The WGU Challenge - Finish in 1 term

Lucas21 · January 2012

LayOffPayOff wrote: »

Long story short I had to postpone my start date until March 1st. Im pretty frustrated but Im going to try to make the most of the extra time. My new game plan is to try to get CCNA done between now and then. What do you guys think? I imagine at the very least I should be able to complete CCENT (ICND1) and get a nice head start on ICND2...

Thanks

I been looking to join the network admin program at WGU. I also am preparing to sit for the CCNA before enrolling. I also noticed that the CCNA was added on top of the CCENT in the list of certs. Do you know what CCNA replaced in the list?

LayOffPayOff · January 2012

Lucas21 wrote: »

I been looking to join the network admin program at WGU. I also am preparing to sit for the CCNA before enrolling. I also noticed that the CCNA was added on top of the CCENT in the list of certs. Do you know what CCNA replaced in the list?

Funny you should mention that. I actually found that mistake on their site while I was going through my latest enrollment headaches. They added ICND2 to the NetAdmin program late last year but never updated the site. I had to have my counselor confirm with the program manager whether the course outline was correct or not (one of the MANY reasons I had to postpone my start date). I have since changed from Security to NetAdmin.

Lucas21, how long did it take you to prepare for both exams?

Lucas21 · January 2012

It took me about two months. I am now in the labs phase and getting some practice using GNS3. And will soon be doing practice exams.

As for the netadmin certs, I'm pretty sure they were 13 before without the CCNA added in. Or were the certs only 12 at first?

davidboy · January 2012

wow so basically what i do in 2 years for my upper division classes after my associates degree is what you will be doing in 1 term.. i feel like im wasting my time

swild · January 2012

davidboy wrote: »

wow so basically what i do in 2 years for my upper division classes after my associates degree is what you will be doing in 1 term.. i feel like im wasting my time

That's my goal. So far I am actually ahead of schedule as well.

I was planning on having my 3rd class done by 1/26 and I have the exam scheduled for 1/19, a week early. DFV1 is going much more smoothly now.I just finished lesson 3 of 7. 2 and 3 went pretty well. I think lesson 4 should be finished in a couple of hours. Chapter 5 may take a little longer but I hope to have it finished today.

Also, after looking through KET1, I decided to push it back after I finish CUV1 and BOV1. BOV1 should get me going in Javascript so that I can hopefully get through KET1 faster.

I'm excited to be learning all of this web programming and I really wish that I had an interest in it because I think I could be really good at it.
Linking a webpage to a SQL server alone feels extremely powerful even though I am BARELY scratching the surface.

LinuxRacr · January 2012

swild wrote: »

That's my goal. So far I am actually ahead of schedule as well.

I was planning on having my 3rd class done by 1/26 and I have the exam scheduled for 1/19, a week early. DFV1 is going much more smoothly now.I just finished lesson 3 of 7. 2 and 3 went pretty well. I think lesson 4 should be finished in a couple of hours. Chapter 5 may take a little longer but I hope to have it finished today.

Keep at it. You may actually pull me along faster as well, kind of like a fast-moving object creates a vortex.

I'm trying to complete my second class this week. I just took the pre-assessment for BNC1, and even though I passed, I now know where I need to focus on to make sure I can pass the final assessment.

I'm excited to be learning all of this web programming and I really wish that I had an interest in it because I think I could be really good at it.
Linking a webpage to a SQL server alone feels extremely powerful even though I am BARELY scratching the surface.

I hear you on this. I'm looking forward to building a server soon at home where I can run some virtual machines to do all the experimenting I will ever want to do.

swild · January 2012

LinuxRacr wrote: »

My wife is making fun of me for always using my new purple WGU Texas mug. She says it is almost as if you never had a coffee mug before...lol...

I just got my blue mug and welcome kit in the mail on Sat. It's actually not as ugly as I expected it to be. I did have to throw out the mouse pad immediately upon opening, such a horrible stench.

The biggest surprise is the picture frame. I really like it but kinda feel weird putting a picture of myself in it.

Just kidding. I need to get my favorite picture of my wife re-sized so that I can stick it in there.

LinuxRacr · January 2012

I am trying to figure out something more dramatic to put in my picture frame...such as a picture of a dead-end alley, or a pink slip...

swild · January 2012

If I had a pink slip, that would be perfect. Hmm, now that you mention it, I may have a rejection email somewhere that I could put in there.

