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[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: College Algebra (3 credits)
Score: 98%
Course content: This course is presented either in a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the text version.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  You could use a calculator, and if you do, a TI-30 or TI-36 is perfectly adequate, you don't need a $100+ graphic calculator.  There are 5 units in total, each with 3-4 challenge quizzes (5 - 11 questions) followed by a milestone test (18 - 22 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam.  
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Again, I felt like the content on the challenges was consistent with the lessons, and the content on the milestones was consistent with the challenges.  Overall, I felt like the class progressed sensibly and reasonably without any sort of huge jumps that left you wondering "wait, how did we get here?"  
Time taken on course: 14 hours, 55 minutes over 3 days
Familiarity with subject before course: As mentioned, I did the Foundations of College Algebra class before starting College Algebra.  While I did decently in math in high school (got to pre-calc) I really hadn't used it much since then.  I felt like the Foundations class really helped out.  I was surprised at how much of the College Algebra class was just recapping elements of the Foundations class (I suppose to work in case you hadn't taken that) and taking those concepts only a bit further.  It made the first 2 units or so really easy.  It started to get a little more difficult and a little more involved in the last unit, but overall, it really wasn't bad.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Before you do this class, definitely do the Foundations class.  It only takes a few hours (I knocked it out in under 5) and it will definitely help you slide through the first few units of this class.  Otherwise, make sure you bring your calculator, read the example problems in the text lessons carefully, and check your work.  I was really worried about taking this class, and I found it much easier (and quicker) than I would've expected.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Introduction to Statistics (3 credits)
Score: 94%
Course content: This course is presented either in a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the video version from Jonathan Osters.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  You could use a calculator, and if you do, a TI-30 or TI-36 is perfectly adequate, you don't need a $100+ graphic calculator.  There are 5 units in total, each with 3-5 challenge quizzes (4 - 13 questions) followed by a milestone test (18 - 29 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam.  
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: As with all of the math classes that I've done on Sophia thus far (I've done three of the four, skipping the Foundations of Statistics class), the lessons were really consistent with the challenge questions, which were really consistent with the milestone questions.  Mostly when I ran into a "wait, what is this talking about" moment was near the end, referring to concepts from near the start of the course, where I had to dig through notes and refresh my memory a little bit.  
Time taken on course: 29 hours, 0 minutes, over about a week.  I ordinarily do the practice milestones, but I didn't even bother on this course to finish it faster.  
Familiarity with subject before course: As mentioned, I'd previously made it up to pre-calc in High School, about 17 years ago.  That included some coverage of the concepts in statistics, but only what was really in the first half of the class.  I had taken Sophia's College Algebra classes right before this class, and it made me more comfortable going into it.  The first half of the class was fairly easy in this regard, but the class got much more difficult in the back portion, especially the final unit.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Jonathan Osters' instructional videos were highly recommended, and they were solid.  Early on, I felt like the class was going too slow, but I didn't want to skip ahead and miss anything particularly important.  By the middle/late part of the class, I felt like his videos were about the right pace.  I felt like the class went off the rails fairly hard in the 5th and final unit.  It felt like at that point, the subject matter really jumped up a noticeable amount in terms of difficulty and complexity, and I felt like the videos (or the Sophia text, which I also referred to a bit when I got frustrated) didn't really cover that.  For example, it starts talking about "hey, we're gonna use a p-value" and I'm over here like "wait what's a p-value" and then 10 hours later its explaining to you about p-values.  It was frustrating, but for the most part, instead of relying on you to understand the concept, its relying on you to consult with a table or plug numbers into a formula.  As a result, even though I got a bit lost in the end, I was still able to power through the course and my grade over that last unit dropped from a 98% to a 94%.  
1-10 Difficulty level: 8

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Environmental Science (3 credits)
Score: 95% 
Course content: This course is presented either in a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the PDF version.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  There are 4 units in total, each with 2 - 3 challenge quizzes (4 - 11 questions) followed by a milestone test (22 - 24 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam.  
