WGU MSISA - Dragging

Ahh so I've been putting in time where I can on this thing and definitely dragging and burnt out of it at this point.
I'm on VLT2 Task 2 with VLT2 being my last class I have to complete this year before the next term starts, at which point I'll have one class and my capstone left.

Anyone got any tips on making it through VLT2 without dying from boredom?

Anyone else got an update on their MSISA progress?

I'm excited to finally be done here in a few months, it feels like the last 11 months have been a real fight in addition to work and other certs I've been pursuing. I'm hoping 2015 will be a rather relaxed year!

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cyberguypr

VLT2 is a product of the devil. It makes me want to physically and emotionally hurt people. I'm 50% through the program (started August 1) and this class (among other factors) had me at the border of withdrawal. I hate it that much. If anyone has any tips I am also listening.

What I did to get a fresh perspective was forget about it for now. I asked my mentor to approve CHFI which should be a walk in the park. Also, although not enrolled yet, I started working on FXT2. So far I've done two tasks and should complete the other two in a couple of weeks. By the time I enroll in the class I will be ready to submit the 4 tasks all at once.

Since I still have 11 weeks left in the tern my plan is to complete all courses and then do just the capstone in my next term.

da_vato

What is VLT2? This is a program change since I took the MSISA.

BGraves

Security and Policy Standards

N2IT

I thought the MBA program was "solid" but the security program sounds borderline terrible. I know a person who graduated from the security program and they weren't singing praises either.

As for the MBA program again it's "solid" IMO finance and decision support taught me a lot that I currently use. Risk and operational management basically covered the PMI material. Parts of human resource was interesting believe it or not. But then you had some fluff thrown in there which really was nonsense.

It's over with it helps me get jobs, that I have had validation from HR on. So overall it was a win, but each situation is different.

Khaos1911

I'm hearing nothing but less than desirable things about the MSISA at WGU. I work with a guy who is a few classes in and he dislikes it as well. I want to obtain a Masters next year and I don't think I'll be going the WGU route, though it does seems to be all the rage on this forum.

da_vato

BGraves wrote: »

Security and Policy Standards

Now I fully understand your guys frustration. This was previously the GIAC 2700 exam then became an in-house closed book essay exam just after I enrolled. I heard there was a change but I wasn't clear what that change was. Hang in there guys... Wish I could provide some advice.

colemic

I actually didn't mind the GIAC 2700. Haven't heard good things about the program with all the changes. All said, I would have rather done the network mgmt. degree vs MSISA, but it didn't exist until I was almost done and I didn't want to basically start over.

Just hang in there guys, you are on the home stretch. It's worth it to be able to check the 'master's degree' box.

harshvfx

I am having the hardest time with VLT 2. 2 tasks completed, the other 2 are getting sent back.

billyr2009

Contact the course mentor, they can give you the tips. One thing I noticed, is tht it hepls to align your answers with the rubric so you can ensure the information the graders are looking for isn't missed.

ajmatson

billyr2009 wrote: »

Contact the course mentor, they can give you the tips. One thing I noticed, is tht it hepls to align your answers with the rubric so you can ensure the information the graders are looking for isn't missed.

Unfortunately the course mentor who I will remain nameless is not helpful at all. I keep having Task1 sent back because the evaluators who have no knowledge in IT Security do not agree with my choices for the top threats. I even appealed to eCare but they don't "care" they just side with the clueless evaluators. WGU is going to loose a lot of students over this stupid class.

cyberguypr

Calling these peeps "mentors" is a shame. Feel free to PM me if you need an extra set of eyes on that task.

nathandrake

I had the same exact issue with Task 1. The kept sending it back with conflicting info. One grader would say I provided excellent examples and said that only one needed to be changed. I would change that one, and then the next grader would say that another one needed to be changed as it doesn't apply after the first grader said it was "excellent". I was fumed, but decided just to play along. I changed that, and submitted it again....only to get it sent back on something else that passed previously from the two other graders. This task almost made me quit this school. I event sent an email to my student mentor telling her I'm dropping out. This was the only task I ever had sent back more than once. The graders for this task are horrible. I really had to "dumb down" this task to get it to pass.

ajmatson

cyberguypr wrote: »

Calling these peeps "mentors" is a shame. Feel free to PM me if you need an extra set of eyes on that task.

Agreed, my personal mentor is going to file an appeal on my behalf. Hope this time they get off their butts. The sad thing is the last ecare appeal I did they only re-quoted the original evaluators comments:

Original Evaluator:
Score: Does not Meet
Comment: 9/18/2015 - The submission reflects good articulation of response and identifies potentially suitable threats. Clarification of threats for each component based on the scenario, likelihood, and related security controls is needed to meet competency.

eCare Evaluator:
Score: Does not Meet
Comment: 9/18/2015 - The submission reflects good articulation of response and identifies potentially suitable threats. Clarification of threats for each component based on the scenario, likelihood, and related security controls is needed to meet competency. (This does not count as a failed attempt, but rather a response to an appeal.)

Notice how they are the same but with the disclaimer added, no additional information on why it was returned. I see why everyone thinks this class is the devil and it seems WGU does not want to "fix" it.

nathandrake wrote: »

I had the same exact issue with Task 1. The kept sending it back with conflicting info. One grader would say I provided excellent examples and said that only one needed to be changed. I would change that one, and then the next grader would say that another one needed to be changed as it doesn't apply after the first grader said it was "excellent". I was fumed, but decided just to play along. I changed that, and submitted it again....only to get it sent back on something else that passed previously from the two other graders. This task almost made me quit this school. I event sent an email to my student mentor telling her I'm dropping out. This was the only task I ever had sent back more than once. The graders for this task are horrible. I really had to "dumb down" this task to get it to pass.

