Tinwhistler's college journey as an old man

As an example of a subject that I'm not just going to be able to blaze through: American Politics and the US Constitution. I barely passed the pre-assessment. It was full of questions about all the different amendments (and I only know a few), and a bunch of supreme court cases (of which, I only know a few) and some history. Sure, I passed the PA, but not with enough margin to give me confidence on the final. Probably spend a week on this course boning up.
1591203529896.png
 
hah! My 4th essay got returned for revision. It was based on the 3rd essay--essay 3 described a problem. Essay 4 gave solutions. And while I was cutting things out of essay 3 and rewriting them as solutions, I forgot to modify the thesis. So I had a final line of the first paragraph pointing out the problems, but no sentence summing up the solutions as a thesis. So, it was sent back to me for revision.

Had the thesis in my notepad document with my research. I just forgot to paste it in. Revision sent back in 5 minutes after the essay got kicked back. Now I wait 3 more days for grading.

Don't let it be said that WGU doesn't rigorously check this stuff, no matter how fast I may be blazing through some classes ;)
 
hah! My 4th essay got returned for revision. It was based on the 3rd essay--essay 3 described a problem. Essay 4 gave solutions. And while I was cutting things out of essay 3 and rewriting them as solutions, I forgot to modify the thesis. So I had a final line of the first paragraph pointing out the problems, but no sentence summing up the solutions as a thesis. So, it was sent back to me for revision.

Had the thesis in my notepad document with my research. I just forgot to paste it in. Revision sent back in 5 minutes after the essay got kicked back. Now I wait 3 more days for grading.

Don't let it be said that WGU doesn't rigorously check this stuff, no matter how fast I may be blazing through some classes ;)
I'm thinking of using WGU for my ADN to BSN after I get my ADN, would you recommend them or no?
 
I'm thinking of using WGU for my ADN to BSN after I get my ADN, would you recommend them or no?
I don't know anything about their nursing degree. I haven't gotten though the basic classes yet, so i also can't speak to how rigorous the learning is for real stuff.
But you could try /r/wgu on reddit and talk to other folks in the program.

I *can* say that when I've had classes that I didn't know very well, (which have been two so far) I've had to actually study pretty hard to get the knowledge into my brain to pass that class.

Having never been to college before, I can't compare the quality of education between WGU and a brick-and-mortar school
 
4th essay passed after I added my thesis statement.

Spent the last two days cramming all 27 amendments using a handy video:


and 29 separate landmark supreme court cases into my head using quizlet to make flash cards. Decided to take the final today after jamming on supreme court cases for 3 hours. 2 questions on the test had to do with cases I didn't make flash cards for. But still,
1591468357023.png


:):)

I invented a bunch of my own mnemonics to remember cases. Like, interstate commerce? that's gibbon v ogden, because gibbons like bananas and you have to transport those across state lines. Gillette v United states? Hippies protest, and they don't shave, so Gillette hates them. 1st amendment case. That kinda thing. Silly, but it worked.
 
Last edited:
Checked my WGU app in bed last night. My mentor added 2 more classes to my term. First class: Scripting and Programming - Foundations.
Took that test this morning without even opening the book. Exemplary, of course.

22/122 credits to completion.

Next class is Web Development Foundations. Reddit says this class has a lot of CSS and HTML5 media objects specific test questions, so I may want to spend a couple of days making sure my knowledge is current before taking that final.
 
Checked my WGU app in bed last night. My mentor added 2 more classes to my term. First class: Scripting and Programming - Foundations.
Took that test this morning without even opening the book. Exemplary, of course.
The college I went to worked on quarters, so it was only three classes at a time.
Finals week was only three days long, with each class having two 3-hr finals sessions to choose from over those three days (usually one morning and one afternoon). Science and language classes might have their finals in the evening as well because labs. If you were particularly unlucky, you might have two finals scheduled on the same day.

