Tag: DSST examinations

The Secret to College: Credit By Exam

For most scholars, the path to earning credit typically involves several weeks of paying attention to lessons, writing down notes, finishing projects and passing a mid-term and final examination. But if you could generate that credit in less time and at a portion of the cost of getting an official course, would you be interested? There would be no projects to finish and no lessons or classes to attend, just an examination to pass. Students looking for a more efficient model to generate a degree should consider credit by exam programs, which have become well-known among those who want to speed up their pace and save money.

“Credit-by-exam programs have been used for years and keep growing today because they offer real value to students and allow them to finish degree requirements more efficiently than getting traditional programs,” mentioned Marc Singer, vice provost of the Center for the Assessment of Learning at Thomas Edison State College, which recently arranged several of its credit by exam programs with open programs to create new routes for students to generate credit. Nearly 3,000 universities in the U.S. accept credit by exam as transfer credit. The programs allow students to get credit by passing a single examination and tend to be an excellent fit for independent students, students who possess college-level knowledge and students who are excellent test takers.

Credit by exam programs is not for everyone, especially students who choose an organized environment and getting a lecturer and other students. Deciding to get college credit by preparing for an examination that covers a semester’s worth of content means you have to be self-motivated and regimented. This approach attracts many busy adult students who have competitive demands on their time and who want to work individually. Two of the most well-known credit-by-exam programs in the U.S. are the College Level Examination Program (CLEP exams) and DSST examinations. “Students considering credit-by-exam programs should talk with their academic consultant to make sure credits from the examination they are planning to take can be passed to satisfy a requirement in their degree program,” said Singer.

DSST Credit by Exam

While the DSST program offers a total of 37 examinations in unique subject matter, the 10 examination titles releasing with new material are: Substance Abuse, Introduction to Computing, Ethics in America, Criminal Justice, Personal Finance, Management Information Systems, Here’s to Your Health, Fundamentals of College Algebra, Principles of Statistics and Introduction to World Religions. A rejuvenated practice examination is also available for each title.

Regular material up-dates keep the DSST examinations certified with the extensive requirements of the American Council on Education (ACE), which suggests the examinations for credit, as well as appropriate to applicants and arranged university classes. It also increases the security and reliability of the examinations through protection of item overexposure.

“The universities that agree to DSST credits do so based on the capability of the examinations to coordinate up with certain course specifications, and this positioning is crucial to the success of the DSST program,” said Jean Steinke, DSST Senior Product Planner at Prometric. “College directors, giving programs and learners should be confident that the topic and material of all DSST examinations are indicative of course material and representative of a progressed level of information in any of the topic.”

Almost any adult who has gone back to school is familiar with credit by exam programs that allow them to earn college credit for life experience. The DSST program is Prometric’s exclusive program of 37 examinations while attending college subject matter such as Social Sciences, Math, Applied Technology, Business, Physical Sciences and Humanities. Learners who take and pass a DSST examination are given college credit applied toward their degree. DSST examinations are applied by more than 1,200 universities, colleges and military facilities globally and are recommended for school credit by the American Council on Education (ACE). Close to 2000 universities offer course credit for a passing grade on the DSSTs. Providing a simple and fast way for current or future students of any age to “short cut” their degree program by saving them the time of having to sit in a class and the money of having to pay for it by taking the credit by exam route.