Getting certificate at WGU before CU's

Juicy Jon

This title may not make much sense but I have had some mixed answers. Both by WGU's employee's..

Has anyone here taken and passed (for example Security +) before actually starting the required classes at WGU while currently enrolled.

I want to take my Sec+ because I am studying for it on the side and on the job experience but I do not want to wait for the classes. One guy told me this was totally fine and the other said this will throw a wrench in the plan.

My official start date is August 1st and I really don't want to push it back to September 1st. Anyone run into this situation?

Thanks,

Juicy Jon

markulous

I don't see it as any kind of issue. You could just take a picture of the passed exam and they should give you credit for it. However why not just let them pay for the voucher? There are no classes you have to take. All you have to do is take a practice exam and they issue you the voucher shortly afterwards. You'd be able to get your S+ voucher within two days of your start date.

Juicy Jon

So I don't necessarily have to take the classes first then?

markulous

What classes do you mean? The way WGU is setup is you take the exam whenever you're ready. So in other words you can start August 1st, tell your mentor that day that you want Security+ in your degree plan as you've studied for it, take the practice test so they will issue you a voucher, then schedule the exam. Or alternatively, if you wanted to pay out of pocket you could take the exam now, then let them know and they'd give you credit for that class.

Danielm7

If you're going to start at WGU you'll want to get very familiar with the idea of "classes", it doesn't work the way you think traditional classes work. The cert complete = competency satisfied, done.

techfiend

The only thing you'll have to do is get 95%+ on an open book practice test where you have unlimited tries. It's pretty difficult but sets you up well for the real test.

If you pass the cert before you start you need a re-evaluation. I was told that takes at least a couple of weeks but a month to be safe.

I was in this type of situation with the Net+. I was ready to take it about a month before WGU started and decided to wait, glad I did as I don't think the exam cram book I was working with prepared me very well. After starting WGU I worked through all of labsim, free of charge from wgu, it prepared me very well. It took me less than 2 weeks after I started WGU to pass it, I don't know if I would have passed with the exam cram alone, I wouldn't recommend it for the Net+, great for A+ however.

You also have to judge how long is it going to take you to finish the degree. I went in expecting it to take 2 terms to finish and 2 weeks for the Net+ won't have any effect on it.

goatama

So something no one else has mentioned: once you get your transcripts evaluated, that's supposed to be it. If you go and get your Sec+ after your transcripts are evaluated, you'll allegedly have to retake it. At least that's what I was told. I'm not really sure how that can actually be the case since you do have the cert, but it definitely may delay your start date.

Edit: My bad, techfiend said almost the same thing.