Wgu Students Allowed to Read Assessment Questions Out Loud

How I Completed The MCSCIA (Primary's Degree) in i Semester!!!

How I Completed the CEH in 14 Days! & the CHFI in 10 Days (Located in the Appendix Section) 😉

How to Complete Your Master's Caste in One Semester at Western Governors University (WGU) !!!! by Blake Curtis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution four.0 International License. Based on a piece of work at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginaldblakecurtis/.

In brusk, yous can do anything with this content as long as there is an attribution/link back and your modification is shared with the same or compatible license. :-) Use this citation format:How to Consummate Your Master's Degree in One Semester at WGU. Blake Curtis, LinkedIn.

Background

First off, this approach may not piece of work for everyone, just I highly advise the methods proposed in this quick reference document. Additionally, this strategy allowed me to finish the program in 2 months and 10 days!!!

I work in Information Security as a Risk Analyst and Systems Auditor. My primary activities consist of creating and architecting security/compliance programs for researchers and individual investigators. Many of these programs are subject to statutory and regulatory compliance and stipulate the adoption of governance and control frameworks.

I tell you this considering every day I facilitate the creation of safeguards/countermeasures and assess the effectiveness of security controls that span numerous frameworks. Therefore, most of the material and even scenarios (functioning assessments) were very familiar to me. However, my approach is not solely reliant on experience, only more than so a straightforward and repeatable approach towards completing your assignments and beating the evaluators at their own game. So, allow's get started!

Passing Objective Assessments with Ease!

Always Take the Pre-Assessment Outset!

You don't know, what yous don't know. I started the program on April quaternary and my best friend kept challenging me to go alee and have the pre-assessment for Information Security and Assurance – C725. Similar many of you all, I was extremely nervous and broken-hearted, but I just went ahead and went for it. Surprisingly I passed the pre-assessment. Merely, here'south the thing…. fifty-fifty if you pass you still need to fix for the actual objective assessment. Therefore, I developed a few steps to assistance you prepare your objective assessments regardless if y'all fail or pass the pre-assessment.

Stride 1: Review Your Weaknesses

It doesn't matter whether you failed or passed the pre-assessment. The goal is to ascertain your level of knowledge and make up one's mind where you need to focus your studies. I call this "gap-studying", although I guarantee you someone has beat me to it…lol. You will need view your coaching report in print view and get through each question one-by-one and understand why the correct respond is right and why the wrong answers are wrong.

Brand a Quick Reference Guide (QRG)

1. Go through each question i by one and look up the definitions for each distractor and right respond (key). Kickoff populating your study guides with tools like OneNote, Evernote, Notepad++, or my personal favorite Anki !
2. ⚠ Don't shortcut it, enquiry the wrong answers, trust me it volition assist you sympathize what you need to focus on about in the grade material.⚠
3. Next, go through the form cloth, study your weaknesses and answer the questions at the end of each section. Add these questions to your QRG besides

Review Course Notecards

Later on I've made my QRG, I go through the notecards for each chapter just to appraise my gaps. If I run into notecards that I have a hard time remembering, I add them to the QRG likewise.

Create Your Own Practice Tests! (Optional, but recommended!)

I cannot stress this statement enough. Do not rely solely on your memory to get y'all through the actual exam. I strongly advise utilizing the printout from your coaching report, creating notecards in an awarding similar Anki, and focusing on the incorrect answers. When creating your notecards, create detailed explanations to understand the rationale for the wrong answers. Accept a expect at an case of my notecard for an unrelated assignment.

Notice how I took time to explain the rationale for the wrong answers. You could even take this a pace further and create split notecards for the wrong answers. Since WGU volition likely examination you on these during the bodily test, I want you to inquire yourself the following questions:

• Why did they use these specific distractors?
• How are these distractors related?
• When would these distractors exist correct"?

