WGU Readiness Assessment

I got a lot done today.  I added WGU to my FAFSA, I ordered my transcripts, I made an appointment for my WGU entrance interview, and I completed the WGU Readiness Assessment.
I haven't heard back yet but I found the exam to be pretty basic and I'm quite confident I did very well.  If you are worried about it all, I will break down the exam for you a bit.

There are four parts to the exam.  You have 2 hours to complete each part, except the writing portion doesn't seem to be timed.  I finished each part in well under the allotted time (by about an hour and a half), so don't fret too much about that.

The first part is math.  I know math scares a lot of people but I promise you won't have to factor anything or remember the quadratic equation to pass this. Just know your order of operations, how to +, -, x fractions, find percentages, and other basics like that and you will do just fine.

The second part is language arts.  You will be asked to identify which sentence is grammatically correct, active/passive form, to identify the main idea of a paragraph.  Nothing too crazy there.

The next part is writing. You will be asked to respond to a prompt in 200-800 words. Just watch for correct spelling and grammar and you should be fine.  The prompt requires no research.

The last part is more of a survey than anything else.  They want to make sure you are the type of person who will benefit from an online, competency based education.  Just answer the questions honestly and you are done.

Now that you know what the assessment is all about, it should hopefully seem less intimidating.  Good luck!

How To Get Your WGU Application Fee Waived

Sometimes being an obsessive researcher has its perks.  For instance...Western Governors University has a $65 application fee.  While it may be well worth it in the grand scheme of things, $65 is a lot of money to some people (like me).  I would have had to wait at least another month to start if I had to pay the fee.  But I didn't.  Why, you ask?  Because during the research mentioned in the previous post, I discovered that WGU has a great referral program.  If a WGU student refers you to the school by filling out a simple online form, you will receive a code that will waive your $65 fee.  On top of that, the person who refers you will receive an Amazon gift card.  Win-Win. 

Leave me a comment here and I will be happy to refer you.  Then go spend that $65 dollars you saved on some new shoes or tacos or whatever makes you happy.  You earned it, after all.

Why blog about WGU?

I'm the type of person who decides to do something and then obsessively gathers as much information about it as possible.  This is due in part to me needing to be completely prepared for any obstacles I may face before I reach them and partly to me getting very excited about my new endeavor and needing an outlet until I can actually do whatever it is my brain has thought up in a middle-of-the-night-lightbulb-moment.

My most recent endeavor obsession came to me on one of these sleepless nights that happen quite often when infants and toddlers rule your house and life.  I was nursing my baby at around 3am, trying to figure out how I will ever be able to go back to school now that I am a stay-at-home mom of two, and what kind of career I could possibly have that will be flexible enough for me to put my family first without getting fired.  My plan before I became pregnant with Christian was to go back to school for either Nursing or some sort of healthcare career.  My priority has since changed to staying at home with my children until they are in school and enjoying this brief childhood as long as possible.  Long story short, it came to me that teaching would be perfect for me.  I love children, I care immensely about their education, and I would have roughly the same schedule as my own children once they begin school.  I'd heard about Western Governors University and checked out their website once before.  I knew they had a reputable Education program.  There it was.  That lightbulb lit up.  Now nothing could keep me from being up the rest of the night scouring the internet for every nugget of information I could gather about WGU and their Elementary Education program.

The roadblock I hit was when I tried to find blogs written by WGU students.  I wanted to hear some real life experiences from others like me and what I found was less than inspiring.  While I did find a few blogs like this, most were outdated and contained no more than 10 or so posts before being abandoned altogether.  What I gathered from these, though, was that they did all seem happy with their education and experience at WGU. This was enough to make me take the leap and apply to their Bachelor of Arts Interdisciplinary Studies (K-8) program.

This is why I've decided to write my own blog of my accomplishments and trials with WGU.  Hopefully it will help other obsessive researchers decide whether WGU is the school for them.  I also hope it will help me hold myself accountable throughout my studies. 

The journey begins.  Let's see where this road leads...