Passed C959 Discrete Mathematics I

      I have to praise the design of this course. I have attended 2 similar discrete math courses before: one in high school which was a kind of extended math class talked about proof, sets and matrix, and an introductory graduate-level course from a brick and mortar university. WGU C959 is way better than any course I attended. It was quite difficult for those who don't have the experience of math, but you will know everything you have to know about this subject, and the assessment is basic but not easy.

     I took the pre-assessment at the beginning with a score of 60, which was shocked me for I thought it should be a walk-through for me. I then talked to the CI and set a plan of reviewing/studying. I might be too careful, but I spent 12 days on this course and just passed the assessment. 

    Zybook is a good tool for quick reviewing. Zybook breaks the proof and procedures into very small pieces so you can watch carefully. I read through the Zybook and practiced the pre-ass again before taking the exam. If the content is new to you, I believe that you should choose a set of teaching videos on Youtube or whatsoever, and don't be rush on this course. I spent 12 weeks for discrete math course at college and we should not contempt this WGU course. In my opinion, spending 6-8 weeks for C959 is acceptable for an absolute beginner. 

Passed C173 Scripting and Programming Foundations

         This course is very easy for anyone with any kind of coding experience. I took the pre-assessment, review some definitions of terms, booked the exam 30 mins later, and passed.

         The algorithm in this course is pseudocode, therefore, there's no need of learning any new language, just use some logic you will know what the questions ask for. 

        The last chapter may be the "hardest", it asks the definition questions like what is complied language, markup language, interpreted language, etc. If you have no experience, use the pre-assessment questions to help you review, you will be fine.

How I passed WGU C779 Web Development Fundamentals

 

    This is considered an easy course for many students so my mentor assigned it as my first course. My mentor talked about this course on our first call and said that it should not take me too long since I have some experience with that. It turns out that I spend 7 days to study this course. It was a little bit slower than what I expected but I worked on another project (using WordPress) and that took some time.

    My background: Some self-taught WordPress experience and studied half of the Udemy course on web development.

    "A pass is a pass" is often said in WGU and that's the key to this course, too. This course is not asking you to make beautiful HTML and CSS pages. On the other hand, more than half of the course is not even about coding. 

    I took the pre-assessment on the first day with a score of 50%. I watched the Traversy's videos as many students recommend, and watch the first webinar of WGU. Tracersy's course covers most coding questions of the exam, and WGU's webinar contains materials like which law you should follow to serve people with disabilities, ethics in developing, etc. The flashcard in the study tips covers most terminology you may be asked. 

Traversy Media's HTML video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB1O30fR-EE

Traversy Media's CSS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfoY53QXEnI&t=1s

   I passed the assessment around 80% on the first attempt. The pre-assessment is aligned with it. Don't overlook the terminology questions.

   Last, if you stuck on learning HTML or it is just totally new to you, the textbook is still a good choice especially the exercise questions. My mentor told me that the average passing time of this course is 8 weeks, so don't be panic if you think you are slowing down.

WGU computer science program application

   I applied to WGU in June and starts the program on August 1. The application was smooth as there are many resources on Reddit, sharing experience and comparison of different programs to choose from. In WGU, there are programs in computer science, software development, analytics, and cyber security, they might be similar at some courses and you can choose the best fit for you.
    There are 34 course in the CS program, and I transferred 18 of them:
     C958 & Prerequisite Calculus I
     C455 English Composition I
     C464 Intro to Communication
     C768 Technical Communication
     C955 Applied Probability and Statistics
     C100 Intro to Humanities
     C961 Ethics in Tech
     C165 Integrated Physical Science
     C683 Natural Science Lab
     C255 Intro to Geography
     C963 US Constitution
     C182 Intro to IT
     C172 Network and Security Foundations
     C175 Data Management Foundations
     C846 Business of IT Applications
     C176 Business of IT Project Management
     C170 Data Management Applications
     C993 Structured Query Language

And here is the course order that I plan to execute, which is mostly referenced from Lynda from the WGU CS subreddit:

1. C779 web dev foundation
2. C173 script foundation
3. C959 discrete 1
4. C949 data structure 1
5. C867 script application = C++
6. C482 software 1 = java
7. C195 software 2 
8. C960 discrete 2
9. C836 information security
10. C952 computer architecture
11. C191 operating systems
12. C188 software engineering
13. C857 software quality assurance
14. C950 data structure 2
15. C951 intro to AI
16. C964 Capstone

   For the courses transferred, most of them are from my IT management degree, and three of them were finished in May:
    Calculus from Straighterline, costed $118 in total (included one month subscription and one course, there are lots of  different kinds of coupons for each of them but you can only use the best one for each so try to refresh, change an IP or a browser, or look for them on the Internet). The calculus is also the prerequisite to enroll the program so you have to take the course after all.
    Two SQL classes from Study.com (CS204 and CS303). These courses counted for C993 SQL and C170 Data Management Applications. The one month subscription costed me $199 and I didn't use a coupon on that (some people say that you can ask for a referral code from current students but I didn't know that).

    These are the list of transferable courses from Study.com and Straighterline. Some people take more courses from these companies but I think WGU will have more learning resources for me so I only finished the required and highly recommended courses. Double check with those companies and WGU before you take any class you plan to transfer.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.aspx?aid=19142&pid=86
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.aspx?aid=15753&pid=86

Welcome to my blog and my journal of becoming a programmer

  Welcome to this blog. I would like to share some of my progress in how I fulfill my computer science knowledge and skills and find a job.
  Here are some of my background:
  Work: some entry-level experience in healthcare, had a business in telemedicine with friends, during that time I learned some coding skills but I didn't plan to be a developer at that time.
  Education: An incomplete degree of medicine and a BS degree in IT management. The IT part of the program is about databases with several SQL courses. I also have a Google Certificate in IT Support.
  I live in San Francisco, CA so I do have friends working in the tech industry from high school alumni and meetups around the Bay Area. They are from all backgrounds: Some have a degree from Stanford, some get masters from UC Berkeley, and some just ran into a boot camp.
  I got admitted from the Northeastern University SF campus MSCS align program in Jan 2020. This is a program designed for non-tech bachelors to transform their careers. I finished one semester, including courses such as "Intensive CS" and "Discrete mathematics and data structure". I decided to stop this program because of COVID-19: After the midterm of my first semester, all courses became online and this condition continued to the next two semesters. I found Zoom University was not for me and I want to save money for my CS education (the tuition of NEU is $1571 per credit and there are 44 credits in total). I conduct a CS self-study plan and hope to have the same or better effect than going to grad school.
  The main tool I will use now is the BS in CS program of WGU. As a WGU student, I have Linkedin Learning and Pluralsight access, too. I also collected some famous courses on Udemy, Coursera, and Edx in case I need to learn deeper skills for the technical interview (review algorithms, etc). Besides the regular CS learning path, I am also interested in blockchain so I will try to learn that if I have time.