My Penn Foster College Experience

Getting Back Into the Groove

tcord1964 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:04:00 GMT

You know how it is when you go on vacation. You take off for a few days, have a great time, and when you get back to work you really have to force yourself to get back into the groove. Well, getting back into your studies is a lot like that, too.

My wife and I took off for a few days this past weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We spent some time at a casino (we broke even), ate some great food and had a relaxing weekend with no kids in sight. We took a break from everything, including studying.

Now that we are back home, our responsibilities are back with a vengeance. I have had to work extra hours at the office to catch up on what I missed while I was gone. My wife has had more household chores to do than usual, including a grocery shopping trip which took several hours. I have been catching up on some sales training for my job. My Financial Accounting course? I haven’t looked at it in days. I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit of guilt.

That’s how it is when you are studying a completely self-paced course. It can be hard to stay on track. Nobody is going to hold your feet to the fire to make sure you are doing the work you are supposed to be doing and moving through it at a satisfactory pace. It is completely up to you to remain motivated.

So far, I would say that has been my biggest challenge since I started studying with Penn Foster College. I am determined to earn my degree, but there are things that come up which serve as road blocks to my study progress, unless I plan for them, set a strict study schedule and stick to it. Procrastination is a killer in a self-paced program.

Now that I am caught up on my work at the office, I can turn my attention to my studies once again. I plan to go back to my schedule of reading a chapter a night. If I manage to stick to it, I should be able to get through the rest of my course in a couple of weeks.

While I’m at it, perhaps I can find a distance learning course on self motivation. After taking a few days off, I could use it!

Add to:

I'm Struggling on Account of Accounting

tcord1964 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:59:00 GMT

I am slowly making my way through the second lesson in my Financial Accounting course at Penn Foster College…emphasis on the word “slowly”. I’m the kind of person that isn’t motivated by material in which I have no genuine interest, and Financial Accounting certainly fits that bill.

I have been trying to immerse myself in this course and pick up on what the textbook and study guide are trying to teach me, but I just don’t…well, get it. I have also looked up some additional resource online to try to get a grasp on this course. That has helped…a little. My concern isn’t so much being able to pass the online unit exams. I proved with Lesson One that I can pass those exams even though I don’t have a clue what I’m doing in this course.

No, my main concern is that eventually I will have to take the proctored exam in this course, and I will most certainly have to know what I am doing when I sit for that exam. Hitting the books harder isn’t an issue. I’m hitting them now, but not much is sticking in the “skull full of mush.”

Meanwhile, I am trying to rack up some more general education credits by studying for the Natural Sciences CLEP exam. A passing score on this exam will net six credits for me. That isn’t a requirement for the Marketing program at Penn Foster. I’m looking ahead to my bachelors degree, and I will need the science credits. I hope to take this exam at the end of April.

I’ve been studying the “Cracking the CLEP” study guide, as well as a great web site I found at Biology4Kids.com. Yes, the web site is for kids, and there are links to similar sites about astronomy, chemistry, Earth Science and physics. The reason I like these sites is because it covers all the info that will show up in the Natural Sciences CLEP exam, but it is explained in the simplest way possible. If you have problems grasping the concepts of cell function or cell structure, you won’t find a better resource which literally explains it so a 10-year-old would understand it.

Besides, it’s more fun than Financial Accounting.

Add to:

So, Where Did You Go To School?

tcord1964 — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:15:00 GMT

As I have mentioned before, most everyone I work with at my job has a college degree. Many of my co-workers have at least a bachelor’s degree, but there are some who have a master’s and even a doctorate degree. Me? I’m still working on obtaining my associate’s degree.

Has this held me back at my job? I don’t think so. In fact, whenever we have trivia contests at work, I usually win. However, I work alongside some incredibly bright and, in most cases, younger people. Not having a degree weighs heavily on my mind, even if it isn’t mentioned by anybody at work. I don’t go out of my way to tell anyone I don’t have a degree, but I certainly don’t lie about it, either.