Pace 2: Prepping for The Objective Assessment

Now that you've created your QRG and/or custom notecards, it's time to review your notes and prepare for the exam. This part is straightforward. Whorl through your guide while hiding the answers and answer each question aloud or in your caput to see if you lot're right. Alternatively, you tin utilize your custom notecards and leverage Anki's spaced repetition organisation to prepare for your test. Spaced repetition learning is excellent for those who don't like reviewing the aforementioned notecards repeatedly. For example, suppose you know the answer to several notecards and you're tired of looking at them. In that case, Anki's algorithm ensures that you are merely presented with notecards that y'all don't perform well on. Below, you'll come across an case of Anki'southward self-grading system. Anki leverages this grading system to determine when you should review a card based on your forgetting curve. For more than data on spaced repetition learning and the forgetting curve, refer to Spaced Repetition: A Guide to the Technique | East-Student

Know the Incorrect Answers Too!

Don't but focus on knowing the correct answer. Understand why the distractors are incorrect too. Simply why Blake? Why in the hell would I be concerned with the wrong answers? I'll tell you lot. Because those same "wrong answers" will exist "right answers" in other questions on your bodily exam! I used to focus on just knowing the right answers too and I used to be horrible at taking tests when I was younger. So, trust me when I say this is probably one of the smartest things you can exercise for ii chief reasons:

1. Y'all'll really learn the material and laissez passer the test

2. This will prepare yous for similar exams and y'all will exist able to easily identify wrong answers.

Pace three: Have the Objective Assessment

Now that you've built upwardly all that conviction and you are able to identify the wrong and correct answers, become ahead and schedule the test now vs subsequently. The beautiful thing about WGU, is that you tin literally take your assessment in xxx minutes at any time of the day.

I've personally found that scheduling my exam as shortly as I feel "somewhat" confident made me grind for the side by side 30 minutes to become my head in the right space for the assessment. Seven assessments later, and I guess the strategy is working pretty well huh!?

I strongly urge you to attempt these methods. I can honestly say that I did not read any course material in the primary'south program except for Secure Software Design, considering I had absolutely no experience in that domain.

Passing the "Dreaded"😊 Functioning Assessments

Ok, I get it, no one likes writing papers, only I hope I can help yous attenuate that anxiety with a few simple steps. They are assessing competency and ensuring that y'all can clear your thoughts onto a detail medium in a succinct and articulate manner. From my personal experience, writing papers was extremely hard in the past. You don't have to accept my word for it, only at the University of Phoenix, I wrote over 105 papers and some of the instructors were extremely strict for a simple punctuation fault. Ok, plenty of my rant, let's get to it! 😊

Atomic number 82 the Horse to H2o

You're going to have to spell it out for these people. That means that yous will need to create your outline based on their grading rubric. They are non going to take the fourth dimension to pick through your paper to meet if you met their assessment criteria. Let me show you how I construct my paper.

Step ane: Breaking Downwards the Rubric & Requirements into Actionable Tasks

Examine the rubric for HAP2 Chore ane: Cybersecurity Direction I – Strategic

You demand to utilise the Requirements & Rubric to Create Your Outline & Objectives. Let me bear witness you how. First, I characterization the requirement as and so….

Requirement Describe both the physical vulnerabilities and physical threats that put the security posture of Psinuvia Inc. at risk. Provide details from the attached "Independent Security Study," including how each vulnerability or threat is negatively impacting the security posture of the company.

Next, I create assessment objectives based on the same criteria the evaluator uses to form our assignments. For case, look at the "Competent" department in the film above and break it down into questions that you tin can apply to class yourself. For example, take a look at the following:

Under Competent, information technology states "The submission describes both physical vulnerabilities and physical threats that put the security posture of Psinuvia Inc. at risk". Nosotros demand to pause this down into easily digestible questions and then we can merely write what'south necessary and give the evaluators what they desire. Check out the example below

Questions:

• Did you describe physical vulnerabilities that put Psinuvia at risk?
• Did you describe physical threats that put Psinuvia at risk?

Your end-product should resemble the following:

__________________________________________________________________________

Requirement Draw both the physical vulnerabilities and physical threats that put the security posture of Psinuvia Inc. at hazard. Provide details from the attached "Independent Security Report," including how each vulnerability or threat is negatively impacting the security posture of the company.

Questions:

• Did yous describe physical vulnerabilities that put Psinuvia at risk?
• Did yous draw physical threats that put Psinuvia at take a chance?

