How to Complete Your Master's Degree in One Semester at WGU

by Blake Curtis via LinkedIn

Always take the pre-assessment first! - You don't know what you don't know

  • Review Your Weaknesses
  • Make a QRG (Quick Reference Guide)
    • Look up definitions for each distractor and correct answer (key)
    • Research the wrong answers as well - it will help you understand what you need to focus on most in the course material
    • Go through the course material and study your weaknesses - be sure to answer the questions at the end of each section and add these to your QRG
  • Review course notecards after making your QRG
  • Prepping for the OA (Objective Assessment)
  • To through each question in your QRG answering in your head
  • Know the wrong answers too - don't just focus on the right answer. Understand why the distractors are wrong too.
    • You'll actually learn the material and pass the exam
    • This will prepare you for similar exams and you will be able to easily identify wrong answers

Take the OA

  • schedule as soon as you feel "somewhat" confident
  • you can literally take your assessment in 30 minutes at any time of the day

Passing the "dreaded" PA (Performance Assessment)

they are assessing competency and ensuring you can articulate your thoughs on a particular medium in a succinct and clear manner

Lead the Horse to Water

they will not take the time to pick through your paper to see if you met their assessment criteria

Create your outline based on their grading rubric

  • Break down the Rubric & Requirements into Actionable Tasks
  • Write down the requirement
  • Restate the Competent section into specific questions

Understand the Assignment

review the scenario/overview - understand the

  • problem
  • proposed solution
  • why the solution is appropriate

SQ3R - Survey - Question - Read - Recite - Review

  • Survey = creating an outline of the content (first para & first sentence)
  • Question = make sense out of the material (make quick bullet points of the main problems)
  • Read = Optional? instead look for keywords to identify the core problems
  • wishes
  • wants
  • considering
  • fails
  • tries
  • etc.
  • Recite = good for OA, but not for drafting a paper for your PA (PA's typically introduce a very specific issue that they want you solve)

Gather your Resources/References

  • WGU has a few good resources in the Course Information section of your assessment
  • Course instructors may have additional resources
  • Reddit
  • IT Resources
  • Social Media (LinkedIn)

Draft the paper and stop procrastinating

  • write against the grading rubric & requirements
  • ask yourself the questions you created earlier

Don't sweat the resubmissions

  • overwhelm them with tons of legitimate material
  • extremely concise - very straightforward and focused submissions
  • if you think more is needed - DON'T
  • the review and resubmission will help you understand exactly what is missing
  • you are writing your papers for them, not for you

Conclusion- it will take time to complete

Tips

Any classes that only have one type of assessment should be added to your current term - knock those out first especially the assessment objectives