TESU/Personal Finance

[Mamasaphire]

One of my younger teens received the Study.com scholarship. Seeing multiple posts by people who said they completed the course in a matter of a few days, I was optimistic that he could do that & move on to a course he wanted to study.

Well... I think one thing I should have kept in mind when reading forum posts was the experience level and age of posters reviewing the courses here.

It literally took him almost the full three months to finish the Personal Finance course. He passed it, but just about *every single topic* was new to him. New as in he hadn't ever even read an article about it. So for him every lesson was learning completely from scratch, rather than the background info that I am guessing most adults have, even if they don't realize it. And he isn't a fast reader, so some of the lessons that were all transcripts (no videos) took extra long to cover. This was also his first alternative credit situation. In fact, because of this rather overwhelming experience, he is hesitant to even take another Study course.

So for the study.com employees who have possibly read how "easy" their courses are, and might perhaps be feeling like things should be made more difficult -- remember that for those who are traditional students, or are younger, and any student who is not an adult-student with years of life experience, these ACE credit-approved courses are probably plenty difficult.

[davewill]

Yeah, most of us here have had to deal with loans, mortgages, interest, taxes and investments. We tend to treat personal finance as a gimme. For a teen or even a young adult, it would all be new.

[keepsingin]

You bring up a good point, and it's something I've noticed being a young degree seeker myself with no traditional business/job experience, that a lot of reviews of (especially) business courses are by people who already have some kind of experience in the business world.

That being said, I'm 22 and found this course easy, even with no actual life experience with the world of finance as far as loans, taxes, investments, etc. Growing up, I guess I picked a lot of it up by osmosis. One of the benefits of being "that nerdy kid" lol. Also my parents encouraged us kids to understand what was going on around the world, and a LOT of that involves finance, economics, etc.

[dfrecore]

You bring up a good point, and it's something I've noticed being a young degree seeker myself with no traditional business/job experience, that a lot of reviews of (especially) business courses are by people who already have some kind of experience in the business world.

So many times, people come on here and ask "how easy is the Marketing CLEP exam?" or "how quickly can I test out of Intro to Business?" I always say, there is no way for us to be able to tell you how easy or hard, or quick something will be, when we don't know you. It just completely depends on what kind of life experience you have, what your test-taking abilities are, what kind of work you do, what classes you may have taken in college, etc. Everyone is so different, that I always hesitate to tell someone "oh, that is SO easy, you can finish it in a week!" (How many times have people said this about ALEKS courses??? It's a ridiculous assertion to make, and I think more harmful than helpful).

[Synicaal]

One of my younger teens received the Study.com scholarship. Seeing multiple posts by people who said they completed the course in a matter of a few days, I was optimistic that he could do that & move on to a course he wanted to study.

Well... I think one thing I should have kept in mind when reading forum posts was the experience level and age of posters reviewing the courses here.

It literally took him almost the full three months to finish the Personal Finance course. He passed it, but just about *every single topic* was new to him. New as in he hadn't ever even read an article about it. So for him every lesson was learning completely from scratch, rather than the background info that I am guessing most adults have, even if they don't realize it. And he isn't a fast reader, so some of the lessons that were all transcripts (no videos) took extra long to cover. This was also his first alternative credit situation. In fact, because of this rather overwhelming experience, he is hesitant to even take another Study course.

So for the study.com employees who have possibly read how "easy" their courses are, and might perhaps be feeling like things should be made more difficult -- remember that for those who are traditional students, or are younger, and any student who is not an adult-student with years of life experience, these ACE credit-approved courses are probably plenty difficult.

How old is your son? How much time did he spend on it each day? I think the people posting on here (like myself) do a lot of the lessons each day. Then study up and take the final. Personally I was averaging a week a course, but I was also putting in 5-6 hours a day.

