Hello all you wild and crazy exam takers!! I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions about a certain topic.

I am curious about Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) and I would be interested to hear feedback from others who have taken advantage of it. It doesn't seem to be a very popular alternative when compared to CLEP and DSST exams. Is there a reason why?

If you have earned PLA credits, I would be very interested in hearing about your experience. Please explain the process from a personal perspective and explain the Pro's and Con's.

Here are a couple of questions I have about the program:
Are the requirements clear-cut and predictable?
Do we have to take a shot-in-the-dark and hope the grader likes it?

The whole process seems confusing to me at this point. Nonetheless, I am interested because it appears to be a quick method of gaining credits with minimal studying, if any.

Let's discuss this.

__________________
auminer49r

Completed a B.S. in General Business
at Excelsior College (3.86 GPA)

Left to take:

NOTHING!!!

... But, I'm still sticking around...

My father-in-law went through the process. To me (and him), it seemed like a pain in the rear. They had him resubmit his portfolio many, many times and he was getting frustrated. They didn't award the number of credits he should have received (kinda stingy). He also had to pay the full rate for each credit awarded.

The process was vague as evidenced by their many rejections of his portfolio. Since his boss had to document a lot of his work, his boss started getting upset. Not good.

Personally, when I restarted my degree hunt in April I thought about the PLA. In the end, I felt it was just simpler to test out of the classes rather than going through that entire ordeal. Testing out is also cheaper compared to PLA at many schools.

__________________
Excelsior College
102 credits complete
20 UL Credits to go (7 tests)
BS Liberal Studies
Area of Focus:Computer Information Science

Next test:
Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (August 6th)

You could take 25 DSST tests or 27 CLEP tests for the price of 1 UoP class.

Thanks Greggy_D, That's the kind of information I'm after!

__________________
auminer49r

Completed a B.S. in General Business
at Excelsior College (3.86 GPA)

Left to take:

NOTHING!!!

... But, I'm still sticking around...

Also, when I was researching PLA at the local College, I would have had to make an appointment with the Dean to get "permission" to even start the process. The Academic Counselor didn't even know the procedures of PLA so that tells you how many people go through it.

I also like to know EXACTLY where I stand and what I need. PLA introduced a lot of "hoping" into that equation. You HOPE they award you credit for skills you perform every single day on the job. You HOPE the everyday practical way matches the "book" way. And so on....

I think CLEP/DSST/ECE is the way to go.

__________________
Excelsior College
102 credits complete
20 UL Credits to go (7 tests)
BS Liberal Studies
Area of Focus:Computer Information Science

Next test:
Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (August 6th)

You could take 25 DSST tests or 27 CLEP tests for the price of 1 UoP class.

I concur! I had a Prior Learning Assessment class while enrolled at Regis University (in your home state auminer49er ), and I signed up for it before I knew about CLEP & DSST's. It was a lot of work (I did it for H.R. Mgmt), and it would have been much easier if I had taken the ECE H.R. exam (had I known about it).

So...if you have a choice...I would definitely pick exams over a PLA!

JoAnne

P.S. I did get an A+ on my H.R. portfolio though, so it made it worth all the work at the time.

In terms of time and money--it appeared to me that it would take at least as much, if not more time, and it cost more. As I understand it, they make you find a college course that teaches what you can demonstrate you already know, and then you have to prove you already know what's taught in the course. You do that by providing documentation and getting others to vouch for you. I decided that by the time I found the college class which taught that which I already knew, it would be cheaper, easier and more predictable to just challenge the class via credit-by-examination at that college. I picked up 10+ credits that way.

__________________
Michael

CLEP - ISCA 68, Sociology 72, Psych 73, A&I Lit 61, HG&D 65, Ed Psych 70, Marketing 72, Management 69, Macroeconomics 63, Microeconomics 67
DSST - Intro to Comp 66, MIS 61, Supervision 67, Counseling 58 - no study!, Personal Finance 67, Statistics 60, Criminal Justice 57, Ethics 58, Finance 63 (All A's at EC)
COC - 2007 (Community College) - Acctg I&II 10c, Work/Study 4c, Intro to Research (Info Lit req) 1c, Society and Rock & Roll 3c, Fund of Music 3c, Guitar I & II - 4c, Bass Guitar I - 2c
ECE - Ethics (A), HRM (B), Organizational Behavior (B) | CSU - Operations Mgmt. (A) | TECEP - Business Policy 80 (CR)

My Excelsior Degree Journey

Bachelor of Science in General Business, cum laude
Excelsior College

That's too bad... It appears that the PLA program turns out to be a short-cut that is longer than the original path.

Sounds like too much red tape.

__________________
auminer49r

Completed a B.S. in General Business
at Excelsior College (3.86 GPA)

Left to take:

NOTHING!!!

... But, I'm still sticking around...

I'm getting ready to use PLA for a network course & a system design course. Excelsior requires you to take their couse in PLA before you can use it. I took the course in January. There does seem to be a lot of jumping thru hoops. I only need those two courses and Business Policy and I will be done. Once I get into the process I'll let everyone know how it goes.