03-24-2021, 01:06 PM
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)
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)
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