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final exam was pretty consistent with the challenge quizzes.  Overall, I felt like the challenge quizzes weren't entirely consistent with the unit materials - there were several places where they were counting on you to make an inference or draw a conclusion, rather than simply telling you the situation, I felt.  If you do all the challenges and all of the questions on each, it will definitely prepare you for the milestone exams though.  
Time taken on course: 8 hours, 17 minutes, knocked it out in one day.  I ordinarily do the practice milestones, but I didn't even bother on this course to finish it faster.  I was tired of working on my Computer Science courses and needed a break, so I knocked this out.
Familiarity with subject before course: I was previously a chemistry major, many years ago before I became a college drop-out instead.  I've always been interested in earth sciences and I had probably an above average familiarity with the class before starting it.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I was expecting the class to be more about physical science than actual environmental science, which was maybe dumb on my part.  In any case, it's a perfectly fine class that you can knock out quickly enough while skimming through the reading materials.  There's a few questions where I felt like the answers weren't fair ("all four of these answers are right, but which one is MOST right" kind of stuff) which is annoying, but it wasn't as bad as some other courses I've done.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4, but I admittedly have some additional knowledge on the subject.  Absent that knowledge (and trying to actually take the class instead of scooting through as fast as possible) it's probably more like a 6, maybe 7.

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Accounting (3 credits)
Score: 96%
Course content: This course is presented either in a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the PDF version.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  There are 4 units in total, each with 2 - 3 challenge quizzes (6 - 9 questions) followed by a milestone test (17 - 23 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final exam was pretty consistent with the challenge quizzes, and both were mostly consistent with the course material.  The problem was that the course material really expected you to make a lot of inferences or simply didn't give you a lot of information.  For example, it breaks accounts into five general types, but then starts throwing dozens of accounts at you without context and expecting you to know which belong to which category without context or instruction.  
Time taken on course: 24 hours, 9 minutes, over a little over a week.  A large chunk of that time was researching the subject on other resources because I was frustrated with the class and cared about trying to learn the concepts.  I didn't even bother doing the practice milestones because I was annoyed with the class and wanted to just get it finished.
Familiarity with subject before course: I'd taken the Intro to Business class previously and enjoyed it, and I felt like that did a much better job of explaining some of the concepts that this class covered.  Aside from that class and some basic life experience in the issue, I really didn't have a lot of familiarity with it.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I was VERY disappointed with this class.  I had been pleasantly surprised with my experience in the math classes in Sophia being very well done, and a LOT of this class is basic math - add this, subtract that, then compare the total to another number, etc.  This class provides ZERO feedback on test questions, so even if you're getting questions wrong, it doesn't give you any push at all in the right direction.  Complicating this is the fact that the questions deliberately try to trick you by throwing in several other accounts that aren't relevant to the mathematical operation you need to perform.  This led to several occasions where I had to do the problem several different ways and come up with multiple answers, then try one, and if it came out correct, I knew my methodology was correct and could repeat it.  If it wasn't correct, I often didn't know what I'd done wrong.  This class also almost exclusively provides you with how things are, without explaining "why", especially in the context of managing all these accounts and why something needs to be calculated one way vs another or why something is a debit vs a credit in one account or another.  Hand in hand with that, this class did not do much in the way of explaining how real world applications would work compared to the information provided in the text (cool, you told me how to estimate my uncollectible accounts - what do I do if that estimate is wrong?) and gives you very little idea of how to apply these concepts in the real business world.  I ended up doing a LOT of reading on other sites and using that to learn some of the concepts.  My best advice on this class is not to pay too much attention to the concepts and to accept that you're not going to confidently learn them, and to instead just focus on jetting through for an easy college credit.  Very disappointed with this one.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6 (only because of the poor explanations and failure to provide feedback on incorrect test questions)

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Business Law (3 credits)
Score: 88% (81% on Touchstone dragged it down a bit)
Course content: This course is only available in a PDF/text format.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  There are 3 units in total, each with 2 - 3 challenge quizzes (6 - 9 questions) followed by a milestone test (17 - 23 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam. You will probably complete this while waiting for your Touchstone essay to be graded.  The final exam counts for 75 points, while the touchstone counts for 100 points, both being out of a total for the class of 419.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: I felt like the course material, challenge quizzes, and the final exams were fairly consistent with each other.  It's an interesting class and I enjoyed it.  
