Western Governors University Questions and Answers / Threads related to WGU

erpadmin

surmy wrote: »

Thanks anyways, I managed to get ahold of someone. Seems like you need to have both a prometric testing centre and a Pearson Vue testing centre nearby. Sadly the closest Pearson Vue center is 3 hours away. Regardless, my faith was kind of crushed in WGU by all the useless robotic replies i've gotten. I ask a question about eligibility and they reply with how much cheaper they are then big colleges. Give me a break guys, treat me like I'm human..

I know of at least two students who have Prometric testing centers that are very far away from where they live.

Both graduated.

The canned responses are a fact of life for those trying to enroll in WGU; especially when enrollment is jumping at exponential rates. After you get past enrollment...the WGU experience is pretty much all good.


Keep this in mind....

You only need Prometric testing for certification exams. For a WGU exam (math, science, humanities, whatever), you can take the exam at home via OnLine Proctoring (OLP). They send you a webcam, you set up the webcam/software per their instructions, and you're on your merry way.

sheckler

You don't need both a prometric and vue testing center, just prometric is fine. Vue doesn't offer microsoft exams anyway for whatever reason.

demonfurbie

sheckler wrote: »

You don't need both a prometric and vue testing center, just prometric is fine. Vue doesn't offer microsoft exams anyway for whatever reason.

and prometric dosent offer cisco exams

all the degree plans have ccnet (at least) and windows 7 (at least) so you need both testing centers

Nobylspoon

demonfurbie wrote: »

and prometric dosent offer cisco exams

all the degree plans have ccnet (at least) and windows 7 (at least) so you need both testing centers

NDM doesn't require any Cisco exams...

demonfurbie

Nobylspoon wrote: »

NDM doesn't require any Cisco exams...

i thought it did now instead of net+

edit : yea nope not on that one

erpadmin

demonfurbie wrote: »

i thought it did now instead of net+

edit : yea nope not on that one

Oh believe me, I would have probably went IT: Business if NDM included Cisco...I wouldn't mind doing a CCNA but I have too much going on to spend that much time on one exam (yes boys and girls...one exam...if I were to shoot for the CCNA, I'd go the one exam route).

I believe it was Network Administration that asked for a CCENT though....

petedude

veritas_libertas wrote: »

How long did the class take you?

I'm kinda the wrong person to ask.

I took a long and winded road through GTT1. Didn't spend much time with the COS. Did "pre-reading" in two books about three months before I actually tackled the course. I eschewed NetBeans. Spent a couple months trying to learn various layout managers for the GUI programming. Ultimately ended up using a shareware GUI design program written in Java to get the basic interface done, then tidied up the code with jEdit to do what I wanted. Coded the second task by hand. Previous experience writing file I/O in other languages turned out to be very, very helpful. Second task is not as clear as I'd like in terms of its expectations.

All told, took me about six months to finish. I've heard of people finishing in like, six days. P***es me off.

erpadmin

Question:

(Please remind me), We do get to keep access to Books 24x7 post-graduation, right, or is it just for current students? I know we keep e-mail, but I can't remember if Skillport was a parting gift to alumni or not?

echo465

erpadmin wrote: »

(Please remind me), We do get to keep access to Books 24x7 post-graduation, right, or is it just for current students? I know we keep e-mail, but I can't remember if Skillport was a parting gift to alumni or not?

According to this page, we keep Skillport access indefinitely.
WGU Alumni Community - Health Professions

demonfurbie

echo465 wrote: »

According to this page, we keep Skillport access indefinitely.
WGU Alumni Community - Health Professions

omg that is soo sweet cause there is soo much on ther eand with the mobile site its a dream

erpadmin

echo465 wrote: »

According to this page, we keep Skillport access indefinitely.
WGU Alumni Community - Health Professions

Well done and thank you. (BTW Welcome to TechExams.)

It goes to show that sometimes, even old timers need some help.... You got rep.

Thanks.

http://alumni.wgu.edu/s/1110/noRtCol.aspx?sid=1110&gid=1&pgid=375

Nobylspoon

I read the Sybex Project+ book but, unless I overlooked quite a bit, several of the uCertify questions don't seem like they were covered. Should I read the Project+ book recommended in the COS or reread the Sybex book?

erpadmin

Nobylspoon wrote: »

I read the Sybex Project+ book but, unless I overlooked quite a bit, several of the uCertify questions don't seem like they were covered. Should I read the Project+ book recommended in the COS or reread the Sybex book?

Stick with the Sybex book. The Project+ book WGU gives out (if it's the one from CompTIA) glosses over a lot of information. The Sybex book will get more into the nitty gritty of the exam.

You will pass with the Sybex book if you understand each and every chapter...but it's just dry as all hell. The cool thing about the book was the Chaptal Winery case scenario....and how it ties into Project+ (especially since it's all tech). I plan on going over that book again at a later date for my PMP hat...I mean certification.

petedude

erpadmin wrote: »

Stick with the Sybex book. The Project+ book WGU gives out (if it's the one from CompTIA) glosses over a lot of information. The Sybex book will get more into the nitty gritty of the exam.

You will pass with the Sybex book if you understand each and every chapter...but it's just dry as all hell. . .

I'll second this, but with one adjustment-- you might read the WGU book for an overview before diving into the Sybex text. I used the Sybex PMP book written by the same gal-- picked it up shiny new and cheap off eBay. I thought it extremely well written for a project management text, but it's just that the information itself requires occasional stimulants because of its. . . theoretical?. . . abstract?. . . nature.

Nobylspoon

petedude wrote: »

I'll second this, but with one adjustment-- you might read the WGU book for an overview before diving into the Sybex text. I used the Sybex PMP book written by the same gal-- picked it up shiny new and cheap off eBay. I thought it extremely well written for a project management text, but it's just that the information itself requires occasional stimulants because of its. . . theoretical?. . . abstract?. . . nature.

Most of the Sybex Project+ material clicked pretty easily with me because (as I now know the term) work in a Strong Matrix Organization

I think the hardest thing for me to remember is what components go with what plans, especially the ones that have like 7-10 different components associated with them.

I just took the free 10 question quiz at CompTIA and only missed one (3 info needs of end-user management). I have been getting at least 80% on the chapter quizes in the book. uCertify results have been hitting anywhere between 700-850. It's hard to gauge progress with their material.

I am currently making my second pass through the Sybex book and I am making flash cards for any review questions or topics I have issues with. I just requested my voucher so I hope to take it this weekend if the seat is still open.

Agent6376

Anyone really like their student counselor? I start class October 1st and I had a REALLY good enrollment counselor (Jared Eggett). If anyone has a good recommendation, I can put in a request for them.

Thanks!

Nobylspoon

Project+ is scheduled for Saturday and I plan to knock out MGC1 and ORC1 next week. That leaves all of October and possibly a week or two in November (term ends Nov 30th).

I want to start next term with at least 18 CUs for full time GI Bill requirements so that kind of limits what I can add to this term. Since I am unsure if I could complete two MS certs and the rest of my general ed stuff, I can really only add one of the following to this term:

LAT1 (Pretty sure this will take too long)
QLT1 (Do I need to have LAT1 under my belt before tackling this?)
IWT1 (Don't really know much about this one...)
AHV1 (Is a month long enough to prepare for this?)

Any recommendations?

I know that I COULD use the two months to prepare for 70-640 but I feel that it would be more time than I really need and I really don't want any time to go to waste. With my current schedule, I am borderline of eliminating a semester from my graduation goal so the more I can do before the term ends, the better those odds are.

My alternate plan is to knock out INT/INC in October and have 2 MS certs on my AAV at the start of the term. The science project part doesn't seem too time consuming (already have an experiment in mind). The objective exam doesn't worry me because of my comfort level in the subject. That would leave all of Nov to study for 70-640 so I can take it at the start of the term so I won't be overwhelmed with having two of those on my plate starting off.

I'm pretty much just rambling to myself to answer my own questions but I would still really appreciate any feedback from others, especially for those who have completed 70-640.

[/ramble]

JustAnotherUser

Hey all, on droid so search isn't really working.. any active duty have success attending wgu with TA?

Rappeller

JustAnotherUser wrote: »

Hey all, on droid so search isn't really working.. any active duty have success attending wgu with TA?

I'm National Guard using it, no problem at all.

Rappeller

Agent6376 wrote: »

Anyone really like their student counselor? I start class October 1st and I had a REALLY good enrollment counselor (Jared Eggett). If anyone has a good recommendation, I can put in a request for them.

