Somehow, all of thw stars aligned. I was anticipating having to move CZC1 to my next term because I hadnt heard from my Course Mentor about my fourth attempt. Suddenly in Thursday, i got an email saying it was released. I logged onto the scheduling site and picked the last day of my term at 10 pm to take the test. I reviewed notes my sister had from the class and found an awesome youtube video by Christopher Severson on Financial Statement Analysis and it just clicked. After about eight hours of studying, I took the final. And despite my laptop almost dying thanks to a dog knocking the somehow, i passed
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There's a surreal moment as you sit at the bedside of someone who is dying when you realize you won't hear their voice again. You have to think back through your memories to try to remember the way they said I love you, the way their hug felt, the color of their eyes, their laugh.
\\n \\nMy grandpa died in 2009, before social media was big. I have no videos of him near the end of his life. My last memory was of him was going to his hospital room after my sister came to let me know he was gone. I remember holding my cousins hand as we walked together to say goodbye. Walking into his room, I felt a heavy sadness as my family wept. A few hours later, I got into my car and as I drove to my husband (who was my fiancé at the time), You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban came on. When I arrived at WGU man's house, I just cried as his held me. \\n \\nSix years later, just last fall, we lost WGU Man's grandpa. Due to dementia, he was in an assisted living facility. I remember the call that he was unresponsive and had pneumonia. We drove to be by his side and spent hours there reminiscing about his life. He married a woman with four kids, then they had one child together. His wife passed away at 29 in a car accident. Instead of those four children ending up in foster care, he adopted them. He spent countless hours working to provide for his five kids. By the time he retired from trucking, he had three million safe driving miles. A feat that is unheard of these days. \\n \\nNow, I'm sitting by my grandmother as she transitions in this journey. I'm recalling the way she called me Pickles, due to my love for her homemade dill pickles. Or the 24th of July party at her house when I would raid her and Grandpa's garden for fresh peas. Or that the smell of White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor will always take me back to the hundreds of school breaks spent at my grandparents house. She was always glamorous. Her hair perfectly styled, nails done, makeup natural, but beautiful. We loved watching My Fair Lady, one of my favorite movies. She didn't complain when I watched Three Cabeleros everytime I was over. The book Forever and Always will always hold a special place in my heart. It's the bedtime book she always read to me. As I've gotten older and understood a mother's love, I cry when I read the first line, even the cover leaves me teary eyes. \\n \\nBut now, sitting here, this is how life goes. Everything is placed on the back burner while you sit and think about all the time you missed because you were "too busy". Then you realize that you did exactly what your grandparents wanted you to do, what they spent their lives doing: living. My daughter has had four and a half years with her Great Gaga. She was at the summer parties, holidays, and Christmas celebrations. My life is the greatest gift I could've given my grandma. My life and my daughter's life is proof that the time and energy she and my grandpa put into raising my dad, even with all the hell he raised, was worth it. I am who I am because two sets of wonderful grandparents cared enough about my parents to raise them with morals and values. Hard work, kindness, love, faith, sticking with things, even when they suck or hurt. My grandma will live on, just as my grandpa has and my husbands grandpa, through the values and traits my husband and I instill in our daughter. \\n \\nThis is not the end of the book. The book will continue, as it has for generations. This is the end of a beautifully written chapter, filled with love and life.. u I'm going to scream. Assessment attempt three... FAILED. Again, i was so sure i would get 80+, instead it was a 63. I actually did WORSE on this attempt than the last one. Ive heard lots of mumbling about a lot of students strggling with this course, but i thought i had it in the bag. If WGU man was asleep, I'd just cry. But instead I'm acting like it didnt bother me. I'm putting this class aside. I'd rather slit my wrists than even look at the course. Ill be doing MKC1 until I see what my fate at WGU is.
I'm so behind on the schedule I had built. Between holidays, vacations, and busyness at work, I slacked. I took the pre-assessment for Accounting 2 today. I got 76%, which is significantly better than last time. I struggled with second guessing myself on so many questions. The issues this course has me less than confident about the final. I'm feeling like a football player missing his lucky socks. I'll be spending the next week hitting it hard and hope to have my final by next wednesday.
