StraighterLine Courses Authorized For AP Test Prep - StraighterLine

StraighterLine Courses Authorized For AP Test Prep - StraighterLine

Blog Moved

New content for this blog will be updated at the StraighterLine Blog now at a new site. Come by and check it out and leave us a comment.

The Art of Being a Good Student . . .

How to Beef Up Your Study Skills

Once upon a time, educators believed that people were either “good students” or “bad students.”

Good students found it easy to absorb information and pass tests about it.

Bad students found it hard to soak up information and pass tests about it.

Some educators foolishly believed that the ability to study efficiently was an indicator of intelligence – that good students were smarter than bad students.

Then all that changed. Psychologists realized that studying wasn’t directly tied to intelligence. They started to understand that some very intelligent people simply lacked specific study skills that could be taught.

So, what are good study skills? Here are some simple approaches that we recommend to our students at StraighterLine.

First, Learn to Read More Effectively

Does your mind wander when you have to read a long passage? If so, your reading skills need a quick tune-up. Here are some steps to take:

First, minimize distractions. Find a quiet place where you can read and concentrate.

Second, get an overview of your reading selection by skimming it. Pay special attention to chapter titles, subheads and boldface text. After you skim, you’ll have a good idea about what your reading selection is all about.

Third, dig a little deeper by skimming the first and last sentences of each paragraph to discover the main ideas they contain. Make notes in the margins or highlight important information or ideas.

Fourth, read each paragraph or short section more closely. As you do, identify its main idea and supporting arguments. Again, make notes or use a highlighter.

Fifth, retell the information to yourself or to someone else. When you explain aloud the main idea and supporting arguments, you cement the information in your mind.

Sixth, review what you have read, and the notes you took, every few days.

Seventh, reflect about the material. Try to see how it fits into the bigger picture of the subject or course that you are studying.

Second, Learn to Take Notes More Effectively

Whether you are taking notes on online course materials, lectures, or reading assignments, here are some steps to success:

Write the main ideas larger than the supporting ideas. (Or underline them, or write them all in capital letters.) This technique helps you remember the big ideas and makes it easier for you to review them later on when you study your notes.

Leave lots of white space. Cluttered notes are overwhelming and harder to read.

Make a separate outline that summarizes your notes. It should clarify the main points and supporting information.

Write in your margins or highlight important ideas. The idea is to make the most important material stand out from surrounding information.


Related Posts
The Other SAT (StraighterLine Aptitude Test)
3 Classic Study Strategies that Speed Online Learning
Why Online Study Takes the Risk Out Of Learning

Related Training
College for $99 a Month
Online College Algebra Course
English Composition Online Course
Macroeconomics Online Course
Online Accounting Course

The Other SAT (StraighterLine Aptitude Test)

If you’ve been paying attention to the posts on this blog, you know that we took a swipe recently – a BIG swipe – at the stranglehold that the Scholastic Aptitude Test has on American higher education.

What can we offer as an alternative? In the interest of fair play, we are offering up an SAT of our own – the StraighterLine Aptitude Test. So sharpen up your pencil, put fresh AAA’s in your calculator and here we go . . .

MATH SECTION

1. A small state college charges $250 per credit hour and requires you to take a minimum of four courses a semester, each carrying three credit hours. At StraighterLine, you can take those same four courses for $39 apiece*. Your total savings for taking those four courses at StraighterLine would be:
a) $150
b) $2,844
c) $39,965
d) All of the above
*after paying $99/month for as long as you are enrolled; that sum is not included in the calculations for this question.

WRITING SECTION

2. Paying an extra $2,844 to earn 12 college credits could only be described as ______.
a) Insane
b) Irrational
c) Irresponsible
d) All of the above

READING SECTION

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows it.

Given the current recession, families are becoming belligerent when faced with rising college expenses that can often rise to $40,000, $50,000 or even more in the current educational arena.

3. In the above passage, the word “belligerent” (line 1) most closely means:
a) Angry
b) Hostile
c) Argumentative
d) All of the above

ESSAY SECTION

Read the following quote from a recent article in BusinessWeek:

“The idea of some kind of open-source, online, low-cost revolution in education has become a lit fuse, sparking and crackling its way toward an explosion. Here and there, in places ranging from Silicon Valley to Indonesia, a few bold universities and entrepreneurs are taking pokes at the concept. Start-ups such as StraighterLine . . . are offering online courses for college credit for hundreds of dollars, compared with thousands of dollars at most universities.”

Assignment: Write an essay that answers the question, “Is there ever a justification for spending a minimum of $2,844 to pay for four college courses, when you can save that amount at StraighterLine for the same four courses?" Support your viewpoint with personal observations and supporting material of your choice.

How to Submit Your Score

Not all colleges will accept the Straighterline Aptitude Test in place of the standard SAT. But we will! Contact us now to find out how to get started.

Answer key:
Question 1: B
Question 2: D
Question 3: D

Related Posts
The Final Four: Why It Costs More to Sit in the Stands than it Costs to Earn College Credits
Breaking the SAT’s Choke Hold on American Education
3 Classic Study Strategies that Speed Online Learning
Why Online Study Takes the Risk Out Of Learning

Related Training
College for $99 a Month
Online College Algebra Course
English Composition Online Course
Macroeconomics Online Course
Online Accounting Course

The Final Four: Why It Costs More to Sit in the Stands than it Costs to Earn College Credits

Which costs less – attending college basketball games or earning college credits?

Okay, that’s a trick question. But before you answer it, here’s some perspective. Let’s say that you’d like to head out to Indianapolis to watch the men’s NCAA Final Four, or off to San Antonio to watch the women’s. Good for you, but you’d better bring suitcases full of money.

If you visit the NCAA’s Website and click on the “buy tickets now” tab, you will find a variety of packages that let you reserve game tickets and hotel rooms. (These packages are not sold by the NCAA, but by sports travel packagers.) And guess what? If you are traveling alone, you will have to pay about $2,500 for a package that includes a five day/four night stay in a hotel and tickets to the games. If you are traveling in a group of four and you don’t mind bunking with your friends, you can cut that cost to about $1,500 apiece. Those rates don’t include airfare – but they do include hotel breakfasts and a lanyard for each member of your party. (Hopefully, a pretty nice lanyard.)

If you compare those sums to the cost of earning college credits at StraighterLine, you will find that earning college credits really does cost a lot less than basketball tickets. At StraighterLine, you can take as many online college courses as you like for $39 apiece after paying a monthly fee of $99 for as long as you are enrolled in the program.

With the money you save, you can become a college student instead of just watching them run around in short pants. You can also use the money to buy a flat-screen TV to watch the NCAA finals. And after those expenditures, you’ll still have money left to buy lanyards for all your friends.

So think about it. StraighterLine is an extraordinary bargain.


Related Posts
How Distance Learners Can Make College Rock
Why Online Study Takes the Risk Out Of Learning
Can the U.S. Government Help You Pay for College?
How to Beat the Hidden (and Very High) Costs of Applying to College

Related Training
College for $99 a Month
Online College Algebra Course
English Composition Online Course
Macroeconomics Online Course
Online Accounting Course

Breaking the SAT’s Choke Hold on American Education

Did you know that the first Scholastic Aptitude Test was administered way back in 1901?

Fewer than 1,000 students took it that year. Over the years, the SAT grown from a psychological experiment into a test that is taken by between 1.5 and 2 million students every year, at $45 a pop. Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organization that administers the SAT, doesn’t like to tell how many students line up to take the test annually.

The SAT has become a staggering money-maker for ETS, and for dozens of other businesses that swim alongside it like those remora fish that swim next to sharks, scavenging the dollars that ETS has somehow let slip through its jagged teeth. These hangers-on include tutoring companies that charge jumbo fees to coach students to take the test. Also, publishers that churn out new manuals every year on how to ace the test. Plus, software companies that sell packages designed to help kids boost their scores.

And let’s not forget there is another test, the ACT, has entered the field of battle too. The ACT is administered by a nonprofit organization. It was planned as a rational alternative to the SAT. Good idea! But the bottom line is, students still have to pay $32 to take it – or $47 if they opt for the longer version that includes a writing section. And many students today are taking both tests, just to see how they do.

Just how much money are students feeding into this educational meat grinder every year? Again, it’s anybody’s guess. But even if only 1.5 million kids are paying $45 apiece to take the SAT, that alone is stuffing $67.5 million into ETS’s coffers. And that’s just the foundation under all the SAT-spawned businesses. In total, the profits generated from this one test probably come close to the GNP of a third-world country.

It all begs the question, why is the SAT test still in business? There are many justifications for it – it helps students gain access to competitive colleges, and so on. But let’s face it. The SAT is mostly a service provided to colleges and universities, not to students. For colleges and universities, the SAT offers a quick way to discourage under-qualified students from choking their admissions offices with applications. Also, the SAT serves as a down-and-dirty tool for eliminating under-qualified students from consideration after they have applied. Into the dumpster go the applications from students with SAT scores that fall below a cut-off point that the college has determined. In an admissions office with applications piling high, that’s a valuable tool to have.

So, if the colleges and universities are the entities that benefit from the SAT, why don’t they pay for students to take it, instead of forcing the student to pay? It’s just another one of the cruel ironies about the SAT.

In light of the fact that the SAT generally benefits the schools instead of the students, why aren’t more ethical educators speaking up against the test? Actually, many are. A growing number of institutions are no longer requiring their applicants to submit scores from either the SAT or the ACT. They include specialized schools (such as the Beth Yehuda Yeshiva in Pennsylvania, the Baptist Bible College in Missouri, and a number of fine arts schools), but also more prestigious institutions that include Drew University in New Jersey, Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and the schools in the University of California system.

Fighting Back . . .

How can you avoid feeding bushels full of dollars into the standardized testing monster?

• You could apply for an SAT fee waiver, which ETS makes available to some needy students.
  
• You could apply only to colleges that no longer require standardized tests.
  
• Another way? Start out at StraigherLine, and start earning college credits with no standardized testing requirements whatsoever. Then consider transferring your StraighterLine credits to Potomac College or one of StraighterLine’s other affiliated, accredited colleges.

Yes, there is a better way. And do you know what? You just found it.


Related Posts
3 Classic Study Strategies that Speed Online Learning
Why Online Study Takes the Risk Out Of Learning
Can the U.S. Government Help You Pay for College?
How to Beat the Hidden (and Very High) Costs of Applying to College

Related Training
College for $99 a Month
Online College Algebra Course
English Composition Online Course
Macroeconomics Online Course
Online Accounting Course

3 Classic Study Strategies that Speed Online Learning

If you want to get some perspective about the power of computers as teaching machines, think about Socrates. That’s right – Socrates, the dude who did himself in by drinking hemlock juice. History tells us that every day, Athenian students would gather in a circle around Socrates while he gave long talks and engaged them in spirited conversations.

That’s a pretty inefficient way to learn. Today, we can fire up our computers and review page after page of information, all presented in an engaging, interactive format. If Socrates saw the teaching power of computers, he would probably drop his toga and run for the nearest Best Buy to get one of his own.

Yes, computers are powerful learning tools. But the problem is, they are also capable of quickly delivering vast quantities of information - more information than most people can easily absorb. If you’ve ever had the feeling that it’s challenging to shuttle all that information from your computer screen into your cerebral cortex, these classic learning strategies can help.

1. Strategy one: Take notes. Sounds pretty unexciting, right? But the fact is, taking notes on paper while you are studying online is a highly effective way to internalize information. And there is more to it than simply writing down facts so you can study them later on. When you write down information, you remember more of it. Try it – it works.
   
   
2. Strategy two: Talk to people about what you are learning. Old Socrates knew the power of dialogue as a learning tool. When you talk stuff over, you remember more of it. And it still works today. So if you’re taking say, an online accounting course, get in the habit of saying to a friend, “Hey, let me tell you what I learned today.” (You might need to get new friends every week or two, but you’re learning, right?)
   
   
3. Strategy three: Start using your knowledge as soon as you can. If you’re taking an online college statistics course, say, start analyzing companies right away – or find a way to start using your new analytical chops on the job. One of the most powerful ways to internalize concepts is to start using them. As soon as information becomes practical, not theoretical, it sticks in your mind.
   

And another strategy for better online learning . . .

Make sure to select online courses that have been developed by organizations like Straighterline, that deliver information in an engaging, interactive format. It takes great course developers to create great online college courses – and you’ll find them here.


Related Posts
How Distance Learners Can Make College Rock
Why Online Study Takes the Risk Out Of Learning
Can the U.S. Government Help You Pay for College?
How to Beat the Hidden (and Very High) Costs of Applying to College

Related Training
College for $99 a Month
Online College Algebra Course
English Composition Online Course
Macroeconomics Online Course
Online Accounting Course