The days of sitting in a classroom all semester and stressing over homework may be long gone with the release of Prometric's 38th DSST Credit by Exam subject in Business Ethics and Society.
Jodi Katz, public relations manager for Prometric, said the exams are an alternative, flexible path to learning.
"A lot of time adults that go back to school don't have the time to sit in a classroom for a full semester," Katz said. "By offering a credit by exam program like DSST, especially for
some people who are older and may already work in business and have business knowledge already, it serves as a magnet for some people."
According to a press release from the company, the American Council on Education has reviewed the exam and recommends it to be the equivalent to a 3-hour course in the upper baccalaureate division.
Students have two hours to complete the exam and can choose to take it on a computer or with pencil and paper.
Katz said the tests are devel- oped in a science called psychometrics.
"To develop DSST exams, we work with a number of subject matter experts and they're people who have either worked in the field for years or are college professors themselves and they develop over the course of weeks or months, they could develop thousands of questions," Katz said. "Each one of those questions is put through a scientific evaluation to judge if it's fair."
Auburn University Registrar Laura Ann Forest said the University explores options like Prometric, but said many private companies don't fall in line with the University's standards of academic accreditation.
"Most corporations and private sector companies that are
for profit don't fall in line with our accreditation agency," Forest said. "They have stock holders and profit is more important than academic integrity that usually eliminates them right off the bat, not all the time, but that's usually what occurs."
Prometric, which now has 38 subject areas for credit by exam, has gone through an overhaul in the last two years.
"They went through a process where we wrote new questions and updated existing questions on the exam to make sure they were still relevant and timely to school curriculum," Katz said. Katz also said the test
price is set by the testing center, but generally runs about $80.
Katz said Prometric's Web site has practice tests for about $15 so a student can get a feel for
how the real test will be. Forest said as far as she knew no contact between the University and Prometric has occurred, but it is something she
would look into. "We explore things
like that, because we are always looking for more venues for the students to explore their academic pursuits," Forest said.
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