My Penn Foster College Experience : CLEP

Narrative Essay: Done!

tcord1964 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:02:00 GMT

Well, I finally did it. I finished my Narrative Essay. I have to admit, it wasn’t easy. I struggled with this thing through writer’s block, extended work hours at my job, traveling out of town for work and dealing with some issues at home.

I’m actually quite pleased with the assignment that I turned in. It came in at just under 1,200 words for a recap of my wife’s audition for the television game show “Deal or No Deal.” Some parts were funny and rather sarcastic. Now I’m hoping that the instructor grading it will find it amusing.

This leaves me with two more assignments for the English Composition course, and for the semester. My next lesson is the Reflective Writing essay, followed by the Persuasive Writing essay which also doubles as the final exam for the English Composition course. I hope to get through the next two assignments rather quickly in an attempt to finish as close to the end of this month as possible. It will take three weeks to grade each assignment, so I don’t want too much time to go by between the time I finish this course and the date of my final exams.

I haven’t had much time to study for the CLEP exams I also plan to take next month. I’m up for a promotion at my job and I’ll be busy preparing for the selection process, so the CLEPs will have to be put on the back burner for now. I haven’t actually scheduled my exam date yet, so it’s not like I have a firm deadline to meet for these tests.

I’m eager to wrap up the semester and get my transcripts transferred to my next school, which I haven’t selected yet. Between the CLEP exams and the 17 credits worth of courses I have taken at Penn Foster College, I should pretty much have my BA wrapped up. I may have to take a few upper division level exams our courses, but I don’t think that will take long to finish at all. I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Add to:

A Busy Little Saturday

tcord1964 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:53:00 GMT

I’m a big fan of movies. Specifically, I’m a big fan of comedies. One of my favorites is the movie “Old School”. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a group of middle-age guys who start their own fraternity even though they aren’t going to college. In one of the funniest scenes of the movie, some college students attending a party at the home of one of the middle-age guys tries to get one of them to take part in a drinking game.

“No,” says the responsible older guy “my wife and I have a big day planned for tomorrow.”

“A big day? What are you doing?” ask the college students.

“Well, we have a busy little Saturday planned, really. We’re going to Home Depot, maybe Bed, Bath and Beyond. I don’t know…we may not have enough time.”

If only my weekend were going to be that exciting.

First, I’ve got to wrap up my Narrative essay. Yes, I’m still working on that thing, but the good news is I’m almost done, will polish it this weekend and email it to my instructor by Monday. Then, I’ve got to go to the library tomorrow and arrange for a proctor for my final exams. I’ve also got to start cramming for my final exams because it has been so long since I have even looked at some of this material. I’m also studying for two different CLEP exams, which I’ve been neglecting lately. I plan to take the Natural Science and Social Science and History general exams. My plan is to take them both in one sitting.

I may be trying to accomplish too much in such a short span of time, but at the very least I have to finish the essay and arrange my proctor. It’s getting down to the end of the semester for me at Penn Foster College, and I hope to take my final exams sometime before the end of July. With any luck, I will have transcripts in hand and be ready to transfer to another school within two to three months to finish my BA.

I’m still not decided on my next school, but my focus right now has to be on finishing up with Penn Foster. I’m looking at either Charter Oak State College or Thomas Edison State College, but I’ll address that once I get my grades on my semester finals.

Yep, it will be a busy little Saturday.

Add to:

ACE your classes

tcord1964 — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:15:00 GMT

One of the things that convinced me to enroll at Penn Foster College rather than another nationally-accredited school is the fact that many of the courses in Penn Foster’s degree programs are reviewed by the American Council on Education, or ACE. The vast majority of colleges and universities, including those that are regionally-accredited, follow the ACE recommendations for credit transfers. That means that even though Penn Foster College is nationally-accredited, many of the courses in its degree programs will transfer to a regionally-accredited college. That’s often not the case for other nationally-accredited institutions which do not have their courses reviewed by ACE.

ACE also reviews workplace and military training programs and recommends many of them for college-level credit when transferred to an institution of higher learning. For example, my Navy boot camp and military journalism training is good for nearly 90 credit hours. Workplace training courses at companies like IBM and Home Depot have also been evaluated for college-level credit.

I was curious about how many of my first-semester courses at Penn Foster had actually been reviewed by ACE, so I checked it out. You can find the credit recommendations at www.acenet.edu/nationalguide . You have to register to use the national guide, but it is free and easy to obtain.

It turns out that all but two of my first semester courses are reviewed by ACE. The one-credit Information Literacy and Penn Foster’s English Composition courses are not evaluated for college level credit, according to ACE. I plan to get around this by taking the English Composition w/essay CLEP exam immediately after I take the Penn Foster course. CLEP exams are accepted by nearly every college and university, although many of them do place limits on the amount of CLEP credit they will accept.

This means that once I finish the first semester at Penn Foster College and pass the end-of-semester proctored examination, I will have 14 credit hours from Penn Foster which can be transferred when I (eventually) advance to another college for my bachelor degree.

ACE also has a transcript service which will compile all of your ACE-evaluated college courses and training programs onto one transcript. ACE can then release your transcript to any college at any time once you apply for admission. This is much easier than trying to track down multiple transcripts from several sources.

I have found ACE to be a very important, yet often overlooked, resource for the adult learner. If you are considering pursuing studies as an adult student, you should definitely try to ACE your previous training and courses.

Add to: