C170 - Data Management Applications - In the bag!!!

Did I say I was going to buckle down?  In good news.....I coach an all girls Lego robotics team.  We won first place at the regional NASA Apollo 50 Next Giant Leap challenge in July and a trip to NASA/Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Between all the excitement of that, back to school, Girl Scouts, robotics team, planning for Florida and some big projects at home and at work, I just got off track. REALLY OFF TRACK!

I started on C170 Data Management Applications in June before I was even done with my last term.  I got bored reading the text and went on to Statistics, which I passed the second week of this term (previous post).  Then I did almost nothing for 2.5 months.  That's HORRIBLE!!!!!!  Wasteful, irresponsible, etc!  There's just so much going on in my life, I struggled to commit and get back in gear.

My mentor was very kind and gave a few well deserved nudges.  I spent about a week really focused on the C170 course material.  I took the multiple choice pre-assessment (practice test) on Thursday and passed just fine.  I took the multiple choice OA yesterday evening, passed just fine.  It was very similar to the pre-assessment.  I took the simulation lab exam just now, and passed 100%.  It is identical to the labs in the course material.  Really!  A WEEK!!!  I could've been done with it 2 months ago!  <bangs head against wall for stupidity>.

What's next?  Well....I have no time to spare at this point.  I have 3 classes to complete in 12 weeks.  It can be done, but I've still got all of my obligations and a week long trip to Florida before the end of term.  So, C173 'Scripting and Programming Foundations' here I come.  I started last night and got through the first chapter and a half.  When I enrolled in this course, I received a link to a 14 day plan for passing the class....um, YES PLEASE!  I need to get this done before I leave in 27 days.  What I've read so far, I could've easily skipped, so I'm hopeful this will go quick.  In a perfect world I will be done with C173 and starting on C859 'Intro to Python' before I go.

Moral of the story, don't be like me and waste tons of time making essentially no progress.  Time is money, and less time equals stress.  But if you do find yourself in a similar situation and you just can't dig yourself out, contact your mentor, they will help you with goal setting and motivation.  Remember why you're on this adventure.  And remember, if you don't show ANY progress (at least logging in and viewing course material) in 2 weeks, you'll get a warning letter.  At least, that's what is supposed to happen, there's a new policy on it at WGU.  I always did at least did that much so that wouldn't happen to me.

One more down!  17 classes to go.  Credit wise, including my transferred credits, I am at the half way point.  60 credits left out of 120.

C955 - Applied Probability and Statistics -- Finished!!!

So, I got a little to crazy with things in my personal life and couldn't focus on SQL queries anymore.  I switched gears and launched into Applied Probability and Statistics.  This is the new course, replacement for C459 Intro to Probability and Statistics.  I enjoy math so I felt this would be easier to focus on at the moment.  I love the flexibility that WGU gives me to change gears mid-class in a term if I feel the need.  As you can see, the class dates I specified for my degree plan in my last post, are already out of sequence, and it's OK.

I activated the course on Monday (today is Thursday).  I spent about 6 hours on the first 5 chapters out of 7.  I love math, so it was no problem to wiz through it.  I took the practice test at about 3:00am early Tuesday morning and passed with room to spare.  I'd read in the Facebook groups that chapters 6 and 7 are heavily weighted on the test and that's where I fell a little short on the practice exam.  I spent Tuesday and Wednesday evening on chapter 6 and this evening I only had enough time to quickly review chapter 7.  My exam was at 9:00pm.  It took me about an hour of the 2 hours allotted.

It looks like there are some great cohort videos pre-recorded for this course, as well as handouts for them.  I didn’t use these resources.  I only used the online text and included quizzes.

I think this was the most confident I've been so far out of all of my exams.  That might be the last time I feel that way, we'll see.  :)  I'm thankful to be done.  Funny note:  My scoring grid was almost exactly the opposite for the Pre-Assessment.  I had 100% on all the math, and just short of "exemplary" on the last 2 categories.  I'm tired, and it's possible I may have rushed a little and been careless on a couple of the math questions.

I am ready to spend the weekend camping.  I may spend some time on SQL next week before I leave for a long weekend with my girls' robotics team for a competition out of town.  I can also download the textbook to my iPad and take it along, but I doubt I would study on the trip.  If not, definitely time to buckle down and knock out Data Management Applications (C170) when I get back.

My Program Got an Update? Now What? Third Term Planning with Changes

Nothing is certain in life except change (and death and taxes).  I knew going in to WGU that programs were occasionally updated.  Being a computer major, I recognize and appreciate the importance of keeping my coursework in line with current trends and technologies.

I remembered reading in my original degree program plan two important tidbits about program changes.  1) You don't have to change your program to the newest version and 2) Changes won't increase the amount of time it takes to complete your degree, aka no additional credits.

So, what changed?

General Education courses:

• Intermediate Algebra (3) + College Algebra (4) => Applied Algebra (3) = -4 cu
• Integrated Physical Sciences (3) => Integrated Physical Sciences (3) + Natural Science Lab (2) = +2 cu
• Survey of US Constitution and Govt => American Politics and the US Constitution = 0 cu Δ
• Intro to Probability and Statistics => Applied Probability and Statistics = 0 cu Δ

Computer courses:

• Data Structures => Data Structures and Algorithms I = 0 cu Δ
• Ethics in Technology -- new course = +3 cu (waived due to meeting double math requirement already) -- this was where "won't increase completion time" came into play

My total credits did not change and my time to complete my program did not change.

That was the first hurdle.  The second was, turning on the new degree plan wiped out my degree plan.  All the courses I had meticulously thought through and put in the order I wanted and even set dates for, gone.  Thankfully I had saved screenshots last week.  I spent this evening rebuilding my degree plan.

In addition to my program requirements changing, WGU changed their policies a bit starting July 1, 2019.  Here's the summation to the best of my understanding:

1. Weekly meetings with student/program mentors is no longer required - If you want a standing meeting great.  If you want occasional meetings as needs arise, great
2. The change made in December where you can't have more than 14 days of inactivity is still in effect
3. Students no longer need a course mentor to turn on a pre-assessment or get approval for a first attempt at a PA/OA -- this will speed things up, especially for students that keep odd hours
4. Courses cannot be activated outside of your current enrollment - you can look at the overviews, but cannot activate to read course material or take pre-assessments unless you enroll in the course in your current term.  Some are worried this will slow down their "acceleration" through their program.  At this point, this does not worry me, I think my acceleration window has passed, my remaining courses will take what they take time-wise.  We'll see if it impacts me later.
5. If you do pull in a course but are unable to finish, you are allowed to take a 30 day incomplete, and finish it at the beginning of your next term.  This is meant to help accelerators with the above mentioned issue.  I don't intend to use this "safety net" as I'm not sure what my employer would do with my tuition reimbursement if an "I" showed on my transcript.

So, here I am, starting my third term with WGU.  I'm excited about my upcoming classes and cautiously optimistic about the changes to everything.

I Think I'll Squeeze One In --- C175 PASSED!

Before finishing English Comp, I was feeling pretty confident.  I decided to take a look at my next class, C175 Data Management Foundations.  I activated the course, without pulling it into my term, and glanced through the material.  It sure seemed like a course I could complete in short order.

I pulled the course into my second term and I was right.  I spent about 4 days going through the course material, practice test, quizzes and flash cards.  I finished on 6/13.  It felt good to wipe a class out of the way so quickly.  Three cheers for competency based education!  I suspect this is the last course of my college career that will be so easy.

BS DMDA Progress After Second Term

Not to lose my momentum, I activated my next course C170 Data Management Applications - it's a basic vendor neutral SQL course.  I'm thinking this one will go fairly quick as well.  I won't pull it into my second term, I'll save it for a quick success at the beginning of next semester.

In other good news, I was awarded a scholarship at work.  Each year they give out 1 $1000 scholarship for an employee pursuing coursework in IT or business.  Yay me!!!

All in all, I'd say this was a successful semester and a successful end to my first full year with WGU.  2 terms down, 4 to go.  Now that the IT basics are out of the way, it's time for the fun to begin.  My third term will be mostly programming basics, fourth will be SQL heavy, and the last 2 will be all data analytics related.  It's getting exciting!

C455 English Composition and Task Stream

C455, English Composition I, was my first experience with PAs (Performance Assessments) using WGU's Task Stream.  Task Stream is the system by which a student uploads papers and presentations to a queue to be graded.  It's a simple browse to select your file or drag and drop, you can leave a kind note for the reviewer, and hit submit.  If a paper, it gives you an "originality score", which is structured backwards in my opinion.  My papers have all received an originality score of 0%, which means they are completely original.  Logically, I would think they would be 100%.  Oddly, the score directly equates to what percentage of your paper is unoriginal.

Once submitted, it's a waiting game.  Your submission status starts out as "submitted", then moves to "in queue" quite quickly.  They have 72 hours to complete the grading of your submission.  The next status is "In Evaluation", followed by "Evaluation Done".  If you've signed up for them, the system will give you an automated message on the student portal, text message and email once your evaluation is complete.  Within 72 hours you'll know if you passed or if your item was kicked back to you for revision.  I've not needed revisions to work yet, but as I understand, they will let you know what you are lacking.  I'll likely need revisions to something at some point in the next 2 years.  It's not a big deal, make your changes, review with a course instructor or writing lab, and resubmit.

I hate writing for the sake of writing.  I like writing when I'm actually learning something or have something to say (clearly, LOL).  Across my entire college career this is my 4th attempt at this class.  Not because I'm not capable, but because life always got in my way.  I hate English Comp 101, it is my collegiate nemesis.

For C455, for IT majors, I strongly recommend attending the corresponding cohort (live interactive webinar) for IT majors.  The instructor breaks down exactly what is needed and in what format for each of the 4 papers including how many paragraphs and how many sentences in each paragraph, how to structure your thesis statements and paper formatting.  I used the APA guide included in the course material to confirm my reference page citations.  I also used the formatting video provided in the course to be sure my papers were formatted correctly, title page, headers, indents, etc.  Aside from these formatting checks, I did not use the course material at all.

If you're unsure about anything, the course instructors are wonderful.  Set up an appointment with one of them or shoot them an email.  They are happy to review your thesis, and even glance at your paper to help with proper citations and general flow.  I had one formal meeting with my course instructor, I put my paper in Google Docs, and shared it to her, we reviewed it live together.  I received 2 impromptu follow up calls from course instructors offering to be of assistance.  If you need in depth tutoring, the writing lab team is supposed to be extremely helpful as well.

As of the publishing date/time of this post, I have completed the first 2 tasks and submitted a third which is currently "in queue".  I am working on the fourth and final task for the course at the moment.  Wish me luck!

C480 Network+, Thank Goodness It's Over!

There are 2 courses I've dreaded most in my first year at WGU, this is the first one.  Dreaded for it's complexity, depth of knowledge and for the fact that I resent having to take this class.  I feel that networking, cabling, wireless and security were all covered extensively enough in Intro to IT, A+ Certification and Network and Security Foundations for my major.  This class is excessive and the stress level induced is torturous!

March 3rd, the day I passed C172, I took the pre-assessment for C480, and scored a respectable (in my mind) 67%.  After that I struggled to work through the videos provided in the course, and other resources.  So boring, so not what I wanted to spend my time doing, I really don't like this subject matter.  I can't tell you how many videos I fell asleep watching, or drooped off mid scroll through seemingly endless network diagrams.  This was a struggle that got me nowhere over a period of 2.5 months, yes I said months.

May 23rd, I attempted the pre-test again.  75% <insert head banging on wall>

Aside from the fact that I hate this class, why couldn't I get this stuff stuck in my head?!  My weak spots were definitely OSI, subnetting, cable specifications, IP routing, command line and troubleshooting.  There was no time to waste, my exam date was set for May 30th a week away, and I needed to make measurable strides in this course.

On May 25th, I spent 5 hours on subnetting, I reviewed several "quick" methods online, but most of them seemed to rely on doing a brain dump of a table as soon as your test started.  I knew there was going to be so much going on in my brain, that wasn't a good add on.  I worked on subnetting until it clicked in my brain, and then did oodles of practice questions to make sure I had it down.  I am happy to report I can answer most subnetting questions in less than 45 seconds with no table or calculator!  This website is a wonderful subnetting quiz resource:  https://www.subnetting.net/Subnetting.aspx?mode=practice

Studying via test question worked last time, so I went through all the quizzes again and another practice test.  I completed all of the labs (which I hadn't done previously).  On May 26th, I took a practice test that while part of the course work, was provided by another vendor, I did awful, 64%!  I found there to be many more troubleshooting and concept related questions rather than technical regurgitation questions.