You are right though not everyone can cram a course in a few days and take a final. And yes for me I'm 31, and have had a good amount of experience with most of the courses I took already. I think the two I took about 90% cold where Applied Managerial Accounting and the Globalization & International Management.

dfrecore is right when she says everyone is different and no one can tell anyone how quick or long a course will take them. I'm glad that you have your son already working on college credits, I wish I had that same chance I wouldn't be 31 with no degree if I knew about these types of credit while I was working for Time Warner Cable. I had money while I was working there so that wasn't a issue, but I didn't have much time on my hands so B&M wasn't an option for me. I didn't even know about CLEP and DSST until early 2015. Still didn't take my first CLEP till Early 2016. Once I got those first credit the sense of accomplishment took over me and now I can't stop.

[OakLakeNC]

Yeah was easy for me. However I have been in the military, bought a couple of cars, rented an apartment for years, had several different types of health insurance, do my own taxes every year, held professional jobs including jobs that deal with insurance, etc..

Study.com gives you 3 months to do it. Personal Finance would take would a semester if you took it at a traditional college. So he still finished it in a realistic amount of time.

[Mamasaphire]

You bring up a good point, and it's something I've noticed being a young degree seeker myself with no traditional business/job experience, that a lot of reviews of (especially) business courses are by people who already have some kind of experience in the business world.

That being said, I'm 22 and found this course easy, even with no actual life experience with the world of finance as far as loans, taxes, investments, etc. Growing up, I guess I picked a lot of it up by osmosis. One of the benefits of being "that nerdy kid" lol. Also my parents encouraged us kids to understand what was going on around the world, and a LOT of that involves finance, economics, etc.

Haha, yes being nerdy can definitely be a benefit He's really into STEM and various kinds of programming... however, apparently we don't discuss finances/economics much around the home. I think we may need to work on that!

How old is your son? How much time did he spend on it each day? I think the people posting on here (like myself) do a lot of the lessons each day. Then study up and take the final. Personally I was averaging a week a course, but I was also putting in 5-6 hours a day.

Yes, you are right. He just turned 14, so very young. He is academically advanced, but not gifted. He was doing this along with his other school subjects, and spending about 3-4 hours/weekday on it with all the research on the topic he had to do elsewhere in order to actually learn the topic. I've thought often that study.com courses are more of a very basic intro or review level. For me, just about every course I took through them was a review of what I had learned elsewhere. That's the benefit of years of background learning.

Study.com gives you 3 months to do it. Personal Finance would take would a semester if you took it at a traditional college. So he still finished it in a realistic amount of time.

Thank you for mentioning that! It's a good way to look at it.

[Mamasaphire]

Yeah, most of us here have had to deal with loans, mortgages, interest, taxes and investments. We tend to treat personal finance as a gimme. For a teen or even a young adult, it would all be new.

Good point! Definitely new. As an example, I realized that while we sat down and showed our older children how to use a checkbook, we now do 90% of our banking online and teen bank accounts around our area only give debit cards (!!), so we've never shown this child how to use a checkbook.

So many times, people come on here and ask "how easy is the Marketing CLEP exam?" or "how quickly can I test out of Intro to Business?" I always say, there is no way for us to be able to tell you how easy or hard, or quick something will be, when we don't know you. It just completely depends on what kind of life experience you have, what your test-taking abilities are, what kind of work you do, what classes you may have taken in college, etc. Everyone is so different, that I always hesitate to tell someone "oh, that is SO easy, you can finish it in a week!" (How many times have people said this about ALEKS courses??? It's a ridiculous assertion to make, and I think more harmful than helpful).

Yes!!!! Exactly!! And unfortunately with any online community, usually only the boldest speak up (both the very intelligent/confident, and the needy/desperate), so it's actually a little more difficult to get a feel for how long an average student (especially young and/or inexperienced) might take.

[Synicaal]

Wow yeah finance courses will be tough at 14, it is all very new at that age but a excellent time to start learning it. I wish him the best of luck along the way!

[Mamasaphire]

Wow yeah finance courses will be tough at 14, it is all very new at that age but a excellent time to start learning it. I wish him the best of luck along the way!

Thank you Synicaal!!