Penn Foster questions

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I was going to take the following subjects in the form of exams (CLEP/DSST/ECE):
College Algebra
Princples of Statistics
Principles of Finance
College Writing

I'm wondering if I should go with Penn Foster instead and would like to weigh the pros and cons. I'd appreciate any feedback on the following questions:

1. How long would the equivalent courses take and would it be too much to take them all concurrently?

2. I was looking at the ACE website for credit recommendations, all of these subjects seem to be 3 credits worth, any one can confirm? I was also unable to find out if these courses would be letter graded at Excelsior?

3. Are there any drawbacks, taking these courses instead of CLEP/DSST/ECE exams, like for example being all lower level - would that be a problem for admissions into a graduate program?

I've read in one of the threads that Excelsior will take the lower level credit for the core subjects, but I'm not sure if this will affect admissions into graduate schools.

My apologies if these issues have been raised before.