Time taken on course: 19 hours, 57 minutes over a week.  Probably around 25-30% of that was the Touchstone essay.  I didn't bother with the practice milestones, and a little bit of that time was probably me getting distracted, though I did skim a lot of the reading (there's a LOT of reading compared to the other Sophia classes).  The first unit was mostly Civics/Social Studies review for me.  
Familiarity with subject before course: I had a fair amount of familiarity with the subject, as a decent chunk of it was basic Civics/Social Studies and another portion of it with torts and such was relevant to my prior employment before going back to school.  I had also taken the Intro to Business class which helped a bit with some portions of this class.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This class, of the ones that I've completed so far (all of them have been reviewed here) had by far the most reading.  That said, the reading wasn't difficult and didn't really feel like a grind to me, as its stuff that I find fairly interesting.  I did a lot of research for the Touchstone (you'll probably want to look up your own state's Statute of Frauds) and was disappointed with the score that I got on it.  My feedback was largely that I hadn't explicitly explained and defined a contract in basic enough fashion, and then hammer home how my research related to those elements.  I felt like I had done this, but I apparently hadn't done it explicitly enough and lost points as a result.  Keep it basic.  
IMPORTANT: This class has a Touchstone essay which has to be submitted and then graded.  During this time, this class counts as one of the two that you can be enrolled in at a time, even if you've completed everything and are just waiting for your score.  My essay was graded within 2 business days (much faster than the College Readiness class) so it's not too much of a delay, but you don't want to be in the position of having two classes on "pause" and waiting for a touchstone to be graded.  
1-10 Difficulty level: 7, in large part because of the Touchstone essay which is going to require some serious research.

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Microeconomics (3 credits)
Score: 92%
Course content: This course is presented either in a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the PDF version.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  There are 4 units in total, each with 3 - 4 challenge quizzes (4 - 7 questions) followed by a milestone test (17 - 23 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class does have a Touchstone essay type of assignment to be completed at the end of Unit 02, which must be submitted before you can take your final exam.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The course materials, challenge questions, and final exams were mostly consistent with each other.  The big inconsistency that I found in this course was that there are a few portions where the class has the student doing math problems, and it always prompts the student to "use the midpoint formula".  The midpoint formula is a formula provided in the text which simply calculates the average of two values.  Other formulas are provided which always involve calculating the change in a quantity over the change in price to determine elasticity.  In every single question where the student is prompted to "use the midpoint formula", you actually have to use the other formulas (*not* the formula specifically labelled as "the midpoint formula") to come up with the correct answer.  The math itself isn't hard (though the questions provide absolutely zero feedback when you get a question wrong, which is unacceptable to me as well for a math question), but the fact that the directions are telling you to use a specific formula that was specifically highlighted in the text and then you actually have to use every other formula but the specified formula is a tremendous mistake on Sophia's part, in my opinion.  
Time taken on course: 12 hours, 43 minutes over three days.  I didn't bother with the practice milestones because I was smooth sailing through the first three units.  
Familiarity with subject before course: I was tangentially familiar with some of the concepts from the class from just general life experience, news, etc.  I had also taken the Accounting class on Sophia and the Business Law recently, which gave me a little more familiarity before I started the course.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The course will be easier if you do a little refresher on some math classes beforehand.  My wife took this class and was very frustrated with it, but I took it after having knocked out Sophia's math classes and found it significantly more easy.  The big thing I'll say on this, which I alluded to above, is that there are some portions of the class which involve doing some math which it says is "using the midpoint formula", but the midpoint formula isn't the formula you use.  Ignore that "midpoint formula" instruction and use the other formulas the lesson provides you and you'll be fine.  
