Pursuing a BA

[LookinAhead]

I went to Excelsior, not UMPI, and I created a spreadsheet using their catalog to gather the requirements and I used a website “Bain4weeks.com” (a great piece of history for us, but no longer current in details) to help me plan and map CLEPs and DSSTs to requirements. Unfortunately, I no longer have the spreadsheet; it was on a work computer and I'm no longer at that job. At that time the choice, practically, was Excelsior, Thomas Edison, or Charter Oak, and UMPI had not yet created their YourPace program. Excelsior had a very liberal transfer policy (still does, just not as liberal), plus it was featured prominently in a well-known book that inspired me to do this. For UMPI, this thread https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-for-3-222 and an associated wiki page https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI should be useful for you.
 
I took CLEPs at my local university. Here’s a search tool: https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep-test-center-search
I understand it’s now possible to take CLEPs remotely. I sort of enjoy the ritual of testing at the center. I also enjoy taking exams (it’s sick, I know) but if I were starting over, I would probably try to use Sophia or Study.com as much as possible.
 
Some general tips:

• If you struggle with or are rusty on math or with academic writing take them early. Procrastinating math bit me.
  
• You can speed up your comprehension of any new subject by reading about it or the “feeder” subjects on Wikipedia. 
  
• Open textbooks are useful when reading the info from another source helps cement understanding. https://openstax.org Many subjects have YouTube videos.
  
• Several courses share learning (and in the case of Study.com, they even share lessons) and build on one another. This means there’s a logical progression. A business major should study Social Science general education prior to taking related business subjects. Intro Sociology and Intro Psych both feed Principes of Management, Principes of Supervision, and Human Resources, and all these feed into Organizational Behavior. 
  
• The two Principles of Economics feed Accounting and Finance.
  
• If you are inclined to take Philosophy, take Philosophy before Business Ethics.  
  
• Business Law is one of the harder “easy” classes and there’s not really anything that leads into it, so plan on a lot of vocabulary study. Principles of Marketing, similarly, is a lot of vocabulary and for me was easier to study after Principles of Management, because for me it was easier to stay interested in marketing once I could see it as a strategic activity. Studying Intro to Business (which I skipped) might have made that transition easier as it’s a sampler of the entire business curriculum.
  

The way I understand it the key to getting through UMPI YourPace and other CBE programs quickly is a hard sprint at the end. I would think that’s not for everyone, and possibly not for every subject. I’m considering UMPI for their MS in Business, and while I think I could do the core business topics in one session, the Business Intel subjects, being more new learning, would probably extend to a second session. If I wanted to study in an area (such as Humanities subjects for example) for enjoyment or for “bettering myself”, I would take it slower. I guess that seems obvious, but 30 credits in one UMPI session is going to be a challenge, and a reality check about that (as well as thinking strategically about how to accomplish it) before committing might be beneficial. I found metacognition (thinking about my thinking) and figuring out how to get through the degree itself turned out to be a major learning accomplishment beyond "checking the box" that I apply on the job and in life. 

I hope some of this is helpful.

Phillip

I just realized I hadn't responded, sorry! This was very helpful, thank you Phillip!