Thoughts after my first WGU term

[tater.jake]

I think that learning how to cut to the chase and having faith in your knowledge would save a student oodles of time in this program. Learning how to "trim the fat" on the course info will save lots of time and effort. Brave the tasks and get them in the bag.

Course mentors, in addition to your main mentor are actually helpful and surprisingly available/quick to respond.

I decided to take a term break for 3 months so that I can enjoy my summer.

Applied Healthcare Statistics

I got spooked on this one and really dragged it out. There was a pre-assessment that was way harder and focused on different chapters than the actual exam (OA). It turns out that they have updated the PA within the last few months so it's not so scary. I studied a lot and watched the lectures. I passed on my first attempt. The lectures (videos) are actually helpful. This class had lots of terminology and concepts, but not a lot of calculation.

History

It's easy to get caught up in the wrong details on this. Feels like a lot of work for 2 one-credit classes, but I might have made it harder than it needed to be.

Biochemistry

Probably the "bear" of my first term, though it still wasn't that bad. I followed the 20 day plan (found in the student success community) to the T and passed. 3 of my tasks passed on the first try, 2 of them had to be resubmitted more than once.

Health Assessment (OA)

I failed my first attempt on this by 2 points. There was a lot of provider-oriented material, but I found it to be a great refresher on assessment.

Applied Health Assessment

Pretty straightforward, follow the instructions. Helps to do it after you pass the written exam (i.e. I had no idea how to assess sinuses and tactile fremitus until I took this class). They want you to use certain software to produce a video, which complicates things a bit.

Care of the Older Adult

I thought this OA was pretty easy, but I used to work LTC as a CNA. Passed it on the first attempt. The most challenging material was on medicaid, medicare, and healthy people campaigns.

[benegesserit]

I think that learning how to cut to the chase and having faith in your knowledge would save a student oodles of time in this program. Learning how to "trim the fat" on the course info will save lots of time and effort. Brave the tasks and get them in the bag.

I definitely agree on this. I would have gotten a lot more done this term if I weren't quite so perfectionist.

I suspect this is something a lot of us struggle with - we put all this effort into getting into nursing school and getting the highest grades possible, and WGU really needs a completely different strategy.

My thoughts:

Care of the Older Adult - Just take the preassessment, and focus your study on the areas. Most people find this class pretty straightforward unless they've worked exclusively with a younger population for a long time. There is this AMNH genetics course you're supposed to do. You don't have to do it before you take the test, but make sure you remember to do it relatively soon afterwards while you still have access - the certificate you get when you pass the quiz is supposed to be part of your portfolio at the end of the program.

Nutrition - This class has a reputation for being really hard, but if you have a good background in nutrition, it isn't really. Take the preassessment before stressing about it too much, then focus on the weak areas. A lot of people apparently find the videos really helpful.

Biochemistry - Don't overthink it - a lot of it is simple enough that you'll be sure you're missing something, but you aren't. Just get the rubric from taskstream (I always started by setting up a powerpoint presentation with one slide for each point on the rubric so I wouldn't forget anything) and watch the instructor videos - they'll tell you exactly what you need to know. If you need more depth than that, watch the thinkwell and other linked videos. Apparently they've replaced the 20 day plan with cohorts which are structured even better.

Health Assessment - Again, do the preassessment, and focus on weak areas. This tends to be a class where everyone needs to do a lot of studying because it includes a lot of assessment techniques not typically covered in ADN programs. The videos linked in the community are pretty helpful.

Applied Health Assessment - This is the class where you make a video of yourself doing a head-to-toe assessment on someone. Most people find it horribly intimidating, but don't stress it. It seems that the graders aren't too hard on this one, and you don't have to be perfect - you need 71 of 88 possible points to pass, with one point for each bit of assessment you're supposed to do, so you can mess up or totally skip 17 things and still pass. Practice once or twice to get you and your subject used to it, then make the video. They encourage you to do multiple attempts and watch it and make sure it's right - I encourage you not to bother (at least on the first attempt). Let the graders decide if you need to redo it.

I'd think it would make the most sense to do the video after studying for Health Assessment, but before taking the test - it would really help solidify some of the concepts, especially for kinesthetic learners.

[jae_mc]

I agree that the Health Assessment class was a great refresher. Tedious, but worth it!

[maksim02]

Hi. Did you had a proctored essay for History class? The website states it will be a procored essay. IS it?

[19154]

I agree with your take on the first semester. I put a lot of time into the Health Assessment class and it took me 6 weeks.

I didn't put nearly enough time into the video and it took me 3 months!

I think it took me the first 4 months or so to get the hang of WGU.

I finished 7 classes the first term (4 in the last two months = thank you WGU RN to BSN facebook page!)

I finished 4 classes in the first month of my second term and I have HGT, EBT and the portfolio left to get done before October.....kinda getting a little bogged down by HGT, but I'm getting there.....hoping to just have the portfolio left to do in the summer.

[janc]

Thanks to all that have posted here! This info in invaluable.

[amberm5]

I am looking into RN-BSN school options and I would love to know more about WGU program. I understand it is a set fee and you can take a many classes as you want but what I would like to know is how the classes are ran? Is it like Excelsior where you self learn and then proctored exams online or is it like Excelsior where most of the classes focus on loads of essays etc?

[benegesserit]

Both. Some of the classes have online exams (objective assessment), some have essays or other projects (performance assessment). It's about 1/3 objective, 2/3 performance assessments (depending on which prerequisites you need to take).

[MJB2010]

Thank you, this is very helpful. I am about to start and quite nervous.