What happens when you apply eBay thinking to homework?

[Prloko]

I like to say that a CLEP or DSST is like a college final—you're just studying for it independently instead of sitting through classes and paying all that tuition. Save time, save money

I love CLEP, and DSST and take full advantage, but they are nothing like a college final (at least from a rigorous course). Passing a CLEP makes you as smart as a C student(with the level of effort to match). If you are talking about a less scrupulous school, then I agree. I have colleages that all recommend a bogus RA school to me that has open book finals, and it shows in their work products.

[Westerner]

I love CLEP, and DSST and take full advantage, but they are nothing like a college final (at least from a rigorous course). Passing a CLEP makes you as smart as a C student(with the level of effort to match). If you are talking about a less scrupulous school, then I agree. I have colleages that all recommend a bogus RA school to me that has open book finals, and it shows in their work products.

Right, that is one reason CLEPs and DSSTs can be looked down on—because of "a pass is a pass," many can get a lower score to get the credits with a smaller amount of effort than it may take to pass a college final. I hold myself to a higher standard and try to earn A-equivalents on all my tests

[cookderosa]

I believe this has a lot to do with the student. If a person wants to learn academic writing, they will do far better than if they are just taking a class or an exam to fill a box. Excelsior is pretty demanding about their Written English Requirement, so there isn't much opportunity to slide by. I was actually very surprised at the amazing quality of the BYU-Independent writing course. I take the final in a couple of weeks and then I plan to continue with their upper level writing course.

I guess I am trying to say you get what you put into any class, exam, etc. Sitting in a college class texting isn't much better than trying to slide by on a college comp exam.

My first academically-styled paper was in my first grad school class! I'm not going to lie, I still stress about TODAY it because I don't have the experience others have. My courses at TESC did require writing, but the bar was so low that even when stylized papers were requested, grades didn't suffer if it was just a generic citation or resource page. (I know because 100% of my papers were wrong and I was never called on it). My first grad class was at Harvard, and my professor was the department's authority on APA writing. She, literally, wrote the book on academic writing policy for the school. I did fine (A's on both small papers and an A- on our biggie), but I was highly motivated to do well. In all honesty, I do believe English 101 and 102 should probably be required, and I think as a matter of practicality, a person choosing a major with the intent of further studying that same major in grad school, should take classes in their major for many reasons- not only to practice academic writing for their field, but also to practice researching academic authorities in their field as well as getting current on the literature in their field. Spending time marinating adds value. Yes, you can cram-learn, but you can also develop intuition that comes from years of your head in the subject. My degree from TESC is in Social Science (a liberal art) so it didn't matter much, but if I'd picked a specific social science, like history or psychology, I think I would have entered grad school at a slight disadvantage. I took my grad class (psych) and I didn't even know which academic journals were considered well respected in the field vs which ones were bunk. There is a sharp learning curve, and once I got into it more, I realized I had some significant philosophical reasons for not pursuing a graduate degree in psychology- something that might have happened earlier if I'd spent a few undergrad years with my face buried in peer-reviewed journals.

[Lindagerr]

I agree with Westerner, I have never looked for just a pass in a CLEP or DSST I try to earn the equivalent of an A on everyone. i do not know anywhere they publish the grades for the equivalents but I do have the B equivalents and I have met or exceeded that on all of my exams. When I took a straighterline course I knew I would only get a pass or fail and I only needed 70%, I slacked off at the end because I was board with the subject but I still finished with 82%. When I have a course on my transcript whether through CBE online or in-seat I want to feel I have done enough work to and have enough knowledge to justify it being there. I have a 3.9 GPA from TESC and a 3.15 if you add all of my graded courses, to me that means I need to have that level of expertise in those courses.

I will admit I remember very little of the A&P I took over 30 years ago and I took that in seat. I also agree when you are going for a Major/concentration you should do at least some of your classes in-seat or on-line to give you a more well rounded knowledge in that area. I did ~95 percent of my sciences that way I only took the Natural Science and Race to save the planet CBE. I also did several CBE on teaching subjects when I planned on teaching, but I put the extra time and effort into those exams because I wanted to have a good understanding of the subject not just enough to pass.

So as said somewhere on this board just recently you get out what you put in. I am a mature aadult who has worked in science for many years I feel confident that if I get a job in that feild I will be competent. If you are a young (under 30) person and you just study enough to pass your CBE's then you may have a hard time doing the work you are hired for when the time comes.