Also, I hate updates. Why is it I always choose to install updates during the day that take an hour to install during restart. At least I have 4 computers on my desk right now. Unfortunately, only one has Visual Studio installed.

swild · January 2012

Just finished working through the Web Dev text for DFV1. Tomorrow I will spend as much of the day as I can working on practice exams in uCertify. I plan to start Web Technologies CUV1 on Wednesday to give my brain a break from this topic and go back and either do another practice exam on Thursday or just look over my weak areas before my test at 2:30.

swild · January 2012

I sadly haven't had time to study in over 24 hours. I think I'm having withdrawls. I just got a boatload of stuff to do at work so it will probably be tomorrow or Saturday before I get to do any more. I am still running 8 days ahead of schedule at this point so I am still happy.

I talked with my mentor yesterday and accelerated CUV1 into my schedule starting today and ending on 2/10. I have experience in most of the topics of that course, just not with the specific tools they use (Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash). The course mentor says to not even worry about flash and to skip the labs as it is barely covered in the exam. I still plan on reading through most if not all of it and doing some of the labs because flash is something I am curious about.

I have my DFV1 exam today. I did all the practice tests on uCertify twice and averaged an 800. I will see this afternoon how well the uCertify tests measure up the the actual thing and let you know.

swild · January 2012

For the first time in my life, I have failed an exam. I went through the text, worked every lab and every example.

I am shocked at the volume of material that was flat out not covered in the book. I didn't respect Microsoft much before, but now now its even less. If you are going to test me over it, at least give me the chance to learn it from the official course textbook.

I was only 1 question away from passing. I will reschedule for next week and try again.

MTA 98-363. I'm really glad I chose the emphasis with the least number of Microsoft tests.

certhelp · January 2012

swild wrote: »

For the first time in my life, I have failed an exam. I went through the text, worked every lab and every example.

I am shocked at the volume of material that was flat out not covered in the book. I didn't respect Microsoft much before, but now now its even less. If you are going to test me over it, at least give me the chance to learn it from the official course textbook.

I was only 1 question away from passing. I will reschedule for next week and try again.

MTA 98-363. I'm really glad I chose the emphasis with the least number of Microsoft tests.

Sorry to hear you didn't pass. Certiport website has sample questions. Are the test/exam questions harder than the samples?

swild · January 2012

The certiport website is kinda hard to navigate. Where are the practice questions? The only thing I found was a link to measureup where they sell practice tests. I will probably be buying that just for a little extra practice.

erpadmin · January 2012

First of all I'm sorry about the fail.

How did this exam compare against the type of questions you encountered on the Windows 7 exam? I really am curious about how the questions are presented on MTA exams compared to non-MTA Microsoft exams. Were the MTA questions more straightforward, or were they presented in similar fashion as what you encountered in the 680? I'm not asking you to violate NDA...I don't care what questions you were asked.

The reason for my curiousity is I'm wondering if these MTAs actually help people prepare for the real MS exams.

certhelp · January 2012

swild wrote: »

The certiport website is kinda hard to navigate. Where are the practice questions? The only thing I found was a link to measureup where they sell practice tests. I will probably be buying that just for a little extra practice.

ftp://ftp.certiport.com/marketing/MTA/docs

swild · January 2012

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gotta wait 2 weeks before I can retake that exam, so says WGU.

Also, that ftp link doesn't work for me. Just times out. Ah wait. Just realized it's probably my work blocking ftp connections.

Double BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

It's been a quite a long day. And I just found out that I have to work the Saturday of my anniversary weekend. Triple boo.

Whatever. I swear the dice are rigged.

erpadmin · January 2012

Yah know if you have a smartphone....perhaps USB tethering will work best. You can bypass those pesky little firewalls at work.

(You'll have to disable the NIC you use at work though while doing that, however.) Get easytether if you have an android phone and call it a day.

BTW, did you see my last question to you regarding the MTA exams? I really am curious about the level of difficulty vs. an exam like the 680.

swild · January 2012

erpadmin wrote: »

Yah know if you have a smartphone....perhaps USB tethering will work best. You can bypass those pesky little firewalls at work. (You'll have to disable the NIC you use at work though while doing that, however.) Get easytether if you have an android phone and call it a day.

BTW, did you see my last question to you regarding the MTA exams? I really am curious about the level of difficulty vs. an exam like the 680.

I did and I thought that I replied but it looks like it didn't post.

The questions themselves are pretty simple. However, the answers are all very similar and sometimes only different by single character of syntax. Some of the questions had to do with very specific items that were never addressed in specifics in the text. Trying not to break the NDA, an example would be knowing the options regarding the possible values of a property in a psudo-class on an external style sheet. The choices all made logical sense, but unless you had gone over that specific property before, there is no way to know which is correct. And that property was not covered in the book.

The questions themselves on the 680 were more complicated, but the answers, and therefore the difficulty of the question, were just as hard.

swild · February 2012

I have missed my studies for the past week. literally nothing accomplished. I was off work sick for 3 days and then had a vacation planned for my anniversary. I started back to work yesterday and am finding it hard to get back in the swing. I am re-testing for DFV1 tomorrow. The only thing I have done is LearnKey, which is what the course mentor told me to do. I even asked if there were any other resources that I could buy and he is sold on LearnKey. Lecture just really doesn't work for me, but I am giving it my best shot. From the failure, I can tell that the labs in LearnKey are useless. You need to have a good grasp on the page load order, but you don't need to have the steps memorized.

