Earn a College Degree >$5,000(AP/CLEP/DSST fees & Textbooks)
Updated 12/2015
World Mentoring Academysupports students with 180+ Credit-by-Examination courses, the other 620 courses can be used to Challenge courses at your University.
How to accelerate your degree completion through transfers and test-outs and complete your degree for as little as $5,000-$10,000 from scratch. Also, tests can be taken by students at virtually any age, so parents get your kids started! There are quite a few high school students who are planning to complete associate's or even bachelor's degrees by the time they graduate high school!
There are currently three Universities(Regionally accredited) that allow you to transfer in all 120 credits towards a bachelor's degree & also have Masters programs: Thomas Edison State College(TESC), Excelsior College(EC), and Charter Oak State College(COSC). The Big 3 schools are tailored to adult learners seeking a degree for career or personal enhancement. Don't worry, these aren't diploma mills, two of them are state schools. These schools specialize in providing education opportunities to busy, working adults who may have a collection of credits or creditable experience from multiple sources. Thanks to their generous policies it is possible to earn a bachelor's degree without taking a single college class. As long as you know how to do it, understand the policies, and are willing to put in the work, that is.
The following publishers typically create study guides for CLEP guides and/or DSST guides exams, or their books may otherwise match up very well with the content from these exams.
Collegeboard
REA
Comex
Barron's Business Review Series
Cliff Notes
Spark Notes
At World Mentoring Academy, course textbooks have link to Amazon, use this link to get the right textbook for your courses (WMA gets a small commission at no extra cost too you).
HippoCampus - free instructional videos in different general ed subjects.
Homeschool College USA - " designed for homeschooling high school students who would like to tailor their courses toward using college-level exams to earn college credits while completing their high school studies". Useful information for traditional high school students and others as well.
InstantCert Academy - flashcards for most CLEP and DSST exams, plus a couple of TECEP. Costs $20/month subscription, which allows access to Specific Exam Feedback section of DegreeForum. Many DF members have found both the flashcards and the Feedback section to be invaluable in passing their exams.
iTunes U for (some) entire course lectures (video and/or audio)
Khan Academy - several video series covering various topics in science, math, business, art history, and social science.
LearnersTV - college lectures consolidated in one place
OpenStax College - free online textbooks (available Spring 2012) for some general ed subjects.
Quizlet - flashcards & study games for most general ed subjects.
Saylor Foundation - free courses with videos, lecture notes, etc. on most general ed subjects; free Flat World Knowledge textbooks are available here in many different subjects.
SparkNotes - outlines and study guides for most general ed subjects.
The Whole Ed Catalog has a ginormous list of study guides for CLEP, DSST, and TECEP exams.
OpenCulture - provides a list of over 400 freely available full-course lectures online. Most of these are provided through OpenCourseWare or similar arrangements.
Courses
ACT (online courses normally for licensed teachers offered by a private company partnered with California State University, Monterey Bay Extension. There are unconfirmed reports that anyone can register for these courses and they might transfer to the Big 3 for undergraduate credit. Check with you school before enrolling. See this discussion for more. Cost is $110/credit.)
ALEKS (an adaptive AI engine for learning college algebra through pre-calculus; cost is $20/month)
Coursera (ACE-approved courses that cost approximately $150-200 and have proctored final exams; 4 courses have approval for college credit as of 2/8/13. See this discussion for more.)
FEMA (free ACE-approved online courses; normally are used for Free Electives at the Big 3)
National Fire Academy (free ACE-approved courses, normally are used for Free Electives at the Big 3)
Penn Foster College (a nationally accredited school with some transferrable credits to the Big 3, as long as they are ACE-approved; courses are usually under $300 which includes textbooks and materials)
Propero (ACE-approved courses with format like that of Straighterline; cost is $299 each)
Straighterline (ACE-approved courses with proctored final exams that transfer to many partner colleges, including all of the Big 3; cost is $99/month subscription plus $49/course - science labs have additional costs)
WorkWorld Learning (ACE-approved self-paced online courses, with unconfirmed reports of unproctored final exams; cost is $540/course)
Distance Learning: Community Colleges (take a class at your local or online CC, transfer it in to the Big 3, as long as the CC is regionally accredited and the course is applicable to your degree plan)
Distance Learning: 4-Year Colleges (any regionally accredited college course will transfer, as long as it is applicable to your degree plan)
Other courses that are reviewed and approved by ACE orNCCRS.
Oklahoma's Promise pays the cost of ALL tuition for enrollment at a public Oklahoma college or university. It pays a portion of these costs for students that wish to attend a private school, as well as for courses at certain public technology centers.
East Tennesse State - Free courses with letter of competition. Univ credit option $300/course.
State University, Dominguez Hills - allows high school students in California to enroll in two university courses through distance learning each semester and earn up to six units of college credit for only $3.50
University of Alaska - Fairbanks Center for Distance Education- $154/credit at 100/200 level; $187/credit at 300/400 level; $372/credit at 500/600 level; extra fees apply. No residency requirement and courses may be taken for a semester or through a whole year.
Western New Mexico University - $179/credit for out-of-state residents for 6 credits per semester. Lower Level and Upper Level courses available. FAFSA eligible.
Math
Education Portal - free videos and quizzes for the math CLEP exams.
Khan Academy -- 3500+ free videos on many topics, mostly math, grade school through linear algebra
learner.org -- "Against All Odds - Inside Statistics"
Mathway.com - good resource for seeing how math problems are solved.
Purplemath - excellent resource for help in learning different math subjects.
Reddit -- "Here, there are no stupid questions asked, only stupid people who don't ask questions."
West Texas A&M's Virtual Math Lab -- College Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, Beginning Algebra, Math for the Sciences, or preparing for the math part of the general GRE, THEA or ACCUPLACER test.
Military Service, Professional Licenses & Misc. Training
LearningCounts (Prior Learning Assessments allow you to obtain college credit for knowledge, experience or non-credit training courses you've taken; cost is $379 for initial 12 credits, $250 for each additional 12 credits. See this discussion for more. NOTE: According this article , as 1/15/13 ACE is no longer being used but LearningCounts is partnering with several colleges and universities as well as plans on using NCCRS for credit approval. See their website for more details.)
Professional licences and certifications can be worth college credit at some schools. Always check with your school's policies to see if they are accepted and how they will transfer in. Examples:
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