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When in the market for a self study CPE course, here are three consumer tips that may save you time and money. First, make sure that the credits you would earn are even acceptable to whatever certifying body governs your professional license.

It might seem absurd, but there are actual instances on record of people – otherwise fully qualified professionals – who have overlooked such a minor detail and gone on to take a course and earn credits that turn out not to be recognized by the board with jurisdiction over their licensure.

Secondly, inquire whether there are any pilot CPE courses, courses which are experimental in nature for which tuition is free (or drastically reduced) in exchange for, normally, some type of student feedback at the end. Such trial courses, however, bear actual credits.

The main stipulation typical to such pilot programs is that students actually complete the course. Sometimes, the only other obligation is that detailed suggestions be provided to help enhance the program for full-fledged deployment. Other times, all the data that course-designers wish to know are test scores and the like, with no other suggestions necessary. Whatever the case, pilot programs are a win-win situation for all concerned.

Last but not least, consider an online CPE as opposed to traditional correspondence through the mail. Some of these web-based programs may even include familiar fare for instance workbooks and the like, but much more often than not every thing is on-line, immediately accessible and available at a much lower cost due to not needing to print and bind materials and pay for the postage to send them to a student.

Technology even makes such programs better, with multimedia and interactivity often built into the design of the program, allowing for a lot more interesting and pedagogically helpful presentations. Perhaps best of all, test results are almost always instantaneous!

Tourist traps. Thought-up to wring every last dollar out of you. It’s as if they were thought up to ruin your vacation. And sightseeing rides rank right up there.

Take Zalman Silber’s Skyride in New York’s Empire State Building. With a name like that, you’d think it was up there at the top, where it’s located. Instead, it’s only on the second floor. Moreover, express access to the top – for which you pay an additional fifty percent of the ticket price – is just a matter of skipping a few lines. It’s not as if you go straight to the top. You’ll still have to wait on lines, only perhaps one or two less.

And so what is the Skyride? A movie. A half-hour film. That’s it! Definitely a case where the sizzle sounds better than how the steak tastes.

But Zalman Silber redeems himself with his other attractions, the Skywalk and The Edge. The first amusement is aptly named for sure, essentially a catwalk a thousand feet above street level outside the top of the Sydney Tower in Sydney, Australia. It’s an exhilarating experience where, unlike traditional observation decks enclosed behind glass, visitors walk out onto a metal plank that juts out of the building, creating the breath-taking feeling of being suspended in mid-air!

As can be imagined, wind gusts are quite strong at such a height, and special “skysuits” cable-tethered to support structures are used to ensure guest safety. But the Skywalk is open in most kinds of weather, and available practically the whole year.

A similar attraction is The Edge at the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Australia. This time, visitors are in a fully enclosed cube that sticks out of the building near the very top, with fully transparent glass all around – even underneath one’s feet! A really cool feature of this amusement is how everything is initially opaque, and only suddenly transparent to create an exciting sense of unexpected suspension almost a thousand feet above ground!

These two are great fun and a must for any to-do list when in Sydney or Melbourne. These are the kinds of experiences that really make vacations memorable. After all, vacations are about more than simple relaxation and getting away from work. They are about experiences – ideally, new experiences, positive experiences, unique experiences. And while such attractions as the Skywalk exist elsewhere, such as over the Grand Canyon in the State of Arizona, there’s only one such thing in Sydney and one such thing in Melbourne, offering stunning vistas outdone only by a helicopter flyover.

So beware the tourist traps and spend your hard-earned dollars instead where it would go the furthest. Patronize only those rides which offer true value for the money!