I just finished Lesson 2, did the post assessment and scored a 26/37. needed a 30 to pass. Printed out the study guide, went over the sections that I missed questions in and retook the post assessment and scored a 36/37. I think one of those questions is messed up. I still think that I am going to buy the MeasureUp exams tonight just for more study. I hate failing and I will really hate having to pay for an exam out of pocket.

Its gonna be a long night to get through the other 2 sections and possibly the MeasureUp test.

swild · February 2012

DFV1 Passed with a 76. Doing the math, that means I only got 3 more questions right this time around.

Oh, and by the way, at least 25 of the 35 questions were identical to the first time around. That was very surprising. Since there was only 35 questions, I expected there to be a large question pool. Now I know for my next MTA, I will try to memorize any questions I'm not 100% sure on to look up, just in case I fail again. Glad to have this behind me. Did not use MeasureUp. I only studied the LearnKey videos since my last test. My best word of advice is to memorize every word of the Course Review at the end of lesson 4. You could nearly get by on that alone. Just wish I would have had it in writing so I could have remembered it easier.

Next up is CUV1 Web Technologies. I'm halfway through the CIW book now and plan to knock out most of the rest of it this weekend and schedule the test for the end of next week. I gotta knock out CUV1 and BOV1 in February just to stay on track.

LinuxRacr · February 2012

I hear ya. The last two weeks in January, I didn't get much done due to EVERYONE in my house being sick, and other family needs during, and after. I had to remind everyone in my house that I am in school, and they would have to figure stuff out. The other thing that happened is that I had to prepare to possibly be laid off from work. Luckily I dodged yet another round of lay offs, but there are no guarantees for the future. With that said, I'm re doubling my efforts to advance my knowledge and career, and nothing will stand in my way.

swild · February 2012

I'm back into the swing of things so much that I forgot to update this thread.

I have been reading nonstop and am testing tomorrow for CUV1 Web Technologies, aka CIW Web Design Specialist. I read through most of the giant textbook, skipping a couple of chapters on Flash. I took a couple of practice exams this morning and averaged a 90% so I think I am pretty well prepared for it. I will take a couple of more exams in the morning before my test and that should do it for me. The material from CIW really does prepare you for their exams. Wish I could say the same for MS.

Next up is BOV1 Web Programming. I'm giving myself 2 weeks to finish this one but am going to try to hammer it out in one. I went through Chapter 1 on my lunch break today and should be able to put in more time than usual this weekend because I am not volunteering this week.

After BOV1 is KET1. I ordered the Head First Java book used from Amazon for $16 and received it yesterday. It was actually shorter than I expected it to be and in a quick flip through it, I saw a whole lot of white space.

Current Timeline:

February:
CUV1 (CIW test)
BOV1 (CIW test)
Start KET1

March:
Finish KET1(performance test)
KFT1 (performance test)
DJV1 (Microsoft MTA test)

April:
BNC1 (Scored 78% on Pretest, easy pass)
CVV1 (Microsoft MTA test)
CJV1 (CIW test)
MGC1 (scored 69% on pretest, easy pass)
Start COV1

May:
Finish COV1 (Cisco)
CQV1 (Cisco)
Start CNV1

June:
Finish CNV1 (Cisco)
SBT1
RGT1 <Capstone>

I really want to see if my mentor will let me take my capstone before my Cisco courses because I plan on starting into CCNP studies directly after graduation. I get a new mentor in a couple of weeks and really hope they are as good as the one I have now. After starting into Javascript, and briefly looking at Java, I don't think either of those will be an issue. I have plenty of Database experience, so that isn't going to be a problem either. The MTA exams frighten me since it took me 2 attempts at my last one to pass. But then there's the fun part, Cisco!

swild · February 2012

As usual the CIW study materials are way overkill for the actual exam. I read the first volume of the text book and skipped over to the exam study guide. Passed with an 84%. The practice exams are a fairly good representation of the types of questions you will see.

I've started on BOV1 and and am on chapter 2 of 13. Going to try and knock out at least 4 chapters tomorrow. I'm liking this CIW text more than the last. They don't flat out give you the code you need to put in. They have a section about a new method and then tel you to use that method in a specific way building upon previous lessons. The labs have completed versions in the lab files so you can check your code if something is amiss.

