Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

Lemonade727

jmasterj206 wrote: »

I didn't even use the books. I used the MCMCSE, W3Schools, thenewboston javascript tutorials on youtube, and I picked up Ucertify practice tests which are in line with the test.

EDIT: Here is the link to the Youtube vids. YouTube - Javascript Tutorial - 1 - Introduction to Javascript

Yeah I have thenewboston website bookmarked and started going through those tonight actually. I'm sure I'll do fine with the resources available, I just like printed materials and can go along with a book pretty easily.

themagicone

Almost done with GTT1... Almost 40+ hours of coding this week. I have never sat for this long staring at my screen.

GTT1 is by far the worst/hardest/most screwed up class for me at WGU to date. The COS is out of date, but I do have the new one. BUT that doesn't help much being that what you cover in the COS doesn't really help you do the tasks. The chapters on java.swing are like 3 pages, nothing covering inputs, outputs, etc from the GUI. Not to mention, java.swing is being phased out. Most of the time I spent on it was searching on the interwebs. Alas though I'm almost done, have just Task 2 part B left. That brings me to another problem, the task outline for GTT1 is different in 3 different places. I'm going off of what the course mentor sent me - hopefully it's right.

So I have one more gripe... Some code boards are home to some of the rudest people I've ever met on the net. "Learn to do it and search, we don't support people who don't search and use netbeans gui" Was about what I got from a few places when I ask a simple question.

Well back to it and then start on GUT1.

erpadmin

jmasterj206 wrote: »

I didn't even use the books. I used the MCMCSE, W3Schools, thenewboston javascript tutorials on youtube, and I picked up Ucertify practice tests which are in line with the test.

EDIT: Here is the link to the Youtube vids. YouTube - Javascript Tutorial - 1 - Introduction to Javascript

This is exactly what I'm using as well.

The MCMCSE.COM guide is very in line with what the test is going to be, based on me reading the guide with the questions/answers on a "dummy test" via uCertify. (taking uCertify "open book"...very unlike how I would in real life, of course...lol)

The New Boston videos are extremely helpful in so far as understanding the mcmcse.com guide. (TheNewBoston – Free Educational Video Tutorials on Computer Programming and More! Beginner JavaScript) [Note: make sure you view the "Beginner Javascript that has the 40 videos...NOT the 26...he did a good job in polishing up his original videos]

I am hoping that JMJ is correct, that the aforementioned materials is all I (and you) need to pass. But judging by WFV1, it should be somewhat straightforward. I'm not taking the exam that lightly.

apr911

never2late wrote: »

Passed the final task for GUT1 tonight with a perfect score.

I spent more than 200 hrs since Feb 21 doing Java programming (GTT1 and GUT1). Started my second term Feb 1 and passed 16 CUs the first 3 weeks. It has taken 7 weeks to pass 6 CUs for the Java classes. It was truly a nightmare for me.

But there is a silver lining. I delved into a situation that I had no actual experience and through hard work and perseverance successfully accomplished the task. But, I hope that I never have create another program ever again.

Now that its over I can enjoy my vacation in Mexico which starts Saturday. Good luck to those starting this class. Just expect to put in the time and get it behind you.

Hey man,

Would love to pick your brain about the GUT1 final program. Im really frustrated with it.

I knocked out GTT1 in 2-3 days and Ive been at work on GUT1 for the last week. Three times already Ive gotten 3000 lines deep into my code before scrapping it because the program doesnt implement things in the way they want.

I come from a fairly decent programming background many of the things they want me to do in the program are things that have been ingrained in me as programming no-nos or so inefficient that I would never in a million years actually do...

My biggest contention at the moment is the overloaded constructors and the polymorphic implementation of the seemingly unused method calculateTuition.

I cant grasp where calculateTuition is used or how I can implement polymorphism for Resident/Non-Resident.

And I cant for the life of me understand why I would use overloaded constructors to accept input when I could just validate my inputs on the form and pass the values directly to the method...

I tried emailing Cindy about it twice now and despite explaining my frustrations and asking for guidance/clarification, all she managed to do was frustrate me more and piss me off as she basically responded back with a vague, follow-the-directions response. Not very helpful, especially when its the directions that I am asking questions/clarification about.

Unfortunately, it is what I have come to expect from her after dealings with GTT1 questions in which she never actually answered my question just read back to me the instructions I was asking the question about so I know from past experience that no matter how many times I talk to her, she isnt going to tell me what I want/need to know to do the project and frankly Im fed up with dealing with her.

demonfurbie

Lemonade727 wrote: »

Well I was unsuccessful in my journey to getting the printed material for the 1D0-435 exam. My request was routed through my mentor, the course mentor, and student services. They say they don't have any copies of the book that can be sent out since they stopped receiving them a while back due to it being phased out of the WGU programs because it's expiring. The course mentor did send me a copy of the Cram Session study guide to go along with the mcmcse.com guide and w3schools tutorials.

if ya want some paes from the book i can scan them for ya

themagicone

I'll second that about the Course Mentor for GTT1. But, in truth it's the same thing I have gotten from all the mentors. I understand I'm to prove that I learned something but I really wish they could give more input once in awhile. Especially when directions aren't really clear.

apr911

themagicone wrote: »

I'll second that about the Course Mentor for GTT1. But, in truth it's the same thing I have gotten from all the mentors. I understand I'm to prove that I learned something but I really wish they could give more input once in awhile. Especially when directions aren't really clear.

So thankfully, I havent had to deal with too many course mentors but those I have have either been really helpful or at least made a good effort to be helpful.

With Cindy, not only has she not been helpful, she hasnt even tried. Its like she cant be bothered to answer my question. I once asked her if we could schedule some time to chat about the requirement and all I got back was basically "I dont know what you want to talk about, its all there in the requirements."

Today's response to my frustrations and asking questions about the the requirements can be summed up by the statement "as per the requirements, you need to make sure your program works..."

So lets just skip and gloss over your students expressed frustrations, ignore every question asked about what the student has interpreted as conflicting requirements and jump straight to, "I dont have time to deal with you, go read the directions again"

erpadmin

I dealt with course mentors from QLT1, INT1 and LUT1.

The LUT1 course mentor, while helpful, was a bit insulting. (She made an assumption that I neither cared for nor will repeat.) However, once we got that out of the way, I was able to make the proper modifications and pass that first task, which would make the last task a breeze.

The QLT1 mentor just had to answer one question and that was for my last task. She told me the reason I wasn't getting it was because it was too simple. (I was overthinking it...guys who have taken QLT1 will know what I mean.) Once I got over that, I was able to breeze through that task...however, because I didn't write something correctly, I got dinged heavily for it, but as the graders read it, they understood what I meant. It was a stupid error, on my part, but I was gunning on little sleep during the QLX1 era of my WGU tenure. I would have caught it normally.

INT1 I used two of the course mentors. The guy mentor is actually pretty cool and helped me out with what was wrong with my experiment.

INT1 though made me hypothesize about one thing though (pun intended): the course mentors are actually the graders. When I got a task back in INT1, the "voice" of the grader sounded alot like one of the course mentors who writes a lot in the communities. I kind of saw that in LET1 also. (I think it's that guy Alan). This is pretty much opinion though; don't hold that to gospel.

Anyway, I think course mentors for some courses will help students out if they see that some effort is made though. I can't speak for that Cindy person though...I only get her emails cause I'm enrolled in AKV1...but that'll stop when I pass. She sounds like a real...not-so-nice-person. You might want to complain to the manager of Student Services (Anika Webb).

apr911

erpadmin wrote: »

Anyway, I think course mentors for some courses will help students out if they see that some effort is made though. I can't speak for that Cindy person though...I only get her emails cause I'm enrolled in AKV1...but that'll stop when I pass. She sounds like a real...not-so-nice-person. You might want to complain to the manager of Student Services (Anika Webb).

Its not that she's not nice, she's been very civil and the one conversation I had with her during one of the GUT1 Getting Started chats I found her to be very easy to talk to and get along with. She's also very responsive to email as I have yet to have an email sit for more than 24 hours.

My problem with her is that her universal answer to everything is to read the COS or the book. That's great advice for someone who hasnt done any of that or is asking for help on how something works but for me... well for me it doesnt work so well...

Ive used polymorphism, overrides and overloads in the past, I understand how they work, Ive read the COS, Ive read the chapter in the book, Ive read the chapter in 2 other books and Ive read more online about it and yet for the life of my I still cannot figure out the how or why the final task in GUT1 does some of the crap it does...

When I expressed this, I got the universal go read the requirements... which doesnt help me and frankly nothing I have read has helped... I was looking for a "you're on the right track, wrong track" and instead I got, "go read the requirements"

Ive finally just decided to go with what I think is right, hand it in and see what they say...

I fear for those going through the WGU IT Programs that have no experience in programming... The tasks have required implementations that no serious programmer would go near in a million years and I am therefore concerned about the bad habits a non-programmer might pick up this is especially true considering the lack of structure and correction involved in self study and the lack of intermediate tasks to be graded that demonstrate you practice good coding behaviors...

erpadmin wrote: »

INT1 though made me hypothesize about one thing though (pun intended): the course mentors are actually the graders. When I got a task back in INT1, the "voice" of the grader sounded alot like one of the course mentors who writes a lot in the communities. I kind of saw that in LET1 also. (I think it's that guy Alan). This is pretty much opinion though; don't hold that to gospel.

I dont know about that... While it would make sense (I mean what else do course mentors do to collect their paycheck?), the fact that things get graded at almost all hours of the day kind of raises questions as does the huge fluctuations between grades & graders...

Especially when you consider the number of students enrolled at any one time in most classes...

I also know for almost for certain that for the Java programs, Cindy is not one of the graders (or at least not for RGUT Task 3) as she made a mistake about what was required to be submitted for the task during the getting started chat and it wasnt a minor "missed a bullet point" she specifically stated the presentation did not need to be turned in when in fact it does. If she were doing the grading, it would seem unlikely she would miss this considering the number of presentations she would have to review...

Maybe the course mentors assist in grading though? That would make sense...

Hypntick

I am still trying to plug away at BAC1, it's been a very painful journey. I am however at the last 2 sections of homework and I have hit the old brick wall. Previous sections I could plug things into the calculator and I was done, these however require actually working through the problem. Once I start that I get frustrated that I cannot figure out how to do the problem despite the repeated viewings of the videos, animations and tips that are given. The more frustrated I get the more I question why anyone in my profession would ever need to do something like this.

If I make it through these last 2 parts and pass my test I have 3 more math classes to go. I can honestly see myself putting those off to the very last minute and then failing miserably and ending up quitting. That's what happened on my last go at college, I did fine on everything but when I hit the math it just beat me into submission. I can tell that if i'm getting frustrated with these "basic" concepts that harder ones will just about drive me insane.

The course mentor has helped out amazingly in the earlier sections but I still have a few more days before I can speak with her again. Even with her explanations I doubt i'm going to get these last sections. If I sound like i'm defeating myself, i'm sure I am. I could probably spend an entire year or more just on the math and still not finish it.

themagicone

What are you have problems with? You can hit me up on aim, msn or email. I'll do what I can to help you.

Got all my GTT1 Programs done today. Have to wait to the new term to turn them in though. 2 weeks left of the term, time for some much needed rest.

TLeTourneau

petedude wrote: »

...It would be easier on a laptop with 16GB of RAM, admittedly. I'm having trouble finding those for sale lately, though.

I picked up an Acer 8943G primarily for doing VM's for design and testing. It has a 18.4" 1920x1080 display, I7-740QM CPU, ATI 5850 with 2GB, 4GB RAM and a 500GB 5400rpm HD. I upped the RAM to 16GB and added an OCZ Vertex 2 160GB SSD as the primary drive and used the 500GB for storage. The only downside is it's a bit heavy. The Sandy Bridge version is out now too.

Thanks,

Tom

Jack2

Lemonade727 wrote: »

Does anyone have the name of the printed book that WGU used to provide for the 1D0-435 exam? Trying to get it from my mentor as she enrolled me in the course today but she doesn't know the name of the book and is only seeing materials for the 635 supposedly available.

This is the book as listed on amazon:
Amazon.com: SM Javascript Fundmntl, G (9781581438451): PROSOFT: Books

Make sure you review the appendices on the disk as they relate to the exam objectives. The MCMCSE study guide is very spot on for the majority of the test, but not everything. Make sure you have multiple references and feel comfortable using them all. No real coding, But you will have "What is the HTML or Javascript equivilant" questions.

Best of luck on your testing

erpadmin

Jack2 wrote: »

Make sure you review the appendices on the disk as they relate to the exam objectives. The MCMCSE study guide is very spot on for the majority of the test, but not everything. Make sure you have multiple references and feel comfortable using them all. No real coding, But you will have "What is the HTML or Javascript equivilant" questions.

Best of luck on your testing

I haven't taken the test yet, but I'm finding more and more questions on frames, methods, properties, things of the nature. The newboston videos are a nice intro to Javascript, but there is no way I'd use them as my only source for Javascript.

If things don't go well Friday, I'm probably gonna have to plan B it and get that book, but I'll see how uCertify does with the mcmcse.com guide. Hopefully those three are enough.

Lemonade727

erpadmin wrote: »

I haven't taken the test yet, but I'm finding more and more questions on frames, methods, properties, things of the nature. The newboston videos are a nice intro to Javascript, but there is no way I'd use them as my only source for Javascript.

If things don't go well Friday, I'm probably gonna have to plan B it and get that book, but I'll see how uCertify does with the mcmcse.com guide. Hopefully those three are enough.

Looking forward to seeing what your results are without the book. I might have to play a little "monkey see, monkey do" if you end up buying it because you couldn't pass with the other resources.

petedude

TLeTourneau wrote: »

I picked up an Acer 8943G primarily for doing VM's for design and testing. It has a 18.4" 1920x1080 display, I7-740QM CPU, ATI 5850 with 2GB, 4GB RAM and a 500GB 5400rpm HD. . .

Way cool. I found a few days ago that Dell has a Precision notebook model that can be expanded to 32GB of RAM.

We'll see what happens. I'd like to stay in my current ol' HP NC6400 for a couple more years if I can, but depending on where life takes me I may need something with a lot more power. Usually, I would defer the VM kinda thing to my AMD desktop, but that's not real portable.

erpadmin

Lemonade727 wrote: »

Looking forward to seeing what your results are without the book. I might have to play a little "monkey see, monkey do" if you end up buying it because you couldn't pass with the other resources.

Just get into the newboston videos while reading mcmcse.com guide on the section he's talking about. Especially when he gets into objects, properties and the like. I also printed out the study guide from uCertify and am reading that while supplementing that with stuff from the Internet.

EDIT: I forgot to add http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp earlier...I've been using that too!

If you haven't gotten uCertify, I highly suggest you do so. As Jack said, there are a number of items that aren't covered in the mcmcse.com guide (like a couple of the string objects).

I'm not trying to blow this exam out of the water like I did for TSV1...I'm saving that energy for my MCITP:EA stuff (especially 70-680), which I'm gonna start immediately after (God willing.)

We'll know on Friday what's up.

petedude

TLeTourneau wrote: »

I picked up an Acer 8943G primarily for doing VM's for design and testing. It has a 18.4" 1920x1080 display, I7-740QM CPU, ATI 5850 with 2GB, 4GB RAM and a 500GB 5400rpm HD. . .

Way cool. I found a few days ago that Dell has a Precision notebook model that can be expanded to 32GB of RAM.

We'll see what happens. I'd like to stay in my current ol' HP NC6400 for a couple more years if I can, but depending on where life takes me I may need something with a lot more power. Usually, I would defer the VM kinda thing to my AMD desktop, but that's not real portable.

demonfurbie

any one ever take a exam at a prometric site (WGU voucher) and at the end of the exam it say passing score: not disclosed

ive had them say pass or not pass

i was just wondering

sheckler

Anyone know what time frame you can select for taking a web cam test? Like it doesn't say only between 8am and 5pm or anything. If I could do it at night that would be nice.

erpadmin

sheckler wrote: »

Anyone know what time frame you can select for taking a web cam test? Like it doesn't say only between 8am and 5pm or anything. If I could do it at night that would be nice.

I believe the latest you can take an exam is like 8 or 9 PM EST. I know that the earliest was 10AM.

I always had 11:00AM-1PM (EST) OLP exams on either a Saturday/Sunday. One was during a Holiday for CLC1.

You can always call Kypterion and ask them. Or the WGU Assessment Dept.

sheckler

Ugh, I got a 700 on project+ and passing is 710. So frustrating.

drew726

passed my first exam with the wgu webcam. damn dogs barking and phone calls...

ThePrimetimer

Just a real quick question about BOV1. What are the odds of someone who has NO prior programming experience, not ever with HTML, of learning and passing the JavaScript Specialist Exam in less that 3 months?

Just curious as I have been spending 2 to 3 hours a night and my Sundays dedicated to studying and am just not getting it. I have read and re-read chapters and some of what they ask to do in the labs doesn't ring a bell.

On some of the labs, I just skip trying to write what they ask as I have no idea. What I've read about this course was that a prior knowledge of HTML was required or be possessed before attempting this.

I gotta tell you, I think this is gonna be one of my hardest courses as I just don't have the mindset for programming.

Thanks for letting me rant!

earweed

demonfurbie wrote: »

any one ever take a exam at a prometric site (WGU voucher) and at the end of the exam it say passing score: not disclosed

ive had them say pass or not pass

i was just wondering

Was it a WGU test. Mine never gave the passing score required or if I passed. I always had to wait to get the score results from my mentor. These were the non-IT objective assessments.

demonfurbie

earweed wrote: »

Was it a WGU test. Mine never gave the passing score required or if I passed. I always had to wait to get the score results from my mentor. These were the non-IT objective assessments.

yea it was inc1 but i did pass

all my others showed pass or not pass when it wasnt and IT class

it was 183 questions so maybe they had to review it

earweed

demonfurbie wrote: »

yea it was inc1 but i did pass

all my others showed pass or not pass when it wasnt and IT class

it was 183 questions so maybe they had to review it

I only took a few non-IT objective assessments andthose were all over a year ago. Only 1 (forget which one) told me I'd passed right then.

erpadmin

Books 24x7 has the Javascript Bible (7th Edition). There's also a Javascript and AJAX for Dummies for those who are taking the 1D0-635. (And perhaps the 435).


I almost bought the "...Bible" but I don't like buying stuff that I'll never read again. The books I tend to keep around have been read at least once. uCertify references "...Bible" in their questions and answers so I'll be using this tonight when I get home.

BTW, as an aside: I wasn't looking for Javascript at Books 24x7. I'm looking for additional resources to help me choose a graduate school. I'm 100% set on the program (I am going for an MBA with an IT/MIS/Technology concentration.) The hard part is which "AACSB" school will I go to. Money isn't even a factor anymore...strength of program, convenience, handling "foundation courses," etc., etc are. That's stuff I'll discuss later.

jmasterj206

demonfurbie wrote: »

yea it was inc1 but i did pass

all my others showed pass or not pass when it wasnt and IT class

it was 183 questions so maybe they had to review it

183 questions for inc1? I took that a few months ago and it was only around 70.

Pishof

ThePrimetimer wrote: »

Just a real quick question about BOV1. What are the odds of someone who has NO prior programming experience, not ever with HTML, of learning and passing the JavaScript Specialist Exam in less that 3 months?

Just curious as I have been spending 2 to 3 hours a night and my Sundays dedicated to studying and am just not getting it. I have read and re-read chapters and some of what they ask to do in the labs doesn't ring a bell.

On some of the labs, I just skip trying to write what they ask as I have no idea. What I've read about this course was that a prior knowledge of HTML was required or be possessed before attempting this.

I gotta tell you, I think this is gonna be one of my hardest courses as I just don't have the mindset for programming.

Thanks for letting me rant!

Sorry to hear the new javascript exam course is giving you a hard time. Honestly, I'm not a fan of this course either, javascript just doesn't interest me and I never had a problem with .NET programming classes before.

Did you take WFV1 first? That should have at least given you some foundations for html/xhtml you'll need to at least be familiar with for javascript.

If the labs are giving you a hard time I strongly recommend making sure you at least open the completed lab files in Notepad++ (a godsend for this course that makes the code easier to follow) and going over the lab explanation in the book looking at the "answer" code.

Even if you don't complete the labs yourself simply getting familiar at looking at the code in the labs and why it's the correct answer will help you with being familiar with the syntax.

I see you're heavily studying the material and hope you're overestimated the exam. I haven't taken it yet but I think knowing the fundamentals and syntax of javascript should be sufficient.

It's not as though you'll be required to write a final javascript project or anything like a brick/mortar college would require.