The official guide to courses by Straighterline, Study, et al: We want YOUR input!

[Kones]

Provider:  Study.com
Course: CS-302 Systems Analysis & Design
Score: 87%
Course content: Videos and text lessons. 74 quizzes of 5 questions each. One paper of 2000 words minimum. Final exam of 70 multiple choice questions.
Final exam format: Final exam of 70 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Unlike the first two Study.com courses I took, this final had a fair number of questions that were not taken directly from the end of lesson quizzes. I got a 90% on the practice final, but only 74% on the proctored final. In a thread elsewhere on the forum, another user pointed out something similar regarding this course, and they suggested taking the practice final two or three times, in order to see more of the test bank questions. I should have followed that advice.
Time taken on course: About 14 hours over the course of 7 days.
Familiarity with subject before course: Zero previous familiarity with any of the subject matter.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: See above regarding final exam. This was was a somewhat difficult course, instead of the breeze that I thought it would be. I read all the lessons before doing the quizzes, and still missed quite a bit on the final. The assignment for this course initially also felt quite ambiguous. What I ultimately did was treated the paper as if I were the owner of a custom software development company, and I formatted the whole thing as a service proposal. I'd also suggest copying and pasting the verbiage they provide for steps 1-7 of the systems analysis design process underneath the "Writing the Report" heading, and following that guide to a "T". Be sure to cover the exact questions and prompts covered in that verbiage. This results in a longer and more detailed paper than what you'd do if you followed the grading rubric, but you'll wind up with a better score.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6 - definitely more difficult than I went into it thinking it would be. Probably easier if you have project management experience our coursework. These management planning topics are very nebulous to my brain, compared to something like a finance, accounting, science, or engineering type of course.

I just finished this course and had the exact same experience. The final felt like a curve ball and I barely passed despite getting in the 80's on multiple practice exams. I also agree on how vague the assignment was. I truly had no idea if I was giving them what they were looking for. I did something similar to what you did and first copied and pasted all 7 of the steps and descriptions from the assignment, answered the questions to fill out my report (while also referencing the rubric) from the perspective of a consultant, and then deleted the descriptions. I think formatting also went a long way as it was commented on by my grader, so I would recommend brushing up on APA. I used Purdue's OWL APA format guide and was very strict, using appropriate headings and levels to organize the 7 steps. I also added a simple flowchart, which I don't think was necessary, but was commented on by my grader, so it was nice touch that I'm sure helped my grade a bit. The assignment has a 2,000 minimum word requirement which I found tough to meet and I felt like I just kept adding fluff. In the end I scored a 94 out of 100 on the report, which I'm sure saved my butt since I did so poorly on the final exam.