Question about WGU voucher requests

yaboydj

Is there a certain amount if coursework that must be done before requesting a voucher for an exam? I had a two month delay in my start at WGU and have been studying for exams in preparation. I am currently enrolled in CIW fundamentals, ICND 1 and 2, and CCNA security. I plan on spending a bit of time with the Cisco classes but, seeing as I have been in this field for 12 years, the foundations course is beginning to feel tedious.

lelei

With my Mentor, I just had to do the practice exams and send her my scores. I just started on the 1st, send her the scores that day and had the voucher for the CIW exam sent to me yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy the entire process was. I would ask your mentor specifically what you need to do to show you're ready for the exam.

Valsacar

WGU recently sent a new policy about getting vouchers. You must take at least one pre-test before asking for a voucher, most mentors will require a relatively high score (mine wants to see 90% or higher) before approving you to take the real test.

demonfurbie

my mentor has never really given me an issue about getting vouchers

however im on my last class that requires one

kgb

My mentor enrolls me, within a few hours I submit voucher request to her, the same day she ok's it. This all happens before I even crack open a book. I'd have something to talk to them about if they started requiring me to pass uCertify tests, as I don't even look at that garbage anymore.

yaboydj

Thanks for the reponses. I just submitted my request for a voucher, we'll see what happens. Ready to move on from this class to the CCNA series.

Valsacar

kgb wrote: »

My mentor enrolls me, within a few hours I submit voucher request to her, the same day she ok's it. This all happens before I even crack open a book. I'd have something to talk to them about if they started requiring me to pass uCertify tests, as I don't even look at that garbage anymore.

When's the last time you did that? The policy changed June 1st to require passing at least one of the uCertify tests. I found uCertify to be decent practice questions, similar wording style to the real test without being a braindump.

kgb

Valsacar wrote: »

When's the last time you did that? The policy changed June 1st to require passing at least one of the uCertify tests. I found uCertify to be decent practice questions, similar wording style to the real test without being a braindump.

Just last week. Passed my Net+ and MTA Network in the morning, by 12pm I was enrolled in Sec+ and MTA Security classes and before I left work I had voucher requests sent off to the assessment department.

I'm glad you find uCertify useful. There's a lot of us that do not and enough people have complained that WGU is actually looking into dumping uCertify. I'm in the BS track though, so maybe it's different for the master level certs. I find them to be overly complicated explanations. For example, How to Set up a Bluetooth device, uCertify's is like 12 darn steps. On the exam... 4 steps...

I refuse to use it, and I will not. Example, I'm studying for Sec+ and MTA Security. I'm using Darril's books for it. He has plenty of questions, etc that people have swore by that taught them the information they needed to master. I will use MeasureUP (I purchase it for all my MTA's) and I will make sure I pass those practice tests.

I have a feeling mentors have freedom to tailor the learning experience towards the individual student. While there are large scope policies they are not strictly enforced.

I've taken 10 certs so far and have passed first try on each one. My mentor in a nutshell told me I've demonstrated control over my degree plan and just let her know what I need. Now, if I start failing tests and what not it wouldn't surprise me if she tightened the reigns.

Maybe, I just have one of the great mentors. I think she's awesome.

Valsacar

My mentor has been great, I've had a few fairly long conversations with her. I know some people have complained about mentors trying to get calls over with, but I haven't really felt that with mine.

uCertify isn't great, and I've found a few mistakes in some of their questions. I did feel that their questions were worded fairly similar to the real ones, which to me is helpful as that's a big part of taking a test. On the CEH I found one that had 2 correct answers, and the explination of it showed that they were dated as a few years earlier a method was found that made one of the incorrect answers correct. My mentor was really interested in that and asked that I forward her the paper I had read outlining it.

I don't use uCertify to study at all, just for the practice questions. I use them like I used cccure.org for my CISSP, the sections I don't do well in I go and study more. I agree their explanations are not always so great, actually they are pretty bad most of the time. For me, the main thing is questions worded in the same style as the real ones (I might have just been lucky that they are close to the EC-Council ones).

I don't know how much they enforce those policies, I know my mentor has said to take a practice test or two (and do well, obviously) so there's no questions when she approves me to get the voucher. I can say, EC-Council is pretty unprofessional in my experience, and their official training isn't that great. I've found some things that are flat out wrong (and reported, of course) and in some cases they have done no editing of the videos... at least 3 times (in the first 4 modules) I've heard them talking to people off camera. CEH is a pretty big cert (at least in the DoD world), but the CHFI... I'd rather see the low level GIAC cert for forensics.

kgb

Valsacar wrote: »

My mentor has been great, I've had a few fairly long conversations with her. I know some people have complained about mentors trying to get calls over with, but I haven't really felt that with mine.

I've heard that as well. I'm like you, very pleased with my mentor. We have some very short calls and have had some longer ones. She lets me control the conversation. If I want to talk, we talk, if I have questions she answers them. Guess that's one of the things I like about her. She lets me control the level of interaction I want with her. I've read about some mentors being really pushy and wanting to be in the weeds with you. Maybe, because I'm older than most, but I just need my questions answered and let me do my thing.

Valsacar

I remember our first call, when she asked me to tell her a little about my background related to the degree. I just said CISSP, she said she doesn't see me having any problems. She let's me work on as many courses as I want at a time, opens them up right away, it's all pretty easy.

Drovor

I just started but so far my mentor asked me to have 100% COS which I guess doesn't mean much since you just mark it completed. For my first course I decided to at least go through all the lessons and study guides just to be sure.

qwertyiop

yaboydj wrote: »

Is there a certain amount if coursework that must be done before requesting a voucher for an exam? I had a two month delay in my start at WGU and have been studying for exams in preparation. I am currently enrolled in CIW fundamentals, ICND 1 and 2, and CCNA security. I plan on spending a bit of time with the Cisco classes but, seeing as I have been in this field for 12 years, the foundations course is beginning to feel tedious.

It really depends on the Mentor, mine trusted me and knew that I had experience in the field so he would let submit for the vouchers without taking the re-tests and in some cases without any of the class work

yaboydj

My mentor is definitely one of the good ones. I was approved without question for my voucher and she said she knows my motivation so she won't stop me unless she has a reason to.

amcnow

I just had this conversation with my mentor. For first attempts, she will allow me to attain a voucher without any hassle. I will have to submit a successful practice test (uCertify) for any subsequent attempts. Naturally, I don't plan on failing.

Drovor

After you request for a voucher, how long does it usually take to receive the voucher?

usagent27

Usually within 24 hrs.

Drovor

Great, thanks!