Tonight I'm taking a break and watching The Social Network.

jmasterj206 · February 2012

Is that for the IDO-520 exam swild? If so that is good to know since it seems like Volume 2 is specific on certain graphic programs.

swild · February 2012

Yes it is. After looking through the study guide, I skimmed over the section on Dreamweaver but there really wasn't anything new to be seen there. It has a couple of extra features over Expressions Web, but I prefer Expressions. I skimmed the first chapter of the section on Flash and just pulled out the main ideas. Then I skipped over to the section on Feeds. That's something you should read completely if you have never used an aggregator before. If you understand aggregators and feed burners, then you know all you need to. I honestly don't even remember anything else that was in the 2nd volume.

swild · February 2012

BOV1 is done. I passed with a 49/55 which is 89%. It was a miserable experience because I had a full blown migraine about 10 minutes into it. It was unrelated to the exam. Perfume allergy.

I took the online pretest and only scored 80%. The real exam had quite a few questions about basic syntax. Debugging code with a massive migraine is not fun. Once again the CIW materials more than prepare you to pass the exam. The downside is that I was only learning enough to pass the test and couldn't code Javascript to save my life, so the actual certification is kinda useless. However, if you truly want to learn Javascript, the CIW material is very nice. I went through the whole course in just 7 days.

For the last 3 weeks, I have been reading 1000 pages a week, just for CUV1 and BOV1. I'm ready for a little break.

So begins KET1 and KFT1. I've started reading Head First Java. It's dreadful. Unfortunately, I do think it will be a quick read and probably the fastest introduction for learning Java. I also picked up another Java book at a thrift store for $3 called Java How to Program 4th ed by Deitel & Deitel, from 2002. It's full color, similar to Notepad++, and will make for a good reference and possibly a second voice if I find something confusing. It was written for Java 2 (1.3) so it's a tad dated, but only $3. I found it on Amazon. Currently on it's 9th ed and the cover price is $135, so it's an actual textbook. As long as I can finish both of these classes in 3 weeks, I should still be on schedule.

erpadmin · February 2012

swild wrote: »

April:
BNC1 (Scored 78% on Pretest, easy pass)
MGC1 (scored 69% on pretest, easy pass)

I really want to see if my mentor will let me take my capstone before my Cisco courses because I plan on starting into CCNP studies directly after graduation. I get a new mentor in a couple of weeks and really hope they are as good as the one I have now. After starting into Javascript, and briefly looking at Java, I don't think either of those will be an issue. I have plenty of Database experience, so that isn't going to be a problem either. The MTA exams frighten me since it took me 2 attempts at my last one to pass. But then there's the fun part, Cisco!

First of all, if all you have left is Capstone/Tech writing WHILE you have the Cisco class, I don't see how he wouldn't let you take the writing courses. That's exactly what I had for my last term, Cap/Tech and 4 MS exams. It was beneficial for me to get the writing over with.

Second, I don't understand why you'd wait for April to take ORC1/BNC1 if you already bothered with the preassessments and got an "easy pass." I pretty much did the same thing and took both exams (ORC1 and MGC1) a day apart. Was done with them in swift order. The stuff I wasn't very familiar with in the preassessment, like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, was just googled and read.

Be done with those courses and call it a day. The real exams are not that much different than the preassessments. Plus, think of the boost you'll get when you have those courses knocked out.

swild · February 2012

My mentor suggested that I should keep some easy passes on hand in case I don't get to finish in one term. That way I will have some easy credits for the next term. I do understand her perspective since I'm sure a lot of people come in saying they are going to finish in one term and then can't follow through. I just had BNC1 added to my AAV to get it out of the way. I think I've proven that I am capable of finishing in one term at this point.

I woke up with a rebound migraine this morning so I doubt I will be able to get much studying done.

I looked through the KET1 course and all of the "required" exercises on Wiley plus. Glad I know enough to skip all that crap. Downloaded the Task 1 and 2 documents and will hopefully get started on that this afternoon, if I'm feeling better.

I'm feeling pretty good having 17 CUs done in only 7 weeks, and another 6 that will be easy to knock out. Still dreading that DJV1 MTA exam.

erpadmin · February 2012

With respect to your mentor, I don't agree with that. Even though I was could only pass a WGU in three terms, instead of one, if I was shown that I could pass a class (like CLC1, ORC1 and MGC1) I passed it accordingly. I think knocking out courses that are "easy" [and again, "easy" is relative, folks...Cisco might be "easy" for some, for example, as well as those programming classes] will help you see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only that, but the quicker you can knock out CUs, the quicker you, yourself can start work on that idea paper for tech writing.

You should get BNC1 and ORC1 done with and over with. Then you can focus more on your other CUs while knowing that you are closer to your end goal.

My whole thing is that even if you don't finish in one term....hard CUs or easy CUs, they still have to get done anyway. Might as well get the easy ones out of the way.

The WGU Challenge - Finish in 1 term

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