Me in a nutshell...

I married my high school sweetheart in 2003 and have been enjoying the military life with all of it's challenges both good and bad since. I have a B.S. in Psychology, worked in law enforcement field and now am finding it difficult to find any work. I have decided to follow my heart and work with numbers! Yuck to some, but fun to me. I'm working on an Accounting degree while juggling military life, raising 2 beautiful kids and searching for an opening in the job market where I can hone my skills. Follow me along this fun, stressful and interesting journey....

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

MGC1....one more class down!

I started MGC1 while waiting for QAT1 results to come back.  I finished it today with a 84.  I took the pre-assessment without any reading and got a 56.  Studied for several days, took another pre-assessment and got an 88! I felt confident in the material and scheduled the final after the first pre-assessment.  I knew that I would be able to increase my score and felt like the 5 days or so that it took to get the assessment scheduled was sufficient enough time for me to study.  It is a lot of material but I feel like once you take the pre-assessment you get an idea of what the final will cover.  So I focused on these areas.  I also found this flash card link that helped a great deal, thanks to the person who made it!

http://quizlet.com/11135032/mgc1-flash-cards/

One more class done, working on RWT1 and will have it ready to submit tomorrow!

**TIP...I've found that if you want to accelerate, it is a great idea to start working ahead on other classes even if not yet assigned to you by your mentor.  I feel like it is chipping away at the classes, instead of focusing all your time on one class.  If you are not good at multi-tasking, this may not be a good idea for you.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

QAT1....DONE!!!!

I finally got back my last task (Task 4) in  QAT1 and I am ALL DONE! I passed the other 4 tasks a lot quicker.  2 of them came back with minor errors, which I fixed and resubmitted and passed.  Task 4 was a little more difficult and not because of the material.  It was because I was anxious to pass the class and I resubmitted it without really looking at my mistakes.  I was doing silly things like not rounding the decimal correctly and having the right answer where I worked the problem but in the answer block I used a different number.  So when I took a minute and spoke to one of the course mentors, I was able to catch the problems and FOCUS.  It took me about 2 weeks to get all 5 tasks done and graded (with revisions).  If no revisions would have been needed, I probably would've been able to be done in about a week max (that's including 3 days to have it graded).  I know that a lot of people have trouble with this class and my mentor told me to set aside a month and a half to work on it, but I LOVE math and numbers.  I also aced stats when I was in college for my previous degree and LOVED it.  So for any of you out there that may be intimidated....don't be.  Just work on it and reach out to the mentors, they are GREATTTTT!!!! 

This makes 4 classed completed in less than 2 months.  I feel GREAT and want to keep on this pace.  I plan on having MGC1 done by 3/26 and RWT1 turned in by 3/26 also.  My goal is to have 3 classes done this month!

I know that a lot of people might be thinking that these classes must be easy if I can do it at this pace, but in all honesty these are some of the more challenging classes I have had.  Remember....I do have another bachelors from a traditional brick and mortar school.  So far in comparison, I feel like I am learning much more information and am forced to learn it; unlike a traditional school where you sit in a lecture hall 2 or 3 days a week listening to your professor or TA, taking notes and a final (asking your friends what you might have missed or cramming the day before a test).  I've been there, done that and I didn't really learn, I more or less just memorized.  Don't get me wrong trad schools are a great fit for a lot of people.  But if I can accelerate my pace, why not?

I have also been applying for several different positions, but no luck......ugggg....it is a little frustrating.  I found an internship position with a federal agency but with the sequestration I am unsure if and when they will be hiring.  I have also been using craigslist and indeed but again everything wants at least 2-3 years of experience. I am thinking that if I have no luck as I get closer to graduating, I will start calling around offering myself for free work/internships.  But I am not so sure how that will go.  I have read articles from other military wives that have done this to help keep their skills fresh or to help them in getting into new career fields.  Hopefully it will work as good for me as it did for them. 

I never thought that I would have this problem.  I have always been a hard worker and LOVED working, so not being able to land anything is a little discouraging but I know that if I stay positive something will come my way. 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

3 classes done!

I took as passes my final assessment for BNC1!  Although it was a little odd.  This was the first time that I took a test via online proctoring.  It was a lot quicker to get scheduled than a on site proctor, but it felt a little odd.  Knowing that someone is watching you when you can't see/hear them.....just made me a little self conscious thoughout the test.  I'm sure that after a couple more I will get comfortable, at least I hope so.....

Well this class in recap was ok.  As the class mentor says in the beginning not everyone will be interested in it, but you gotta do it.  That was me in a nutshell.  I found it best to print out all 6 of the practice tests that the mentor emails you (you have to email him first and ask for it along with the other study material, but it is TOTALLY worth it) and follow along with either the pre-recorded webinars or the live ones if one is scheduled at a time convenient to you.  But I used the recoreded ones.  The mentor Jim Jividen was AWESOME! Although the content was not too interesting to me, he is really good at getting the message across and is a pretty good presentor/lecturer. 

I took my first pre-assessment again without any reading or studying and scored a 46 (cut score is a 51).  So I took it in stride.  We were in Texas and all dealing with my husband's grandmother's passing.  Of all of the things that our family had to deal with this was the WORST! I don't know how we did it, but we did.  We leaned on one another and decided to celebrate her beautiful life.  My poor babies had a hard time but with a lot of reassurance that she was ok and in heaven playing with our dog that passed away several years ago helped them deal with it a little better. 

After getting back home, I was able to focus on the course and began to watch the webinars one at a time and complete the practice tests along with the webinars I watched.  After all 6 were done, I took the pre-assessment again and scored a 79.  I immediately scheduled my final assessment, but did so with the OLP (online proctoring) which I spoke about earlier.  I was behind on my goal of completing all 3 classes by the end of the month and need to do some catch up.  I passed on 03/07 with a 67.  I don't know why my score was so much lower, the only thing that I can think of was that I was a little uncomfortable with the OLP and wasn't able to focus on all the questions.  But I passed!!!!

So 7 days behind scheduled goal, but I am determined to make it up on my next classes.  Let's see if I can do it?.......I think I can, I know I can, I have to!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

2nd class done! Whew.....

I finish my 2nd class LWC1 (Fundamentals of Business Law and Ethics) today! This class covered a lot content.  At first, I didn't think that I would be able to retain all of it.  I took the pre-assessment and scored a 62 (the cut score is 60).  This was without any studying.  I then cracked open the book and began to study amidst all of our moving, cleaning and helping the kids to make the move smooth.  I then took the pre-assessment again (WGU gives you 3 attempts at the pre-assessment before you take the final assessment) and scored a 74.  I was beginning to feel more confident but I set my goal at 80 before I would schedule my final. 

I studied and studied and took my last pre-assessment and did it, I got an 80.  So feeling even more confident, I scheduled my final assessment.  The only problem was that it took about 5 days (when done by proctor) to get it scheduled, which delayed me in my goal by 5 days.  It pushed me into march by the time I had it scheduled.  But I passed and scored an 86!

The final assessment had several of the same questions as the pre-assessment, but I found that the final had more situational questions rather than definition based questions.  But I think that as long as a student reads, studies and comprehends the material, they should have not problem passing the final. 

On to my 3rd class.....BNC1.