We have a lot of clients who visit us at the office, and one of the most common, and dreaded, questions I hear is “so, where did you go to school?” I literally cringe every time I’m asked. I simply reply with the name of a brick-and-mortar school I once attended. I did not graduate because I had to leave school to support my family. I also didn’t have the funds to continue with my education at that time. I’m not asked “which school did you graduate from?” I’m asked “where did you go to school?” I’m answering their question honestly, but at the same time I know what they are really implying. They want to know which school gave me my degree, and I don’t have one.

After I complete my associate’s degree from Penn Foster College, will I proudly proclaim my alma mater when someone asks me where I went to school? I’m really not sure. On the one hand, I’ll actually be able to name a school which gave me a degree. On the other hand, I’ll be admitting I merely have an associate’s degree. When it comes to working in a professional environment, image is everything.

My employer is aware of my educational status because I do not embellish my resume. I’m completely honest and I clearly stated I was working toward a marketing degree from Penn Foster College (at the time it was called Education Direct). Still, I usually remain silent when co-workers talk about where they went to school and where they earned their degree.

Someday, I will be able to proudly proclaim an alma mater for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. I can’t wait. It will be a great day, indeed.

Add to:

I Passed?! How Did That Happen?

tcord1964 — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:12:00 GMT

I took my first unit exam in my Financial Accounting course at Penn Foster College. I have to be honest, there were times during the exam that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. It really doesn’t matter that this exam is open-book, because the examples in the book didn’t help me that much. Still, I did the best I could and kept my fingers crossed as I hit the “submit” button. My score: 80! It’s not great, but it’s a passing grade, and I’ll take it!

I got 5 questions out of 25 incorrect. The final portion of my exam required me to prepare journal entries for a business, as well as an adjusted trial balance, an income statement and a statement of retained earnings. I never did get my adjusted trial balance to, well…balance. As a result, I could not get the other statements to give me the proper answers, either. I just got as close as I could to one of the answers in the multiple choice selections and went with it. As a result, I only got one wrong in this section. Still, this will not serve me well when I get to the final proctored exam.

Thinking that maybe I was just too slow to pick up on Financial Accounting, I later went to a message board for Penn Foster College students and looked up “Financial Accounting”. It seems I’m not the only one who has had trouble with this course. Many other students, some of them who are accountants with years of experience, said they also had a tough time figuring it out. So, it’s not just me.

I think there should be an introductory accounting course before students get to Financial Accounting. The Math for Business and Finance Course does not prepare students for the Financial Accounting course, and this course doesn’t seem like an introductory course to me. I have also been looking up some supplemental material online to just give me the basics of accounting in “plain English”. I did find a good resource at quickmba.com, although I may also look for an “Accounting for Dummies” book, too. I certainly feel dumb as I struggle through this course.

I’m taking Easter off before I hit the books for my next assignment. Only three more exams to go.

Add to:

I've Been Kicked Out of School!

tcord1964 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:43:00 GMT

I received an interesting email today. It notified me that I have been withdrawn from university due to a lack of course completion during the last 12 months. It also told me that if I wished to re-enroll I can do so by submitting a readmission form. The email ended by saying that they “hope to see me back in class.”

This email wasn’t sent by Penn Foster College, where I am a student. It was sent by American Military University. I had completely forgotten that I had submitted an application to the school about a year ago, back when I was thinking of transferring my Penn Foster College credits to another school and then completing my bachelor’s degree. The great thing about AMU is there is no application fee, you can submit your application online, and you receive a response and a student ID number almost immediately.

In the end, I decided that $250 per credit hour was more than I wanted to pay at the time, and that I would continue studying with Penn Foster College in a program which costs me about $55 per credit hour. I did spend some time in the AMU student portal, reading through information about how the school operates. It looked like a fine program, and who knows…I may actually enroll and become a student at AMU one day.

As for my “lack of course completion”, I never paid for nor signed up for any courses, so the “lack of course completion” email doesn’t hurt my feelings too much. It’s kind of hard to get kicked out of a class that you never signed up for in the first place. I am sure if I decided to “re-enroll” at AMU, they would welcome me back. After all, I am a military veteran…their target student.

Now, if Penn Foster College had sent me an email saying I had been withdrawn from the college, I’d have a real problem. Right now, my only problem is working my way through Financial Accounting!

Add to: