The WGU Challenge - Finish in 1 term

I have decided to start a blog of sorts on my journey through WGU. I transferred in 62 credits and have 60 to go. I am pushing myself to be done in 1 term. I have 17 classes. If you do the math, 181 days divided by 17 classes gives me 10 days per class with 11 days of flex time.

Number of exams by Vendor:
CIW - 4
MS - 3
Cisco - 3
Performance - 4
Other - 3

I test pretty easily and don't see and problems with the MS and CIW exams. I am a little nervious about the Cisco exams since I have never taken one and the performance assessments because I have no idea how long it will take to finish them. That is the one thing that makes me not sure about finishing on time.

Week 1: WFV1, IT Fundamentals I, and CLC1, Reasoning and Problem Solving. Passed all practice tests for WFV1 and pre assessments for CLC1. Just waiting on my vouchers so I can schedule the exams. Starting DFV1, Web Development Fundamentals.

I had an iPad until Friday when my boss decided to give it to someone else for a while so I am in the market for a new Android tablet. I am trying to wait until Lenovo's new tablet comes out, but may wind up getting an Asus Transformer Prime.

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Comments

Psoasman

swild wrote: »

Project+ sucks. I used the Sybex book: Amazon.com: CompTIA Project+ Study Guide: Exam PK0-003 (9780470585924): Kim Heldman, William Heldman: Books Try and force yourself to read a chapter a day. I actually cranked that one out about a month before I started WGU so that I could transfer it in. The test isn't bad. For Comptia, it's one of my highest scores and I had zero interest. If you can make it all the way through the book, you can pass the test. I'm not sure about the text that WGU provides.

It's definitely boring. I'm on my 2nd read through both books. The one in the WGU COS is about 2x the size of the Sybex book, but is has good resources. I am making myself read 1-2 chapters per day, even though I'd rather watch a full disk check run

and started on the practice exams. uCertify is ok for this exam, but trying to make it through 100+ questions at one time is a bit much. The Sybex practice questions are better.

swild

I had SBT1, Technical Writing, and CNV1, CCNA:Sec, added to my AAV.

I am on the downhill slide now. I was dreading Tech Writing since I had no idea what to do it on. I have been looking into graduate programs in my spare time and ran across a page listing open PhD positions and the research topics. One in particular caught my eye and I am doing something along the same lines, but much more simplistic. I just wish I already had my Master's so I could apply for that position!

I just logged into TaskStream and printed out the proposal directions and rubric. After reading through the requirements, there is no way that I will need more than a single weekend to flush out a rough draft, possibly a complete proposal. I'm married to a writing major/grammar-**** so I have my own personal editor. 15 to 20 pages is not hard to get if you use a project management outline. Yeah, cake.

I'm also a third of the way through the LearnKey videos for IINS. I plan on reading the FLG, finishing the videos and scheduling my exams for May 25th.

Unfortunately, I have a giant time-suck of a project at work this weekend, so that will push me back by a week, otherwise I think I could be completely finished by the end of May.

powerfool

Way to go on the progress. It is like it is the 4th quarter in a big game... I am routing for you.

Krones

Keep it up. You got this. Congrats on passing the ICND 1.

swild

I don't have much of an update. I have been swamped at work and trying to get over a springtime flu, so I haven't studied much in the last 2 weeks. To get myself back in gear, I scheduled my ICND2 and IINS exams for May 28th. The closest testing center is 2 hours in one direction, so I will be sure that I will be able to pass before making that journey.

erpadmin

You really think you'll have Tech Writing and Capstone done before the term (which I believe is end of June, right)?

You are cutting it really close. I'm hearing stories from folks about Taskstream taking their sweet--- time. Get started on those papers yesterday if you're trying to finish up the term.

LayOffPayOff

Here's my non-update for the 1 term thread. I have hit a brick wall with TPV1 (project+). My only excuse is that I am having actual difficulty bringing myself to review the material, the boredom has completely defeated all momentum I had coming off ICND2. To put this in perspective, just going over "schedule planning" today has resulted in no less than 2 naps....and that is coming from someone who takes prescription medication for insomnia. Im going to ask my mentor if I can go ahead and schedule an exam for this weekend, maybe putting a deadline on this thing will do the trick.

P.S. According to my mentor, even though my term officially ends August 31, my deadline to have all work completed is actually Aug 15. Needless to say I was not pleased to hear that I effectively lost half a month. Just wanted to throw that out there for Swild in case he wasnt aware.

joshmadakor

I did Proj+ like this...

1. Force myself to read The Sybex Book (Use a program to read it for you and follow along with the words)
2. Force myself to do the questions in the chapters at least twice
3. I used uCertify until I could get 100% on all tests
4. Pass exam

Fricking hated that test so much. GL

Psoasman

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

Here's my non-update for the 1 term thread. I have hit a brick wall with TPV1 (project+). My only excuse is that I am having actual difficulty bringing myself to review the material, the boredom has completely defeated all momentum I had coming off ICND2. To put this in perspective, just going over "schedule planning" today has resulted in no less than 2 naps....and that is coming from someone who takes prescription medication for insomnia. Im going to ask my mentor if I can go ahead and schedule an exam for this weekend, maybe putting a deadline on this thing will do the trick.

You really just need to know the stages, processes and formulas. The Phillips book has a nice, condensed version of all the processes and formulas in one of the appendixes. I just typed it all out and read through it a few times.

MAC_Addy

swild wrote: »

The closest testing center is 2 hours in one direction.

Which testing center are you going to? I usually go to Harrison or Fayetteville - lately I have been going to Tulsa, since I'll actually go on a Saturday and treat my lady to a nice meal and a shopping day.

swild

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

Here's my non-update for the 1 term thread. I have hit a brick wall with TPV1 (project+). My only excuse is that I am having actual difficulty bringing myself to review the material, the boredom has completely defeated all momentum I had coming off ICND2. To put this in perspective, just going over "schedule planning" today has resulted in no less than 2 naps....and that is coming from someone who takes prescription medication for insomnia. Im going to ask my mentor if I can go ahead and schedule an exam for this weekend, maybe putting a deadline on this thing will do the trick.

P.S. According to my mentor, even though my term officially ends August 31, my deadline to have all work completed is actually Aug 15. Needless to say I was not pleased to hear that I effectively lost half a month. Just wanted to throw that out there for Swild in case he wasnt aware.

There are a lot of different deadlines in your 6th month. The 15th is the last day to request an exam or request classes to be added to your AAV. I think the 25th is the last day to schedule an exam or submit work to taskstream. Your mentor enforces some of these dates and some are inforced by the college/taskstream.

petedude

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

I more or less wasted a week but I learned something very important:
1. if theres a pre-assessment, take it
2. they require 5 days to schedule an assessment

Yup. On a few occasions I found it was better to get relatively close to ready (but not 100%) to take a given exam, then schedule it. You can use the 5 day lag to wrap up your studies so you won't end up pacing the floor or forgetting anything.

LayOffPayOff

-Project Update: Just finished TPV1 with an eerily high score.

-Post-Mortem:
Deliverables Completed - 1. PK0-003
Lessons Learned - 1. Im a big baby, 2. This class is boring, 3. The actual test was WAY easier than uCertify.

....On to DFV1. Any pointers? I have ZERO dev experience other than enough HTML to pass WFV1.

joshmadakor

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

-Project Update: Just finished TPV1 with an eerily high score.

-Post-Mortem:
Deliverables Completed - 1. PK0-003
Lessons Learned - 1. Im a big baby, 2. This class is boring, 3. The actual test was WAY easier than uCertify.

....On to DFV1. Any pointers? I have ZERO dev experience other than enough HTML to pass WFV1.

Yeah, F that test. Good job bro

Hypntick

petedude wrote: »

Yup. On a few occasions I found it was better to get relatively close to ready (but not 100%) to take a given exam, then schedule it. You can use the 5 day lag to wrap up your studies so you won't end up pacing the floor or forgetting anything.

I use that philosophy with certs as well. However I scheduled 2-3 weeks out, that way I have a hard target that I have to hit. Without the deadline I find that I have a higher inclination to just goof off.

joshmadakor

Hypntick wrote: »

I use that philosophy with certs as well. However I scheduled 2-3 weeks out, that way I have a hard target that I have to hit. Without the deadline I find that I have a higher inclination to just goof off.

I used to do this, then I noticed that it degraded my quality of life

lol

swild

After taking quite a lengthy break, I have got back into the swing of things and cranked out my Tech Writing paper over the weekend. I just emailed it to my mentor for her signature and then I will submit it to TaskStream. I also asked for my Capstone to be added to my AAV and should be able to get that submitted sometime in the next week.

I am studying this week and all weekend for the ICND2 and IINS exams that I have on the 30th. As long as I pass both of those exams, I should be finished by the end of May. I am shocked that I am able to finish a month early with as leisurely as I have been taking the last couple of months. I seriously believe that if someone didn't have a full time job, the entire degree is doable in one term.

powerfool

Good on you, swild. What are your plans after completion? Any further certs in the short term? A graduate degree? A break? A party?

I am really looking forward to finishing up school for a while, myself. At the end of this year I should be done and I plan on waiting a few years before I proceed on to an MBA. Also, the wife is finishing up nursing school at the end of the year, which will be a huge accomplishment for her because she has had a hard time getting into a program (because all of the schools around here have about 1000% applicant rate per open seat), plus she got sick really bad when she was last accepted.

The only advice I have is to make sure you don't drop off of the personal development map when you get done with this. At least keep working on something at a slow pace. It can become really difficult to get back into the swing of things if it becomes a requirement if you aren't already there.

swild

My plans are to relax for a little while. I really want to build me a new gaming computer and catch up on a few titles that all my friends have been playing: Diablo, Skyrim, Mass Effect 3.

I have decided to stay with my job for a year and take the tuition reimbursement. I could really use the money at the moment to repair my car. It's possible that I may receive a gift from one of my parents-in-law. It's been hinted at, but nothing promised yet. If that's the case, I will look for a new job ASAP and tell them to keep the tuition reimbursement. I will keep looking for the perfect position regardless of what happens.

As far as professional development is concerned, I want to take it easy for the last 6 months of the year (at least compared with the first 6). I am planning on taking my GRE general and comp sci tests, so that I can start grad school in the Fall of 2013. I am taking the CISA in December. I will probably be working towards either a couple of CCNP tests or LPI/Red Hat. At this point, it will most likely be Linux since I have the basic Cisco certs and nothing on the Linux side and I'm horribly ashamed of my severe lack of Linux knowledge.

LinuxRacr

I'm in the same boat as far as my car is concerned. It has been down since March due to the transaxle going out. I am waiting for tuition reimbursement next month to get it fixed. It is imperative that I finish up the CCENT soon. I've gotten some nods for new job opportunities, but haven't pursued due to the fact that I need to have reliable transportation reestablished first.

Congrats on being so close to the end, and good luck. We are counting on you.

swild

Oh and I have a mountain of books that I have bought but haven't had time to read in the past 6 months. It's probably close to 10k pages if you combine the casual and professional books including: Wireshark, Metasplioit, NMAP, Counter Hack Reloaded, Grey Hat Hacking, The Art of Deception, Linux Sys Admin Handbook, Linux command line bible, Linux administration beginner's guide. I know there's more on my to-be-read shelf, but that's all that comes to mind. Then there's the Asimov, Phillip K Dick, William Gibson, Michael Crichton, etc shelf that I always have a few that I haven't opened yet.

It's hard to believe that a year ago, I had no plans of ever finishing my degree and was just thinking about studying for the CISSP, now I am planning grad school.

erpadmin

swild wrote: »

As far as professional development is concerned, I want to take it easy for the last 6 months of the year (at least compared with the first 6). I am planning on taking my GRE general and comp sci tests, so that I can start grad school in the Fall of 2013.