My stress ramped up a ton!  4 days til my test and I was clearly not grasping these concepts.  I went to the WGU College of IT Facebook group and asked my peers, "how am I ever going to get this done?"  Someone gave me great advice that fit in the same vein as my "study via test question" approach.  He said there was a mastery mode built into the course, I did not know this, so I dug a little and found it.  It asks you every test/quiz question and many of the labs built into the course, 3 times.  Yes, 3 times.  If it asks you once and you get it correct, great, it will still ask you 2 more times, if you get one of those wrong, you start over at 0.  And it goes on that way until you get all of the questions correct.  I was sure to read all of the explanations when I got a question wrong, and even those I got right, to help make the concepts stick.  I think there are 598 questions total.  It took me 3 days to complete it all, many many hours.

On the morning of May 30th, I took one final practice test, the official post-assessment, and scored a 96%.  I was still plenty nervous, but I felt like this would be ok.  If not, I had another month in my term to try again, but I was sure hoping I wouldn't need a second chance.  I arrived early at the test center (the local community college).  Anticipating that I would need the whole 90 min and no breaks allowed, I used the restroom and then checked in for my test.

It did take me the whole 90 minutes, but I passed with room to spare.  I felt like having subnetting down saved me in about 6 questions, and there were several troubleshooting scenario questions.  There were 79 questions on my test.  The score is out of a possible 900, with 720 being the passing score.  I scored 780!  I had a good cry, followed by a steak dinner with my family, followed by a blizzard and a quiet bubble bath.  Network+ was the highest tech certification achieved by my father in his tech career, so he was a proud dad.

 I am now CompTIA A+ and Net+ certified and a CIOS specialist.  Bummer that you have to recert every 3 years.  I'll have to look into the logistics of that.  The last CompTIA certification required by my program is Project+.  I'm not positive yet what term I'll tackle that one. 

C172 Network and Security Foundations - Passed!

I started studying for C172 in mid January after completing C168.  Network and Security Foundations takes all the basic knowledge from Intro to IT and A+, focuses on the network, infrastructure/cabling, and security components but dives deeper.

I began with the pre-assessment built into the course material and scored an abysmal 50% on the nose.  One of the great things about the WGU courses is that the pre-assessment tells you exactly where you went wrong, so you can focus your studying efforts and save time.  I admit, I was discouraged, and didn't look at the course for about 5 weeks (I did get some English Comp papers done though).  Then I resigned myself to getting this class done.  After spending almost 2 weeks reading through my weaker chapters (I'm looking at YOU cable specifications and subnetting), I took another crack at the pre-assessment and had improved to only 72%.  This was not good news.

I had a feeling that maybe some of my answers weren't completely wrong, but either that the text wanted a specific answer (when other answers are satisfactory), or I was really overthinking things.  I adopted the strategy of learning from test questions.  For the next 24 hours I drilled through test questions, reviewing each one, even if I got them correct, to solidify them in my brain.  The next day I took the post-assessment, which is the test that should be used as a gauge for final exam readiness, and I got a 99%.  Just to be on the safe side, I went back and reviewed all of the chapter quizzes for my weaker topics.

The next day, I took the OA and passed!  Based on how the practice test was graded, I probably missed 1 in networking concepts, and 2-4 in the other 2 categories.  Not bad!  It is helpful to know where my weak areas still lie, since my next course is C480 Network+ certification.

Critical Thinking and Logic - passed

My second term is off to a great start.  I have completed Critical Thinking and Logic (C168) on schedule.  I activated the course back in December before my first term was over and enrolled in it on Jan 1.  WGU allows you to activate a course in your degree plan at any time.  The upside of this is that you can start studying for a course and even attend Cohorts (interactive webinars with course instructors) without it being part of your current term.  The downside is that it locks you into the course content and exam version.  This is not recommended if you're going to be taking a tech cert that is going to change versions by time you are ready for the exam.

My approach to the course was as follows:  I reviewed the first 4 modules and passed the practice exam (PreA).  I attended both course Cohorts.  In the last week in preparation for the exam, I went back through the first 4 modules, completed all practice questions and reviewed my PreA results.

Like the PreA, I found most of the questions to be common sense.  On the exam there were questions about "Critical Thinking in the Disciplines."  This is covered in module 7, a chapter I didn't study, and I didn't score well on those questions, I am not surprised.  In hindsight, I would recommend a quick review of module 7.  ☺

5 courses down, 23 to go!!!!