Straighterline or Penn Foster? for self paced courses

[jayorjon]

Hi,

I am looking to get started with a few self paced courses, Straighterline and Penn Foster courses seem to be the obvious choice, but of the two, which did you prefer?

I was thinking of doing a couple months of straighterline and trying to complete at least 3-4 courses. Then doing the rest via Penn Foster, But I would really like to hear your experiences.

Should i do as many SL that apply to my degree before switching to Penn Foster, or just do ALL Penn Foster?

Your experience with either would be helpful.

Thanks,
Jon

[skyfall123]

Penn Foster courses are around $270 each. Straighterline has the $99 per month and $39 per course special. Plus they have 2 courses for 1 specials going on from time to time. PF requires a proctor for some courses, Straighterline requires no proctor. Both can be knocked out fairly quickly by super motivated students with some time to devote. Note that the PF and SL courses must be ACE approved to transfer to the Big 3.

What degree are these courses going to ultimately fit into? That is the big question.

[jayorjon]

Thanks for your reply. I am looking at the Excelsior BS in Liberal Studies.

SL only has a limited amount of courses that will help me out, but still considering for those mainly because of price.

I am still a little nervous about testing but will have my first clep in a couple of weeks (A&I literature). The idea of testing out completely sounds awesome, but I would like to at least try out a few self paced courses to see which way works best for me and my available study time. I work full time and have 4 kids in the home, but I am highly motivated to get this done.

Thanks again for your input.
Jon

[ryoder]

Since you have kids and are at home alot, I think you will appreciate the straighterline and penn foster format.
My advice is to test out of material you already know pretty well and do straighterline for material you don't know very well to reduce your anxiety.
The SL tests are open book and timed and the book has everything you need to answer each question. The tests are chapter based in most cases which means that you know exactly where the information is coming from and you can pull it up quickly.

Penn foster is great too but costs more and a few require a proctor, which can be a friend with an associates degree.

I used SL.com for accounting I,II and business comm. The textbooks are cheap and can be found on amazon.com.

I would go find the courses you want to take and order the books for SL.com right now on Amazon. Get them used and don't worry if the revision is 1 or 2 behind because it doesn't matter. Get those books and start reading them now before you sign up or commit to testing out through CLEP.

Once you get through the books, sign up for the monthly $99 option and buy the classes. At this point you just have to take the tests and you will be able to knock them out fast, saving you money and time and scheduling issues with testing out.

[jayorjon]

Thanks for the advice!

I think this is the route I am going to take, gonna look for the books I need for the SL courses tonight.

Thanks again for your help.

Jon

[ryoder]

Awesome! Go get those books. I enjoyed straighterline and the feeling I got from passing tests with good grades over Christmas break. I hope you enjoy it too.