Thanks!

Laura Creamer has been awesome for me.

JustAnotherUser

Rappeller wrote: »

I'm National Guard using it, no problem at all.

Rappeller! Sorry for this but here come the questions..

So, WGU has a pretty different payment standard then other colleges right? Where you pay per semester and not class. Do they lower that for the military or how does your TA cover it? There were recently (couple months ago) changes to TA where you could only get X amount per semester and it was on a first come first serve basis.. I mean if you're using it then I'm assuming there's no problem.

Oh also, thanks for getting back to me.

JustAnotherUser

Here comes another question all.. I've read that WGU is like a.. Work at your own pace school. How fast can one work? How long does the typical class take?

Also, I was looking at their networking degrees.. And honestly, I feel that the IT: Security bachelors is more network based then the two network ones. It's the only one that includes CCNA. I'm leaning towards trying to enroll into the IT: Security degree. Any others have any experience with it? How has it been for you?

I have an associates and several certs and after reading the site I think that they'd accept them. How long would just the bachelors half take to complete?

(Sorry for all this)

sheckler

You can go as fast as you want. When you finish the classes that you added at the beginning of the term, you can keep adding more 1 at a time until the end of the semester. There really isn't a typical for how long a class takes, some are more involved than others. Since you have an associates, you probably won't have much non-IT stuff left. Some people that transferred in a bunch of credits have been able to graduate in 1 or 2 terms.

echo465

JustAnotherUser wrote: »

Here comes another question all.. I've read that WGU is like a.. Work at your own pace school. How fast can one work? How long does the typical class take?

I enrolled August 1, so I'm 7 weeks, 3 days in. I've finished EWB1, WFV1, AXV1, TTV1, and today TSV1, for a total of 18 CU's. It's probably not a typical pace, but if you put your mind to it and have experience to back it, you can go pretty fast.

petedude

JustAnotherUser wrote: »

(Sorry for all this)

No worries. That's what the thread is for. Fire away.

Nobylspoon

Quick question about capstone projects, the COS makes this seem like you actually have to conduct the project. Did I just misinterpret this or can you just "simulate" the project? For example, where I work we have 2 test beds (multiple clustered servers with separate databases and load balancers). Could I write a capstone on expanding our lab environment with a third test bed even though it is just hypothetical?

sheckler

Probably. They seem pretty lenient. I emailed my topic proposal to the new capstone course mentor and haven't heard back which is annoying.

petedude

Nobylspoon wrote: »

Quick question about capstone projects, the COS makes this seem like you actually have to conduct the project.

And you expected? Tough for them to give a grade on a project without students presenting some sort of finished deliverable.

[rant] [/rant]

Did I just misinterpret this or can you just "simulate" the project? For example, where I work we have 2 test beds (multiple clustered servers with separate databases and load balancers). Could I write a capstone on expanding our lab environment with a third test bed even though it is just hypothetical?

I've heard of the course mentor permitting hypotheticals for folks who don't have access to real environments to perform the task (e.g. excess red tape, unemployed, or simply living too far from civiilzation). I'd have to imagine this is done on a case-by-case basis-- check with the course mentor.

You could make it easier on yourself, though. I would say if you made your project ABOUT testing the technology, you would narrow the scope a little bit and focus on having experimental outcomes be the actual end deliverable. To imagine an example:

"This project will determine the value of running a virtualized MySQL server on Pentium 4 system." And you go on to explain why this test is such a good thing, and what data you expect to provide. I think that might fly.

citinerd

Nobylspoon wrote: »

Quick question about capstone projects, the COS makes this seem like you actually have to conduct the project. Did I just misinterpret this or can you just "simulate" the project? For example, where I work we have 2 test beds (multiple clustered servers with separate databases and load balancers). Could I write a capstone on expanding our lab environment with a third test bed even though it is just hypothetical?

I never told the mentor that my project was make believe however I did note in my actual paper that due to a confidentiality agreement that some of the information would be changed. It was however loosely based on a project that we completed a couple years ago.

Nobylspoon

Thank you both for the input. I believe that I now have a more solidified topic to push forward with. Although I won't be working on this until mid-December or early January, I want to have a solid plan in place to be thinking about until that time to help expedite the process when I get to that point.