You hit it on the nail, but it seems to be inconsistent, my friend sent one in and even had the same threat for both the servers and the workstations which the task said was forbidden and he was passed on the first try.

ajmatson

Well after talking with my mentor the school is supposedly evaluating what is wrong with the VLT2 course. they are so disconnected. After 4 revisions for task 1 the course mentor told me exactly what to put for the risks for each section and the graders still returned it. In my second eCare appeal now. So frustrating, I spent over 4 weeks on this task when I could have accelerated another class by now. Wasting my money.

ablindsey

The task I am fighting is Task 3. The evaluators do not seem to understand what AS-IS questionnaire means. The question set says if yes reference the page number and if no then give a justification on why you said no.

Overall comments: 5/19/2016: The submission includes an "As-Is Question Set;" however, additional work is required in developing the justifications with respect to addressing each question in demonstrating the organization's level of compliance to the ISO 27002 security standard for the information security management system, as noted in part A. Question Set. Additional work is required in part B. Question Categories in establishing two (2) specific categories. Also, additional work is required in the documentation of source literature, as noted in part C. Sources.

ajmatson

yea task 3 was a pain, I had to go to the mentor and she told me there no question has a "yes" answer no to all of them and find something wrong with it

This was the worst class i took (although tft2 seems to be the same and has the same mentors)

ablindsey

Yep my student mentor explained what the problem was. I was answering no as there is no official policy in place. And I justified why I responded yes or no and needed to explain why its needed and how it ties into ISO 27001/27002.

Cora5

HELP! I'm drowning here... I just submitted task 3, hope it will pass. Now I need some clarity on task 4. For those of you who completed task 4 can you give me some advice on how to tackle this. I've been to the webinar, have the class notes and I'm somewhat confused. My student mentor said that tasks 3 & 4 are the easiest. But I'm finding that they are confusing. I completed task 1 &2 fairly quickly. Task 1 passed on the first submit and task 2 completed on the second submit.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

EnderWiggin

You're going to have to be more specific. I have no idea what "Task 4" is.

Cora5

Sorry, that would be for course VLT2.

EnderWiggin

Gonna need to go a little further than that. I just did it a couple months ago, but I couldn't even begin to guess what the assignment was.

cyberguypr

Is this the one about comparing and contrasting COBIT, ITIL, etc?

Cora5

It's the risk management framework to-do list using the various frameworks; COBIT, ITIL, ISO 27001, NIST, etc.

EnderWiggin

Status was not done for everything, and the explanation is just what would you do to get it done. Then the standard, use whatever one you'd like, just be sure it fits with your explanation. Comparing and contrasting the frameworks is pretty straightforward.

Cora5

EnderWiggin,

Thank you for the advice. You broke it down nicely. I should be able to tackle this now and complete it before the end of my semester. If anyone else has any additional advice that would be great. I'm sure this thread is helping others out there that are having issues with VLT2.

statik83

nathandrake wrote: »

I had the same exact issue with Task 1. The kept sending it back with conflicting info. One grader would say I provided excellent examples and said that only one needed to be changed. I would change that one, and then the next grader would say that another one needed to be changed as it doesn't apply after the first grader said it was "excellent". I was fumed, but decided just to play along. I changed that, and submitted it again....only to get it sent back on something else that passed previously from the two other graders. This task almost made me quit this school. I event sent an email to my student mentor telling her I'm dropping out. This was the only task I ever had sent back more than once. The graders for this task are horrible. I really had to "dumb down" this task to get it to pass.

Just read this thread, and I know its 9 months old. But guess what, we are still having the issues with VLT2! I had my task 1 return to me twice already, first time I was baffled, like wtf. I wrote about 6 pages, and I thought was very good and only cited once, which clearly shows more competency. The evaluaters are ridiculous, like they them selves are incompetent. They lack the understanding, and their feedback is horrible, its like from a cut and paste. I just submitted it a third time, and left them long message.

I had this problem with them before in a class last year. I honestly think, the evaluaters are not educated on these topics like they should be, I believe WGU gives them some sort of "answer sheet" that they use to grade, so they are looking for specific answers or responses, and if you dont have it the way its on the answer sheet they send it back. For example, I said that DoS, lack of security patches, and human error were threats to the server and the workstations. both times returned, the said it was not right. For crying out loud lol, on my second submission, I even took specific quotes from two different sources defining cyber security threats and the difference of threat vs vulnerability. I WAS considering doing the other Masters program after graduating this one, but not any more.

Cora5

I'm done with VLT2. It wasn't the big bad beast that I thought it was. I finished task 1 on the first pass, task 2 on the second submit, task 3 on the second submit and task 4 on the first submit. My worst course was disaster recovery, the shameful part about is, I have seven years of experience with DR. I can attribute the difficulty with DR to the hell that I went through with my husband battling cancer. He lost that fight in February this year.

What I would like to say to folks having problems with VLT2 is to not be intimidated. I approached task 1 was like a review from the hacking countermeasures course. Task 2 was the most difficult of the four tasks. When I had a task returned I immediately scheduled an appointment with the course mentor to get clarity. I would normally not schedule an appointment until after the third returned submission.

Don't let VLT2 break your spirit. It's all smoke and mirrors...

NotHackingYou

I submitted task 1 with what I thought were very clear threats and I got it sent back with a big 'ol fat 'no threats were evident'.. A little baffled on this one. Do the threats have to be unique between the workstation, server, and site or just unique for each type?