42 Credits, 1 month, $731 via Straighterline

[Ancapman]

Well everyone, through the liberal use of coupon codes I have now completed 42 credits in 30 days thru straighterline. I have paid $731 or $17.40 per credit including the membership fee. To put that in perspective my local cc charges about $400 per class + $100 for a book or $500 total. If your future is one of the big 3.... I cant think of a reason that is valid to not use SL. Pricing out CLEP these same 14 classes would be double the price + cost of study guides and books.

Granted I am unemployed, so I have almost 16 hours a day to dedicate to this stuff right now. But if you can plow through the SL classes successfully do it!

[Synicaal]

Congrats!! That sure is impressive!!

[Thorne]

What were the easiest classes? The hardest?

What was your average completion time, per course, in hours?

Any recommendations?

I'm going to "enroll" at SL soon to knock out 8-10 Gen Ed requirements for transfer to WGU and figured I'd gain some perspective if you would be so kind as to share.

[Ancapman]

The easiest:
American Gov
US Hist 1
US Hist 2
Intro to Religion
Medical Terminology

I completed the first 4 of those in a 24 hour period, and spend about 4-5 hours on each course.

Middle Difficulty
Cultural Anthropology
Intro to Sociology
Western Civ I
Western Civ 2
Intro to Psychology
Principles of Management
Maybe spend 6-10 hours on each not hard, just takes a bit more time

More Difficult (but still easy to pass as are ALL SL classes that do not require written work or video uploads)
Statistics
Nutrition

I spent quite a bit of time on these... maybe 16 hours on nutriton and 48 hours on stats

Hardest (But still easy just has more work)
Intro to Communications

Instead of just tests, this one adds 3 speeches and an outline of your final speech. This takes a little more time and introduces subjectivity into your grade.

The truth is ALL SL classes are super easy to pass except a few. MOST have finals that are worth 30% or less of your final grade. All previous tests and quizzes are open book. Meaning there is hardly a test or quiz you shouldn't be able to pull off a 94-100 on. Which means you could get a terrible proctored final test grade and still pass the course very easily.

[Flying-Ace]

Well everyone, through the liberal use of coupon codes I have now completed 42 credits in 30 days thru straighterline. I have paid $731 or $17.40 per credit including the membership fee. To put that in perspective my local cc charges about $400 per class + $100 for a book or $500 total. If your future is one of the big 3.... I cant think of a reason that is valid to not use SL. Pricing out CLEP these same 14 classes would be double the price + cost of study guides and books.

Granted I am unemployed, so I have almost 16 hours a day to dedicate to this stuff right now. But if you can plow through the SL classes successfully do it!

That is basically what I did for my first degree. Feels good, doesn’t it?! Now you may want to add Shmoop to your list. My sister spent $87.68 and did as many tests as she could for 31 days. She spent about 4 - 5 hrs/day, 6 days/wk, and completed 45 credits that ended up costing $1.95/cr. Not too shabby! Now, keep in mind that Shmoop is an organized mess. She just ignored the glaring problems (like questions that ask about a referenced graph/pic and there isn’t one) and went for as many passes as she could earn. No reason to let the details bog you down. Shmoop is open-book exams, but that doesn’t mean they are easy. But with your time and determination, it sounds like a great opportunity for you to capitalize on.

[bjcheung77]

Ancapman, are you going for a specific degree? I assume you'll continue with SL for at least another month to reap more coupons and credits?
For me, I have about 90 credits with Straighterline, but not all of them go towards my degree. The most I did was 7 courses in a month.
Are you going to be taking any science courses or labs through them? I took all their sciences, but none of their labs...

[Ancapman]

Ancapman, are you going for a specific degree? I assume you'll continue with SL for at least another month to reap more coupons and credits?
For me, I have about 90 credits with Straighterline, but not all of them go towards my degree. The most I did was 7 courses in a month.
Are you going to be taking any science courses or labs through them? I took all their sciences, but none of their labs...

I am working towards a degree in Psychology

I have 5 more straighterline classes so I will end up with 57 credits with them, 15 with study.com in my AOS, 15 from my local community college, 14 credits transferred in from previous college work, 6 from Coopersmith, 6 from TESU, 4 thru TEEX, 3 thru Aleks and 2 via the institutes.

[humbleAMG]

I concur on Statistics ( Business) and Nutrition being the toughest, those are the two I scored the least on, 80 and 82%. Everything else I am averaged out at 91%. I just wish there were more codes for active members vs canceling the account and then using a code. I am on my last month with only 7 classes left with SL. I am hoping I can find more which will fit into my degree plan vs going to another source.

[bjcheung77]

Haha, yeah, their system is like that. That's exactly what I do, when my membership is about to expire, I cancel it. Renew the membership and use another coupon.
Otherwise, you'll just be paying membership and if you wanted to use a coupon, system may not allow purchase (membership has to be purchased at the same time).

[Joeman200]

I'm curious how you used SL. Did you do all the coursework (book, SL lessons, practice quizzes, additional resources), read just the book, or just skim the book before the quizzes?


Also, thanks for sharing your success! it's an inspiration for me and I'm sure others as well!