Has Exclesior College Set You Up To Fail?

Has Excelsior College* Set You Up To Fail?

By Paul M. Graden, Ph.D.
CEO/President
Accelerated Learning Center, Inc.

I hear this question from students all the time. It seems that, whenever someone fails a test, word spreads like wildfire! I wish the talk about passing exams had such a life.

Studies show that an unhappy adult will tell about 10 others. Happy people only tell one or two.

So, why all this talk about being set up to fail? Here are some observations:

Excelsior College* does not publish their pass rates.

*Accelerated Learning Center, Inc. and www.RNsooner.com are not affiliated with Excelsior College, DANTES or the College Board.

This is true. The only pass rates they post are for the NCLEX, which is well above the average nursing school's.

The military does publish passing statistics for their personnel taking these exams. Keep in mind that the military offers free classroom training for many of these courses on many bases/posts, so their pass rates should be higher than the civilian population. These are their statistics for the courses we offer at Accelerated Learning Center, Inc.**:

EC Exam Taken by Military Personnel	Pass Rate
English Composition	83%
Anatomy & Physiology	36%
Microbiology	53%
Lifespan Developmental Psychology	50%
World Religion	28%
Nursing Concepts 1	55%
Nursing Concepts 2	47%
Nursing Concepts 3	53%
Nursing Concepts 4	81%
Nursing Concepts 5	43%
Nursing Concepts 6	75%
Foundations of Professional Practice (NC7)	85%

Why Doesn't Excelsior College* publish their pass rates?

Since I can't speak for Excelsior College* as to why, all I can do is speculate. It seems to me that if the pass rates for their examinations were high, they would proudly post them.

However, I doubt that they are very high. This is the problem with the whole Y.O.Y.O. (Your On Your Own) approach to education. Most people just don't have the discipline or academic skills to Y.O.Y.O. Yet, it is the major selling point for Excelsior College*, as well as the tutorial publishers.

If their civilian pass rates are as low (probably lower) than the military's, posting them would make it incredibly difficult to enroll students.

Could there be a financial reason?

Once again all this is speculation on my part. However, Excelsior College* will let you take each exam up to four times, before dropping a student from their program. Their average exam fee is $280.00. While they pay Pearson Vue Testing Centers a piece of this, they are pocketing most of the rest. They don't have to pay instructors, rent, utilities, etc.

Obviously, the more students fail and retake an exam, the more money Excelsior College* makes.

However, this is probably balanced out by the number of people dropping the program after failing an exam or two. After all, who is there to encourage them to stay?

This is especially true for the CPNE, which costs $1,900.00 (as of this writing). Reports from our graduates are pretty consistent. When they arrive for the CPNE, there are 7 - 8 students there. They tell me that only 2 - 3 end up passing. This means that roughly 72% fail the first time and have to pay the $1,900.00 all over again.

Fortunately, ALC students are consistently among those who pass the first time.

How Excelsior College* tries to help students pass.

Excelsior College* does a number of things to try and help students pass the exams. First of all, they sell textbooks and journal articles for each subject. The problem is that they are not targeted toward the exams, but the subjext. For example, the Microbiology textbooks and articles they recommend are full of great information about Microbiology. However, much of the content is not tested on. So, you waste valuable time reading and studying information you will never see an exam question about.

To aide their students, Excelsior College* published a "Content Guide" for each exam. These are available on Excelsior College's* web site as a free download. Once you carefully review the "Content Guide", you know what information you will be tested on and how heavily.

Following their recommended approach, you then have to go through all the textbooks and journal articles they sold you for each course and weed out what is not on the exam. The same is true if you purchased tutorials from College Network, Rue, Chancellors, etc.

What a waste of time and energy. Of course, as an ALC student, you don't waste any of your time doing this as both your classes and tutorials have already done this for you.

Excelsior College* also provides practice examinations for each exam. The idea is that you can take the practice test to determine if you are ready for the real thing. All for the low, low price of $75.00 each.

While these practice tests are helpful, they are just another way that Excelsior College* earns money.

Once again, ALC students are provided with plenty of practice quizzes and exams as part of the program. Therefore, you do not need to spend this extra money.

Similarly, Excelsior College* offers a "Lab" to prepare for the CPNE. They make it sound really good. It is hosted in various parts of the county and led by one of Excelsior College's* clinical evaluators. A number of our students have taken it. Without exception, every one told us that they received very little help. There was no hands-on practice at all. They told us that it was basically telling them what to expect and what was covered - which was already available on the CD Excelsior College* sent them. All this for $895.00 plus travel hotel and meal expenses.

Once again, ALC students don't need to waste their time or money on this. As part of their package, our students receive a first-rate CPNE Lab at our facility. If you have not seen our CPNE Lab, it is set up in workstations that mimic the one's at your CPNE. You are systematically taken through each station, with hands-on practice. Best of all, our students pass the first time. At the time of this writing, we have only seen 1 failure in over 3 years.

So, back to the original question - Does Excelsior College* set you up to fail?

I truly believe that the answer is no. A conclusion that they set you up to fail requires a finding of intent on Excelsior College's* part. I just don't see that.

What I do see is an attempt, flawed as it may be, at helping a population of working adults get ahead in life. That is an honorable goal - one that I share.

The problem is that the Y.O.Y.O. (Your On Your Own) system you are left with doesn't work for the majority of people. Most of us need structure and guidance through our academic endeavors. Working adults also need encouragement to keep moving forward.

Of course, this is exactly what ALC provides, which is why our pass rate is 92%!