The term I took my intro to programming course, I ended up with all three finals scheduled on the same day. People were like, "Raw deal, man. You should get one of those rescheduled," but since one of them was my programming class (and I'm good at languages), I didn't bother. The programming final took all of about an hour and a half, and that was only because a) we had to write it all out longhand into an exam book, and b) I actually included lots of comment statements.

--Patrick
 
Can I test out of two classes in one day? We shall see 75 minutes from now.
Next class is Web Development Foundations. I started the course material this morning, and it's all very basic stuff. Anchor tags, preliminary CSS stuff, a toe in the water with some html5 elements like video, audio, and canvas. Took the pre-assessment and only missed 3 questions that weren't technical in nature, so I scheduled the final.
 
So are you expecting to learn anything or is this just you testing out of classes until you have a degree?
I expect I'll learn some stuff in the last couple of terms. I've learned some stuff already, but have already known easily more than 90% of all of the material I've been skimming over.

That said, I'm still within the first 4 terms (2 years) worth of classes..this is 'associate level degree' complexity of courses. It's all "fundamentals" and "intro to"..I don't expect I'll learn much as I go through these. As the classes ramp up in complexity, and dipping more deeply into the subject matter, I expect I'll slow down.

But honestly, I don't expect to learn a ton even in the later courses. The degree is "Bachelor of Science Software Development". The course instruction is intended to teach someone how to be a software developer (either on the c# track or java track), and I've been doing that job for 24 years--14 of which have been c#. Mostly, I want the degree for job-seeking purposes, and my goal is to only spend 2 terms (1 year) doing it. I'm on track, so far--and I'm racing through these beginning courses as fast as I can, in case I run into courses that slow me down later.
 
I should note that in addition to just taking tests to complete classes, I also have to earn the following certs to complete the degree program:
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Project+
CIW User Interface Designer
Oracle Database SQL
ITIL1 Foundation

But I don't expect any of them will give me any significant problems, either.
 
What? No CCNA?

--Patrick
Nope..that's for network schlubs ;)

It's worth noting that the Web Dev Foundations final was more in depth than either the practice test or the material. If I was totally new to this material, I'd have been a bit peeved. I had to guess on a few things, but I still passed with about a 90 (I say "about" because they don't give a score--but you can guesstimate it by how far across the little bar is above the cut line on your test report)
 
Yes.
I know.

—Patrick
If it makes you feel any better, before I got into software, I did IT at a time that meant hauling around coax for 10-base-2 networks. Which meant we were constantly having to track down network issues because someone unplugged their cable and broke the chain without properly terminating.
 
I mean, I don’t have it yet, but it’s the one I’m working towards. And much like your situation I expect there’s a lot of overlap with the MCSA I already have.

—Patrick
 
I still have to hook up some older CCTV systems with coax. Either in older houses with old wiring, or new cameras on old systems.
 
Hah, got 2 awards today. I didn't even know this was a thing at WGU. They're mailing me certificates and everything. For free, so it's not like those "we'll publish your poem if you sell 10 copies of the book to your friends" things ;)

1591718485095.png
 
Current class: Intro to Humanities. I thought it would suck, but it's not too terrible.
Gotta learn 5 periods: Classic, Renaissance , neo-Classical, Romantic and Realist.
Each period has about 6-8 themes you need to learn for them, as well as influential art and artists.

I thought this was gonna be tough for me, but so far, going to through the Classic and Renaissance periods, I already know most of the stuff, and I'm only running into a few new people to learn. The themes have mnemonics to help you learn them, so that's coming along. I'm tackling one period a day, and hope to test by Sunday. And then I have to write a paper--but I can generally knock those out in a day. That puts me at right around a week to finish the class, which keeps me on course for a 2 term graduation.
 
well, there's only a small handful of artworks in each period to memorize. It's an "intro" class. Not gonna muck up my brain looking at any lists that may be wrong or may not be on the test ;)
 
humanities pre-test looked good enough for me to schedule the final for 5 minutes from now
1591975436203.png


However, this is the most unprepared I've felt for any test so far :(
 
Top