workbook. I have pretty much used IC exclusively for all my other exams w/o any other supplemental materials and have scored great. I really dread the thought of going through that entire workbook, in addition to IC, considering the time cruch that I'm in:mad:

I no nothing about this subject and have no idea how to even approach it or the use of the calculator. I have tried for As on every exam that I have taken. I would be more then happy with a 48 (pass) on this hideous thing! Kind of obvious why I left this one for last isn't it?:confused:

I am having a very difficult time finding exams that fulfill the requirements for the Area of Study Electives at TESC for their BA in Political Science. Is anyone else majoring in PS at the big 3??? I would love to compare notes and see which exams or FEMA credits might qualify.


Also, I was thinking that these might qualify. Does anyone know for sure?

Introduction to Political Science TECEP
An Introduction to the Modern Middle East DSST
History of the Vietnam War DSST
Labor Relations/Collective Bargaining TECEP
Federal Income Taxation TECEP
Community Health TECEP
Environment and Humanity DSST

I have already taken the CLEP American Government, DSST Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, and DSST Statistics.

Thanks guys!
You rock!

I have been studying for the Here's to your Health DSST exam for about 2 weeks. I am confident I know the information on the flash cards, but when I went to take the practice exam on the DSST website, I didn't know any of the information!!! I only need 3 credits to get my degree and wanted to test out of this class instead of taking another class, but now I'm terrified I don't know the info and won't pass the test (scheduled for Thursday)... Is the real test not as hard as the practice exam?

Thanks in advance for any info.... I'm really starting to freak out!:eek:

I took what seemed like a lot of tests this past month and got results which mean I will graduate in July with Excelsior BSL degree: Area of Focus in Psychology; Area of Focus in Art:

DSST Drug & Alcohol: 73
ECE Abnormal Psych 86 (this is average of grades of 3 separate test sections)
INL 102 (Information Literacy) 100 (not too much of a challenge)

AND the one I lost sleep over literally:

DSST Statistics 70: I believed in my heart that I'd failed. Had no connection in my heart or mind to this score when I left the test site.

These are all "A"s -- however, of course the one thing I thought would be a total piece of cake for me, ECE "College Writing"; I got a B in. Don't know numerical score. Definitely know MLA citation if you take this one.

That's it, I'm done, now I can stay in grad school! If I'd failed that statistics test, Capella would have disenrolled me, and my Capella masters program "A' s" would magically turn to "F"s at midnight.

Best of luck to you-all!!! THANKS INCERT!!!!!!!!

Took and passed the DSST Business Law Exam and passed with a 65. I thought I'd pass on some comments and suggestions while it was fresh in my mind.

It is certainly more difficult than the CLEP LL Intro to Business Law exam but not what I'd call hard. The DSST Fact Sheet for the test (or whatever it is called) is a pretty accurate representation of the makeup of the exam. The test had 93 questions and it took about an hour and half. About half of the exam is scenario based (with each scenario applying to only one question), five or six questions involved looking at a check or draft and determining who the payee was, who the maker was, etc., and the rest were traditional multiple choice questions.

You should study issues related to Holder's in Due Course repeatedly, also the differences between Partnerships, Corporate make up, grey areas in sales disputes like tender offers and the concept of perfection. These are the ones that stick out.

I didn't use IC much for this exam, although a review of the two scenario sections in the CLEP Blaw cards is probably worthwhile. I exclusively used the Barron's Business Law book and studied the chapters that were equal to the DSST Fact Sheet. The Barron's book is more than enough to get a passing score.

If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll answer them.

Bo

I am eligible to retake Educational Psychology. I'd failed back in October, 2006. I guess my question is which test should I take since they all overlap. The only that I'd passed was Intro to Psychology and that was back in October, 2006. Which of the following 3 would you recommend? Educational Psychology, Human Growth, or Lifespan? I'm hoping to take this test in 2 weeks.

I appreciate the suggestion.

Will Charter Oak accept FEMA credits that have been credit banked with Thomas Edison? I know this method will work to get the credits over to Excelsior, but I have been unable to find an answer about Charter Oak. I have a friend who's debating between Excelsior and Charter Oak and this is the predominant deciding factor. Anyone have any idea?

(Yes, I did send this to Excelsior's Advisors. I'm just waiting for an answer.)

BS in Liberal Studies

OK....here's what I have remaining:

Section I

3 credits English
6 credits General Humanities (LL)
3 credits SS/History (LL)
21 Upper Level Credits

Section II

38 Lower Level Credits
2 Upper Level Credits


Here's my plan of attack:

Section I

English....currently taking ENG101 at Schoolcraft College in Michigan.
6 credits Humanities......Either the Analyzing Lit CLEP or American Lit CLEP
3 credits SS/History.....Intro to Sociology CLEP

21 Upper Level Credits (choosing from the following tests):
DSST Civil War
DSST Rise and Fall of the USSR
DSST Drug and Alcohol Abuse
DSST Money and Banking
DSST Principles of Finance
ECE Abnormal Psych
ECE Foundations of Gerontology
ECE Psych of Adulthood and Aging
ECE Social Psych

Section II

38 Lower Level Credits....already complete via FEMA courses (awaiting TESC transcription), Information and Computer Systems CLEP, and DSST Intro to Computing.
2 Upper Level Credits.....will be covered by UL exam from Section 1.


Anybody see any flaws in this plan? Any suggestions to make it better?

Hey everyone. I found out some news today and thought I would share with the forum and see if anyone knows this already. Excelsior used to have a policy that you needed 30 upper level credits for your business program. Well, it seems that has changed. You only need 12 upper level credits now. The caveat is that your core requirements do not count toward these 12 credits. This is what I was told by Excelsior when I asked about one of my upper level arts & sciences credits. I was told that no arts & sciences course is deemed upper-level because you only need 12 upper level business credits.