Just FYI, you might want to look into Graduate Certificate programs that your intended schools may offer. Many people (myself included) do the grad cert programs to avoid taking the GRE/GMAT and get a waiver for those exams (assuming you do a 3.0+ GPA.) I'm hoping to do the same, assuming my school doesn't get cute, but it's definitely something you want to look at.

swild

As of right now, I am only considering 2 schools based on the curriculum: Royal Holloway and GA Tech. I'm not financially ready for either one at this point. Royal Holloway is my top choice. I would only choose GA Tech if I could get a free ride.

I would pretty much have to pay $20k for Royal Holloway with private loans and they don't require GRE scores. With GA Tech I could possibly get some scholarships or federal grants and loans but it would be $40k plus the GRE. This time next year, private loans may well be less than federal student loans.

vishusvee

Regarding the Course Review, are you referencing to Session 4 of the Learnkey video?

thanks...

swild

You will have to tell me the class you are refering to. I think you are talking about the MTA Web Dev course. Yes the course review is in the last half of section 4 of the learnkey videos.

vishusvee

Thanks for the update swild.

Yes, the following question is in regards to DFV1 Web Dev, as I am taking the course now. I'm getting ready for the exam; and after reading some post, I am a little nervous. All I know is that I watched the LearnKey videos, completed the uCertify materials successfully, yet find the MTA 98-363 textbook a little to thin. Hopefully first time is charm.

LayOffPayOff

DFV1 update. Boy am I off to a bad start with this one. Very frustrated.

The 1st fun thing was finding out about "Dreamspark", how in the world did they not tell me about this on day 1? Did all of you get a notification that I missed? It took me 3 days to download and install all the required software.

In the meantime I attempted watching the Learnkey videos and hit a brick wall almost immediately. For what is supposedly an introductory course they sure do assume you already know/understand a lot. Keep in mind, I have 0 programming experience and have never laid eyes on Visual Studio before in my life.

I asked my mentor for some help with the videos and he said "read the book first". So Im reading the book and going through the exercises. I still have to go look up various terms elsewhere because they are flat out never explained in the text. Several of the exercises dont even work the way they are described (as i discovered well after the fact by searching the WGU dev community)...

I am at a loss as to why this is so difficult, I could really use some pointers. I suppose I could just suck at programming but Im not convinced of that just yet. If BOV1 and CUV1 are anywhere near as frustrating as this then I dont see any way Im going to be able to get this done in 1 term. Bummer.

swild

If the mentor for that course is still David Kidd, he's as useless as a pile of bricks. I emailed him several times and his answer was always the same: read the book, then watch the videos, then read the book again, then watch the videos again. This was the only class I needed help with and he provided none.

Dreamspark used to be MSDN-AA, Microsoft Developer's Network - Academic Alliance. I downloaded every software package on the site and burned it to disk, just in case I need it in the future. You are also supposed to have access to a VMWare download, but I never could the site to work. It would let me add the item to my cart, but then tell me I am not authorized.

For anyone just starting out, Dreamspark access costs WGU money so they only give you access after you have been enrolled for 30 days. They will make exceptions if you are starting out with all of your liberal arts courses transferred in, but you have to ask for it.

I still say that DFV1 was the hardest class for me. The Java programming classes are quite the challenge as well, but this one is nearly impossible if you have no programming experience and only use the MS Press book. All the rest of the MTA courses are much much easier.

vishusvee

I agree with you swild. Same mentor, same philosophy, and unfortunately, I did not pass either

Pretty brokenhearted as I got great scores on the other supplements. I do not have much programming knowledge; so it's back to square one.

Any assistance on studying, and resources will be greatly appreciated.

Don't get me wrong LayoffPayoff, I believe you can do it, but it seems to not be an easy task.

itangel

I also wanted to start hard with my courses but due to new job and some changes that happen I am currently doing a lot of traveling. Internet connection at hotels are not the greatest plus the hours I am pulling can make it difficult to keep myself accelerated but I will try not to give up. Currently one math class and having problems figuring out some of the sites giving to me for homework. =/