__________________________________________________________________________

Pace 2: Understand the Assignment

Now that you've created your outline and you know what the evaluator is looking for y'all need to go a better understanding of the assignment so that yous can actually have something to write near. 😊

Review the Scenario/Overview

Your goal is to understand the problem, the proposed solution, and why the solution is appropriate. I employ a reading method called SQ3R which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. Allow's face it…. some of the assignments take pages upon pages of fabric that we all have to read to get together a complete understanding of the trouble. Equally a systems auditor, I'm faced with the aforementioned consequence every week. Only don't sweat it, here's a quick way you can tackle massive amounts of reading with ease.

Survey = Creating an Outline of The Content

Don't laugh, but I literally only read the kickoff paragraph of whatever fabric and but read the first judgement of each paragraph until I finish that section. The first judgement is the limited topic and the author's controlling idea (opinion). This lets you know what the discipline is well-nigh and what to await if you keep reading. Surveying or scanning the textile allows me to quickly sympathise an overview of the trouble.

Question = Make sense out of the material

Now that I take a general thought of what I'one thousand about to read, I know where to focus my time and energy. Every bit you beginning reading a paragraph, brand quick bullet points of the chief problems. This will assistance yous in creating your ain why, when, where, who, what, and how questions. This method ensures that you don't get writer's block.

Read = In My Opinion, "Optional"

Typically, I simply read textile that it is very relevant to my career or if information technology is very interesting to me, therefore…. well you lot catch my migrate…lol. I'm not well-nigh to read 35 pages of fluff but to figure out the height 10 things wrong with the consignment. Instead, I look for keywords like wishes, wants, because, fails, tries, and more to identify the core bug.

Review

This is where I accept all of the bullet points I created for the overview and and then add them to the outline I created in stride 1. Each bullet point/trouble should have a home in the rubric. If it doesn't, and then it is probably not relevant or conducive to the evaluator.

Recite

This step is good if you are taking notes from your reading to take an objective cess only not if you are trying to draft a paper for your functioning assessment. Performance assessments typically introduce a very specific event that they desire you lot to solve. Although the recite step is great for cocky-learners preparing for other types of exams. 😊

For more information on SQ3R, I totally recommend you all expect at The Science of Self-Learning: How to Teach Yourself Annihilation & The Science of Rapid Skill Conquering: Advanced Methods to Learn, Retrieve, and Master New Skills and Information from Amazon. These are i of the few books in my life that I've really read from comprehend to cover. Additionally, these books put me in the right headspace while going through the master'southward program.

Stride three: Gathering Your Resources/References

WGU does have a few good resources in the Course Data section of your assessment. Many students such every bit my all-time friend say that the course instructors may have additional resources. However, here'due south my advice on where and how to obtain resource to help you lot throughout your journey.

Reddit 😊

Showtime of all, Reddit is the number one recommended source that I can provide you. It helped me out tremendously and there are tons of other students just like yous and I who are dealing with the same issues with these assignments. Surprisingly, anybody also exercises a fair amount of tact and professionalism when sharing their thoughts and ideas.

IT Resources

The content in WGU is pretty good, although equally an It professional person you are probably already fairly resourceful. Here are some boosted resources that I use specifically for performance assessments

Resources for compliance, legal, policies…etc.

• https://www.sans.org/security-resource/policies
• https://csrc.nist.gov/publications (this should exist your get-to source)
• isaca.org
• OWASP.org
• ISC2.org
• https://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/
• https://world wide web.police.cornell.edu/ (for the legal stuff)

IT-specific preparation resources

• https://www.pluralsight.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/learning
• https://www.oreilly.com/
• youtube.com (yeah that'south right expert ole YouTube!!!)

I'm simply summarizing some resources you lot tin can leverage at your own disposal, withal, please practise not view this as a consummate listing. Don't forget to reference certification guides too. There is a ton of useful information there too.

