Student Guide
WELCOME TO SOPHIA PATHWAYS
HOW IT WORKS
WHAT IS A CHALLENGE?
WHAT IS A MILESTONE?
WHAT IS A TOUCHSTONE?
WHAT IS THE FINAL MILESTONE?
BEST PRACTICES FOR THE SUCCESSFUL STUDENT
STUDENT HONOR CODE & POLICIES
RETAKE POLICY
LEARNING COACHES
30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE SOPHIA PATHWAYSLEARNING ENVIRONMENT
CHAT FEATURE - (“Questions? Lets Chat”)
PROGRESS AND SCORE INDICATORS
THIRD-PARTY TUTORING FROM BRAINFUSE
SCIENCE LABS
MEASUREMENT CONVERSIONS
REQUESTING YOUR TRANSCRIPT
CONTACT US
WELCOME TO SOPHIA PATHWAYS
We’re glad you’ve chosen Sophia to take the next step in planning your educational journey and significantly
reducing the cost of your college tuition.
Your Sophia Pathways online college course is designed to be self-paced. Sophia courses are intended for you
to complete independently, using only the materials presented in the course. You may start at any time and
© 2024 SOPHIA Learning, LLC. SOPHIA is a registered trademark of SOPHIA Learning, LLC. Page 1
, learn on your own schedule. There are no classes to attend or weekly assignments to complete.
Using Sophia to knock out your gen eds with affordable, self-paced college-level courses is simple:
Dive right into problem solving mode with our Challenges, learning new concepts along the way through
our instructional tutorials.
Successfully complete timed Milestones, demonstrating your mastery of the concepts.
Successfully complete Touchstones, showing your ability to apply the course concepts to written or project-
based tasks.
Successfully complete the Final Milestone, demonstrating your retention of key course concepts.
Submit your final score, and we will provide you with instructions on requesting your official transcript.
HOW IT WORKS
To earn a Sophia transcript, you must:
Complete each Challenge by attempting each of the questions.
Complete each Milestone and Touchstone, which contribute to your overall course score.
Achieve a total average score of 70% or better across all Challenges, Milestones, and Touchstones.
Complete your Final Milestone, which contributes to your overall course score.
WHAT IS A CHALLENGE?
Sophia courses are designed using a problem-based learning model. You can expect to engage in real world
scenarios. To assist you in solving these Challenges, we provide tutorials that help you understand the key
concepts behind each problem.
Each Challenge encompasses an average of 5-10 practical problems to solve. You have multiple attempts to
solve these problems and you may leave and return to Challenges whenever you want to continue your
learning and improve your score (as long as you have remaining attempts). You must attempt all of the
Challenge questions at least once in order to advance to the Milestone for that unit.
WHAT IS A MILESTONE?
Milestones test your mastery of the concepts taught in the course. Each Milestone consists of 20-30 questions
on average. You have a set amount of time to complete each Milestone, which is displayed on the Course
Dashboard. The amount of time you have to complete a Milestone is determined by a number of factors and is
not the same across all courses. While there is no minimum required score on an individual Milestone, keep in
mind that you need to achieve an average score of 70% across all Challenges and Milestones. Milestones are
weighted three times as much as Challenges for the purpose of calculating your final score. You will be given
one opportunity to retake each Milestone to improve your score.
Each Milestone has a corresponding Practice Milestone that you can use to check your readiness before
attempting the actual Milestone. You’ll find similar questions to the actual Milestone, along with answers. Note:
© 2024 SOPHIA Learning, LLC. SOPHIA is a registered trademark of SOPHIA Learning, LLC. Page 2
WELCOME TO SOPHIA PATHWAYS
HOW IT WORKS
WHAT IS A CHALLENGE?
WHAT IS A MILESTONE?
WHAT IS A TOUCHSTONE?
WHAT IS THE FINAL MILESTONE?
BEST PRACTICES FOR THE SUCCESSFUL STUDENT
STUDENT HONOR CODE & POLICIES
RETAKE POLICY
LEARNING COACHES
30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE SOPHIA PATHWAYSLEARNING ENVIRONMENT
CHAT FEATURE - (“Questions? Lets Chat”)
PROGRESS AND SCORE INDICATORS
THIRD-PARTY TUTORING FROM BRAINFUSE
SCIENCE LABS
MEASUREMENT CONVERSIONS
REQUESTING YOUR TRANSCRIPT
CONTACT US
WELCOME TO SOPHIA PATHWAYS
We’re glad you’ve chosen Sophia to take the next step in planning your educational journey and significantly
reducing the cost of your college tuition.
Your Sophia Pathways online college course is designed to be self-paced. Sophia courses are intended for you
to complete independently, using only the materials presented in the course. You may start at any time and
© 2024 SOPHIA Learning, LLC. SOPHIA is a registered trademark of SOPHIA Learning, LLC. Page 1
, learn on your own schedule. There are no classes to attend or weekly assignments to complete.
Using Sophia to knock out your gen eds with affordable, self-paced college-level courses is simple:
Dive right into problem solving mode with our Challenges, learning new concepts along the way through
our instructional tutorials.
Successfully complete timed Milestones, demonstrating your mastery of the concepts.
Successfully complete Touchstones, showing your ability to apply the course concepts to written or project-
based tasks.
Successfully complete the Final Milestone, demonstrating your retention of key course concepts.
Submit your final score, and we will provide you with instructions on requesting your official transcript.
HOW IT WORKS
To earn a Sophia transcript, you must:
Complete each Challenge by attempting each of the questions.
Complete each Milestone and Touchstone, which contribute to your overall course score.
Achieve a total average score of 70% or better across all Challenges, Milestones, and Touchstones.
Complete your Final Milestone, which contributes to your overall course score.
WHAT IS A CHALLENGE?
Sophia courses are designed using a problem-based learning model. You can expect to engage in real world
scenarios. To assist you in solving these Challenges, we provide tutorials that help you understand the key
concepts behind each problem.
Each Challenge encompasses an average of 5-10 practical problems to solve. You have multiple attempts to
solve these problems and you may leave and return to Challenges whenever you want to continue your
learning and improve your score (as long as you have remaining attempts). You must attempt all of the
Challenge questions at least once in order to advance to the Milestone for that unit.
WHAT IS A MILESTONE?
Milestones test your mastery of the concepts taught in the course. Each Milestone consists of 20-30 questions
on average. You have a set amount of time to complete each Milestone, which is displayed on the Course
Dashboard. The amount of time you have to complete a Milestone is determined by a number of factors and is
not the same across all courses. While there is no minimum required score on an individual Milestone, keep in
mind that you need to achieve an average score of 70% across all Challenges and Milestones. Milestones are
weighted three times as much as Challenges for the purpose of calculating your final score. You will be given
one opportunity to retake each Milestone to improve your score.
Each Milestone has a corresponding Practice Milestone that you can use to check your readiness before
attempting the actual Milestone. You’ll find similar questions to the actual Milestone, along with answers. Note:
© 2024 SOPHIA Learning, LLC. SOPHIA is a registered trademark of SOPHIA Learning, LLC. Page 2
