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This is Terry's account of how he got started at Penn Foster College, as well as his ongoing studies towards his online Marketing degree. Read about the various pitfalls of balancing homework with family, as well as his two jobs, personal life, and volunteer work.
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My studies at Penn Foster College took a back seat for a few months while I concentrated on completing my courses at Andrew Jackson University. I finished one semester at AJU and completed 9 credit hours. It was a time-consuming process that left me little time for much else. Trying to study at two different schools at the same time was just too much. It can be tricky balancing career, family, social commitments and distance learning studies. Spend too much time in one area and the others suffer. Unfortunately, I was pouring all of my time into work and studying, so family and social commitments suffered. Not good. So, how can students be effective in all areas of their life at the same time? At AJU and Penn Foster College, I go by the student handbook, which suggests it takes about 12-15 hours of studying per course, per week. That's roughly two hours per day. Since students at PFC take one course at a time, that's not unreasonable. It leaves time for work, family and other outside commitments. The next step is to pick a time of day when you have two hours free of any other commitments. Schedule this time for yourself, just like it's an appointment. Don't be late for this "appointment" and treat it like it's an important business meeting. You can't miss it. It's only two hours, and you'll have the rest of your day for whatever else it is you need to do. With that being said, it is easy to get burned out on studying. This is what happened to me recently while I was studying at AJU. I did a lesson at PFC right after finishing at AJU, and decided I really just needed to take a break for awhile. For the past month, I stepped away from my studies to focus on other areas of my life that I had neglected for about six months. Now, I'm ready to hit the books again. Time management can be a balancing act, but as long as you schedule reasonable amounts of time to study and take a break every few months (after all, even full-time college students get a break from their studies), you should be able to complete your assignments on time and avoid student burnout. Check out this handy time management tool to help locate times of the day which may be best for studying, and identify areas where you may be wasting time.
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I have noticed a lot of questions in the forums about proctored exams at Penn Foster College, and how they work. I have taken proctored exams at PFC for my first semester courses, and the proctored finals for my second semester courses are coming up soon. In order to address some of the questions I have seen here at eLearners lately, I thought I would recount my experience and let PFC students who are preparing for their first proctored exams know what to expect. One of the first things that students must do is find a proctor. According to PFC, the proctor can be anyone with at least an associate degree who is not a relative. Proctors can be employers, librarians, teachers, clergy...anyone with at least a two-year degree. I suggest checking the local public library first. That is where I found my proctor, who has a masters degree in library science. He does not charge me for proctoring my exams. You can also check your local community college's testing center to see if they offer a proctoring service. There is a nominal fee if you go this route. PFC used to pay an honorarium of about $20 to the proctor, but they no longer do this. After you have your proctor selected and finish all of your courses for the semester, PFC will send the final exams to your proctor in the mail. Your proctor will then schedule a time for you to take your exam. The exams for the three-credit-hour courses are typically an hour long. If you have a one-credit course, allot about a half hour for the final exam. If you have five, three-credit-hour courses in your semester, you can count on having five hours to take all five final exams. The proctor is directed to check your photo ID, to make sure you are the person who is supposed to take the test. The proctored finals are open-book exams, and you can also refer to your notes and your study guides. You are not allowed to use a computer or any other reference materials not supplied by Penn Foster College. The proctor is there to ensure you only use your PFC materials and notes and to enforce the time limit of the exam. Once you have finished your exams, you place them inside the envelope provided by PFC, and your proctor is responsible for mailing the exams to Penn Foster. It typically takes a week or two to receive your final grades. I never received an email to notify me my exams had been graded. I just signed in to the student portal and checked to see if I had final grades yet. If you fail an exam, you must take a makeup exam. The highest score you can receive on a makeup exam is a 70. You have one month to schedule and take the makeup exam after failing an exam. You must pass the exam with at least a 70 to pass the course, so you pretty much have to ace the makeup exam. I failed two final exams during my first semester. The exams were not easy. You MUST study for the exam, know your material and be prepared. I did pass the makeup exams with a score of 70 on each. Penn Foster College makes its students earn their grades, but you will definitely receive an education!
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I am currently working my way through the rest of my Penn Foster College courses, starting with Managerial Accounting. If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know that accounting isn't exactly my bag. In fact, I despise it. However, after careful reading and study I took my first online exam in the course and scored a 92! Not bad for a course I can't stand! The first exam covers the first four lesson assignments in the course. It was heavy on figuring out the cost of overhead in a business. There are different mathematical procedures for figuring out the various aspects of running a business. From this standpoint, the course is actually very good because it applies these procedures to real-life experiences. I don't have to figure out things like depreciation and overhead at my current job (thank God), but this is probably good information to know. If I ever move on to study in an MBA program I think this course will give me a good foundation. I have four more lesson assignments to work thorugh until I get to exam #2. After that, Penn Foster College will send me the course materials for my next course: Introduction to Literature. I feel like things are finally moving along at PFC.
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I haven't posted to this blog very frequently over the past few months. As you may know, I was also studying with Andrew Jackson University at the same time I was taking courses at Penn Foster College. The course load just proved to be too much. I had to concentrate on my studies at AJU in order to finish by the semester deadline, and that was with the extension. Now, I have have finished the semester at AJU, with all A's I might add, and can now concentrate on finishing this semester at PFC. The last exam I took at PFC was back in December, and I had to pay for another extension, so it's another race agains the clock for me. I have three courses to finish at PFC: Managerial Accounting, Introduction to Literature and Introduction to Computers. I am now back to my course work in the accounting class, and it's hard revisting something I haven't really touched in a few months. I have given myself of deadline of finishing the accounting course over the next 2-3 weeks, so I can move on to the next course and bang out the work I need to complete this semester. After that, I will transfer all of my coursework to one of the "Big Three" schools, most likely Excelsior College. I believe I am fairly close to the number of credits I need to finish my BA. It has been a four year journey so far, but I can finally see the end in sight!
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I paid $75 for another six month extension on my second, and final, semester at Penn Foster College. I am still working my way through the Managerial Accounting course. Part of the reason for my procrastination in finishing this course is that I absolutely hate accounting. I'm not alone. My brother-in-law actually has a bachelor's degree in accounting. He is, however, not currently working as an accountant. He worked as an accountant for about a year, and said it was the most boring year of his life. He is currenlty working for a temp agency, doing various office duties. I do have a vested interest in finishing my remaining three courses at Penn Foster College. These are courses that I will eventully need to transfer to my BA in Communications program at Andrew Jackson University. At the time, PFC didn't offer bachelor degree programs, otherwise I may have considered staying the course with PFC. The beginning of the Managerial Accounting course mainly consisted of reading assignments, but now I am getting into the portion of the course that requires work on balance sheets, and there is a math component to this. Remembering how to fill out the balance sheet is my main obstacle to working my way through this course at a faster pace. Personally, when I am working on a course I do not like, I find the best way to get through it is to do it as quickly as possible, and just get it over and done with. Doing that, and getting good grades at the same time, well...that's a different story. I am hoping to keep increasing my grade point average at PFC so it doesn't drag down my GPA when I transfer the courses to AJU. Back to the grind.
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