Social Media (Well, Simply LinkedIn)

I'thou not big on social media at all, but LinkedIn and LinkedIn Learning have been extremely helpful for me. I also advise looking for other students that are in your same program or have already completed it. Similarly, in the same way, you found me. 😊

Typhoon the Damn Paper & Stop Procrastinating

Heed everyone, information technology'southward non going to seize with teeth you, I promise. Well, you'll probably get bitten once or twice from the evaluators 😉. Like I said earlier, WGU is simply trying to obtain your level of "competence" on the field of study matter. With this in mind, equally long as you write against the grading rubric & the requirements and ask yourself the questions y'all created earlier in Footstep 1, I promise y'all'll be fine.

Don't Sweat the Resubmissions

So, my best friend and I use ii different approaches. He volition overwhelm them with tons of legitimate material, so they don't have a choice to transport information technology back. The arroyo is very sound and has worked for him. However, I'm a path of least resistance guy. Once I got a whiff of how strict they were on grading papers, I started to write in an extremely concise manner and gave them very straightforward and focused submissions. Don't become me incorrect, all objectives were met, but I did not add any extraneous graphics, charts, plans, or processes unless absolutely necessary and conducive to the paper.

My strategy, if you lot call back that more is needed, simply don't. Allow me repeat that…. If y'all think that more than is needed to see the objective, merely don't. Just, Blake "why would I not just give them everything I tin so they can't return my paper for review?". Here's my uncomplicated and straightforward answer: "The review and resubmissions help yous empathise exactly what is missing!"

Why would you spend hours of your time and sanity to add together to parts of your newspaper that may non contribute to your class at all? I mean nosotros simply get a pass or neglect folks! If you lot've tailored your paper to the rubric, created your assessments objectives, and understand the problem; you'll be fine. Turn information technology in and see how well your approach worked for you. If you lot but had ane or 2 areas you needed to amend, and then you did pretty good and have a solid understanding of the cloth. If you have multiple problems, and so your approach needs improvement.

No matter how skilful you retrieve your assignment is, don't go thinking that a random evaluator won't find "something" wrong with it or inquire you add together something that may non seem useful at all. Remember, you are writing your papers for them, not for you lot.

Determination

Go on in mind that I put in some ridiculous hours to study during this plan. I literally studied for eight to 12 hours on weekends and mayhap 4 to 5 hours every twenty-four hour period. Funny thing, is that I finished my last four courses, including the Capstone in the aforementioned week. There's a funny story of why I did this, and I'll mention that at the end.

Tips

Any classes that only take one blazon of cess should be added to your electric current term. WGU is constantly improving its program and calculation more tasks and assessments to their courses. Exist proactive and identify all classes that only have ane assessment and knock those out starting time. Especially the cess objectives. If you're not careful and don't activate the easy classes, you lot could wind upwardly with double work for taking besides long to consummate your program (although there'due south no such thing 😉)

The Funny, merely Not So Funny Story

Later spending all of Labor Day weekend tattooing my brain with CHFI material, I was ready to take my exam. I scheduled my exam, drank a ton of coffee and was more than prepared than always. Afterwards I entered my voucher lawmaking, the Proctor attempted to login in with their proctor ID several times. They stated that something'south incorrect with the voucher and that they would be unable to continue. The folks didn't fifty-fifty endeavor to contact EC Quango or WGU over the phone. So, I'm extremely mad, right? I just took off half a twenty-four hour period of piece of work and wrecked my brain with study cloth. More importantly, I'm totally lit off a triple shot of espresso! Lol, 😊 So I send a "nice" lengthy and tactful email to WGU and EC Council. Meanwhile, I'm nonetheless extremely jittery from all the caffeine.

So out of frustration, I decide to become alee and take both pre-assessments for Cybersecurity Management Strategic and Tactical. I didn't fifty-fifty intendance if I passed; I just demand to put this caffeine and frustration to proficient employ lol. Surprisingly, I did pass. I actually felt like my day wasn't wasted then lol. So, I went ahead and created my Quick Reference Guides for both exams and took 1 subsequently another on the following days. That weekend, I was finally cleared to attempt and take my CHFI exam again. This time everything worked, and I successfully passed the exam. I'1000 very hype at present, and all I could think about was going ahead and getting a head-start on the Capstone. Within two days, I finished the Capstone. Honestly, I was so motivated from day to day by constantly pushing myself. I'm then glad information technology is over though, and this is probably the hardest I've worked for annihilation during this short amount of time.