1-10 Difficulty level: 5, only because there were a few areas requiring some math being done which didn't provide any feedback when you got an incorrect answer.  Overall though, it wasn't bad in my opinion.

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Macroeconomics (3 credits)
Score: 98%
Course content: This course is presented either in a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the PDF version.  There are no other materials that are needed, just the text provided by Sophia.  There are 4 units in total, each with 2 - 3 challenge quizzes (6 - 10 questions) followed by a milestone test (18 - 23 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).  
Final exam format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: For the most part, the course material was consistent with the challenge questions and the final exams, but there were a few areas where it was less so.  At one point it has you doing a little bit of (simple) math in a milestone to calculate GDP's using a formula from the unit, but this sort of problem was never in the challenge quizzes.  Similar things occurred with applying concepts to graphs that didn't necessarily happen in the unit/challenges.  Annoying, but not difficult enough to be a big deal.  
Time taken on course: 12 hours, 22 minutes over three days.  I didn't bother with the practice milestones because I mostly wanted to get it done and found the class to be pretty easy - didn't miss a single question until the final unit milestone.  
Familiarity with subject before course: I had some basic familiarity with some of the concepts from my general life experience and paying a bit of attention to the news and such.  I had taken Microeconomics right before this class, and that helped quite a bit.  I wasn't super impressed with the Microeconomics class, but the general knowledge of concepts from that class helped out here quite a bit.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Doing the Microeconomics class helped out quite a bit with making this one easier.  One thing both classes had in common which I found very obnoxious was that they repeated themselves A LOT.  I think that this was largely done as a way to try to review a previous concept and then teach a new related concept, but it just made things more difficult for me.  I would start jumping and skimming because "oh this is old stuff" and then I'd have a bit of trouble with where the new info is.  This class did involve less math than the Microeconomics class did, if that matters to anyone.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Principles of Finance (3 credits)
Score: 91%
Course Content: The course is available in either a video lecture or a PDF/text form.  I used the PDF version.  There are no other materials required, just the text provided by Sophia.  There are 4 units in total, each with 3-4 challenge quizzes (4 - 10 questions) and each unit concludes with a milestone test (19 - 27 questions) on the material covered in that unit.  The class then has a milestone final exam (25 questions).
Final Exam Format: The class has a final 25 question multiple choice milestone or final exam.  
Final Exam Content vs Course Content/Practice Exams: Most of Sophia's classes are pretty good in this regard, with the course content being consistent with the challenge questions and those being consistent with the exams.  I felt like this class was the weakest of the ones I've done through Sophia so far in this regard.  There were several areas where I felt like it was asking me to make deductions that I felt like weren't made clear in the course material itself.  That is made worse by the fact that it's a DENSE class, as you'd expect most things dealing with the financial world (stocks, bonds, capital gains, etc. etc.) to be.  
Time Taken on Course: 9 hours, 14 minutes over two days.  I didn't bother with the practice milestones because I'm trying to blitz through courses during my remaining Sophia membership.  
Familiarity With Subject Before Course: I wouldn't say that I had a whole lot of familiarity with this beyond just normal life experience, aside from having done this class last amongst Sophia's business offerings.  That helped a bit, but not as much as you might think.  There's a LOT of information in there, this was one of the more dense classes I've taken so far through Sophia.  
Pitfalls, High Points, Things Others Should Know: I believe this is my 15th Sophia class that I've taken in the last three months, and this was the first one where I definitely was aware that there were test/challenge questions that were simply wrong.  I think there were 3-4 occasions on this (and one of them, on the final exam, I guessed the correct answer despite it being incorrect), and most of them occurred on challenges so it didn't really hurt me, but it was really annoying.  Aside from that, I felt like the class wasn't particularly well done, largely because of its expecting the student to make leaps or deductions that weren't clearly made.  Frustrating, but if you just say "screw it" and jet through making liberal use of the open-book policy and CTRL+F, you'll probably be ok.
