I was in the same boat; I fought the good fight and eventually was left with three choices.

#1. I could choose not to attend Excelsior.

#2. I could take the ECE English test, with essay and wait 73 days (plus mailing time) for them to grade it.

#3. I could take an 8 week English Comp course on the base here and know immediately that I passed, which is what I did.

It was a painless course and now that I'm entering into my Master's program, I'm glad I took the refresher because it appears as though I'm going to be doing quite a bit of writing. Hope this helps somehow, Lee

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Associates Degree, Aviation Maintenance Technology, Community College of the Air Force
Bachelors of Science, Liberal Studies Degree, Excelsior
MBA Human Resource Management, California Coast University