I promise this strategy helps someone out at that place. Always feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn if you have any questions about how to approach these assignments. Even if they are non specifically inside this programme. Find me @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginaldblakecurtis/

To meet the original Reddit article, please visit https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU/comments/c244nc/how_to_complete_the_mscia_in_2_months_quick/

Appendix

Okay, and so after 300+ messages on LinkedIn, I decided to update the How To Complete Your Principal's Degree in Ane Semester postal service. With over 12,000 views, it appears that this article is making a substantial bear on in the cybersecurity community and fifty-fifty influencing those interested in cyber to challenge themselves. Although there is much controversy around EC Council right now, there are still students and employees interested in passing their CEH and CHFI exams for various reasons. Therefore, in the spirit of continuous education, I'll practice my office and contribute to their aspirations. Enjoy!

Link to WGU Student & Alumni Resources

Learning Resources for WGU Higher of Information technology Alumni

How to Pass the CHFI in 10 Days

I started out scouring Reddit because I heard horror stories of people failing the test. Many people had some peachy resources that were on Udemy. One guy said that he read the unabridged one,000-page book offered by EC Council via WGU. Distressing, but ain't nobody got time for that, lol. Hither is my approach .

Just do the Practice Tests (Recommended)

You lot could pass this exam using the SQ3R method (mentioned before 😉) for the CHFI volume and the Udemy practice tests. Notwithstanding, my proposition is to accept the exercise test outset and then use the reading cloth to work on your problem areas. Remember, you lot don't know what you lot don't know until yous test your noesis and skills. So don't be agape to go alee and take those practice tests beginning! To be completely honest, y'all could pass this examination just by following the steps below!

Udemy was affordable and resourceful for the CHFI exam

Many of the students on Reddit kept mentioning 2 courses on Reddit that they stated helped them tremendously. I must agree. These practice tests were neat and even stated why the wrong answers were incorrect. Those two Udemy sources are:

1. Kenneth Loma'due south CHFI course

Forensic Investigator Exercise Examination | Udemy

2. Taylor Bear's CHFI course

Do Tests CHFI (Figurer Hacking Forensic Investigator) | Udemy

My suggestion is to get both. They are extremely affordable and will overprepare yous for the exam.

How to Pass the CEH in 14 Days

I would not say this one was hard if you have a bit of IT experience. Withal, it took some bodily studying to get a expert understanding of the textile. C701 (CEH) is on this list simply because it took me two weeks to have information technology. Nevertheless, I was interested in this course, so I did read the entire CEH All in One by Matt Walker.

I typically do not read technical books considering they tend to be dry out and monotonous; however, this author was amazing. He was downwardly to earth and used short stories and anecdotes to help the reader understand complex topics. I did not feel like I was reading a technical book. Furthermore, I gained a decent understanding of the attacker's perspective, which helped me tremendously in risk management.

The Game Program

If you lot need to go through this one relatively quick, following these steps:

Note: I'd suggest taking the practice examination first. This approach will ensure you are not watching videos or reading material on topics you already understand well.😉

1. Read or Browse Matt Walker'due south CEH All-in-One Book (definitely worth the read) (Optional) 👍🏾

a. Complete the online practice tests included with this buy (Recommended)

Yous'll demand to annals your re-create @ Total Seminars Training Hub

2. Complete the Kaplan (Cybervista) practice questions (offered via Pluralsight) (Recommended) Note : This is as well complimentary for WGU students 😏

Ethical Hacking (CEH Prep 2018) Path | Pluralsight

3. Purchase and study the Boson CEH questions (My number one proposition!)

Practice Exam for Ethical Hacking v11 | Boson

Other Resource Offered by WGU!

Being a WGU Alumni has been a wonderful feel for me. Current students and many alumni bask the benefits of free access to Pluralsight, Udemy, and other resources. Remember to apply these resources when the topics seem challenging to understand. Remember, y'all'll always have NightOwls like myself that you can always reach out to!

Learning Resources for WGU College of It Alumni

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Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-complete-your-masters-degree-2-months-western-wgu-curtis-m-s-

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