1-10 Difficulty Level: 6, though if I took the class more seriously and weren't using the aforementioned "screw it" strategy, probably an 8.

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Human Biology (3 credits)
Score: 97%
Course Content: The course is available in either a PDF/text form or a video.  There is no other textbook or other materials required other than the ones provided by Sophia.  The course consists of 6 units, each with 2 - 5 challenge quizzes of 4 - 10 questions, and each unit concludes with a Milestone exam of 15 - 26 questions.  The course concludes with a 25 question Milestone final exam.  
Final Exam Content: The final exam is a 25 question multiple choice test.  
Final Exam Content vs Course Content/Practice Exams: The entire course seemed fairly consistent between the course text, the challenges, and the exams.  There was a couple parts where it was asking you to apply things that were learned without being explicitly stated, but overall it was fine in this regard.
Time Taken On Course: 9 hours, 25 minutes over two days.  Admittedly, I blitzed through the class without reading the text and was just trying to get more classes done before my Sophia membership expires next week.  There was a LOT of CTRL+F over those 9 hours...
Familiarity With Subject Before Course: As mentioned in other reviews of mine, I have some prior education in the sciences, but the last time I took a biology course was in my Honors Bio class in my Sophomore year of HS, 20 years ago.  There were elements here that I sort of remembered, but not a lot.  
Pitfalls, High Points, Things Others Should Know: The milestones and challenges mostly focus on a lot of definitions, which are often pulled word for word from the text.  CTRL + F is your friend!
1-10 Difficulty Level: 6, and that's acknowledging that I wasn't putting much effort into learning the material, just passing the test.  It looks like a well done class, but very dense and very informative.  I'd imagine this is in the 8-10 range if you approached it more seriously.

[Seraphgrim]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Communication At Work (3 credits)
Score: 94% 
Course Content: This course is available only in a PDF/text format, with no other materials needed aside from the text provided by Sophia.  The class consists of 4 units, each with 3 challenge quizzes of 4 - 6 questions each.  The first three units conclude with a Milestone exam of 14 - 15 questions.  The fourth unit concludes with a short written assignment.
Final Exam Content: This class does not have a formal Final Exam and instead has a very short written assignment or Touchstone consisting of 2 200-word "work emails".  
Final Exam Content vs Course Content/Practice Exams: The milestone exams were pretty consistent with the challenge quizzes.  I didn't read any of the text, aside from occasionally scanning through or CTRL + F if I wasn't sure on an answer for a quiz or exam.  
Time Taken On Course: 4 hours, 13 minutes.  I didn't do any practice milestones, or even read the text.  Probably about 40 minutes of this was the written Touchstone assignment.  
Familiarity With Subject Before Course: I had taken all of the other workplace communication/conflict resolution classes at Sophia, which probably helped out a bit.  
Pitfalls, High Points, Things Others Should Know: The class was fine, and if you haven't done a ton of communication classes, you should read the text because it is worthwhile information.  It's an easy couple credits through Sophia though, and my free time with Sophia was expiring within a week, so I wanted to knock this out real quick for extra credits.  
IMPORTANT: This class has a Touchstone essay which has to be submitted and then graded.  During this time, this class counts as one of the two that you can be enrolled in at a time, even if you've completed everything and are just waiting for your score.  My essay was graded about a week later.  I was kind of annoyed with my grade on the Touchstone, as there were multiple areas where I received grades like 29/30 points without any specific indication of what I did wrong to be penalized a single point.   It's not too much of a delay, but you don't want to be in the position of having two classes on "pause" and waiting for a touchstone to be graded.  
1-10 Difficulty Level: 2