SOS Chemistry and Biology?

[4wildberrys]

Has anyone used these? I am sure they are nowhere near as rigorous as the preferred courses usually mentioned here :tongue_smilie:, but I am wondering if they are even worth considering. I am looking for something that is challenging, but not overly so, with the multimedia component and I don't really want to shell out for BJU, Abeka, etc DVDs. I am very swayed by the email advertisement with the testimonials I just got for the new 2009 version---but I think I would like to hear from "real" people about these.

TIA!

[CynthiaOK]

Have you considered Thinkwell? They have a very nice chemistry course and you can usually get a discount through the homeschool buyers co-op. Personally everything I've ever used from SOS has frustrated me to no end - I'm sure the problem is mine rather than SOS's, though.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I might consider Biology with SOS but....

Generally, in the past (this could have changed), there have been issues with certain courses. We have successfully used programs and parts of programs, but....My daughter and a friend tried a mini-co-op using SOS for Chemistry and both kids had issues with the program. I think certain classes just are more difficult when the answer needs to be typed exactly a certain way. At some point, you lose the value in the lesson because of focusing on the program.

But I wouldn't write off SOS altogether. I got my ds 3 SOS courses (1 full credit and 2 partial credit) for fall.

And again, they came out with another new upgrade to the program so maybe they have fixed it in order to take a wider range of correct answers or otherwise make it more user friendly.

[4wildberrys]

Hmmm---thanks. You both have expressed exactly the things I have heard that have made me pause---the whole issue of typing in EXACTLY the right answer. It just seems that maybe a lot of people just don't really use SOS?

[Cindy in WA]

We have used SOS Spanish I & II and American Literature. Our dd loved them. She is a trustworthy person, so I gave her permission to override questions that had been marked wrong by the computer, but were technically right. To quote her, she "hacked into the teacher side of the program" to do this. Actually, I gave her the teacher password to do this. :)

I knew it would be frustrating to the student to have things marked wrong that weren't, but also nearly impossible for a computer program to "know" all the right answers. That is why we chose this path. I would consider SOS again. I wouldn't write off using it due to technical difficulities.
HTH
Cindy