So as I've been doing the retake plan by the course mentor for CZC1 course, my sister has started the course as well. She's been trying to find her own was to take in the information. She found a recommendation to read the chapter, then do the study questions. I decided to try that too. I stuck with the narrated slides and took insane color coded notes before my first attempt at the test. The narrated slides sucked for me. I felt like they just glossed over the information in the course. I think that's why I sucked it up on my first attempt. Now, since I'm reviewing the chapter library instead of the narrated slides, more of the material is sticking in my head. So tips: Chapters- Read each chapter first, then do the practice questions. Flashcards- Take a lot of flashcards. While reading the chapters, make flashcards of the vocabulary, as well as sentences you may find important (Example: In periods of inflation, _ results in the lowest income tax expense.) Colored pens- Say what?! Yes, I keep my notes organized with BIC Cristal Xtra Bold pens. I try to keep my notes color colored for ease of reviewing. In the example below, I labeled the steps in green, then imporatns peices of the setps in either pink or purple. I find that if I do that, I have an easier time remembering and finding specific sections or parts of the notes. Purchase supplies at the right time- This is my school supply stock pile. WGU kid is not old enough to need school supplies, but I like having basics like paper, pens, etc available. My husband uses them when he's making his to-do lists, I use them for meal planning, and WGU kid likes drawing, so I keep an extra notebook in my purse for her to use when we're out and about. That has saved me too many times to count. I am a Target addict. I bought a few supplies during the school shopping season, but decided to go back a few days later. Much to my surprise, they had marked everything on 75% off clearance. I stocked up my cart with $300 of school supplies and got them for $75. I gave some supplies to some co-workers on hard times, some to other co-workers in college, WGU kid has used at least 10 of the notebooks, I've used a ton of them, and I gave some stuff to my sister too. This helped after bombing the 2nd attempt at the final. I hid my old notebook from myself with all my CZC1 notes, and grabbed a new one from my stash. I restarted as though I'm new to the course with my notes being based of the chapters instead of the narrated slides. Course Chatter- For a while, I didn't really open the course chatter feed. My company has brought in a chatter function and I hate it. I suck at Twitter, so using chatter at work, then course chatter for school was not my idea of fun. I'm learning to embrace the new, so I've started reviewing the course chatter every time I log into WGU. I am starting to like it, especially for CZC1
If you have any tips for the course, please post them in the comments. Based on the info from my mentor, a lot of people are struggling in the class, so the more help, the merrier! For the first time ever, I took a vacation without my husband or WGU kid. My mom, sister, and I went to Vegas for a few days. Fun, food, and no homework. I wanted to allow myself a few days of nothingness before I got back on track. Along with getting back on track following my trip, I was tasked with taking over for my supervisor at work while she is on medical leave. I was anticipating a lot of stress for the time she's gone, so I decided to get a big desk calendar and get my schedule on it. I have my duties for work, meals, and homework listed. Since doing that, it's been easier to stay on track. It's even color-coded with some Sharpie markers.
Here is my homework task list for Accounting : 04/28: Chapter 24 review 04/29-30: Review attachments 1-3 05/01-02: Review attachments 4-7 05/03-05: Topic 1.1 05/06-07: Topic 1.2 05/08-11: Topic 1.3 05/12-14: Topic 1.4 05/15: Pre-Assessment 05/16: Coaching Review 05/17: Assessment I plan on starting my next course, Marketing, on May 19th. :) So I got an email last week from my Student Mentor stating he was going to take an opportunity outside of WGU. This was mentor number three. This is by far the worst part of WGU. I hate that I've had as many mentors as terms at WGU. I've talked to my new mentor. She seems dedicated and thorough, but we'll see how long this one lasts...
That class was way harder than I expected. I'm such a spreadsheet pro, thanks to my job, that I assumed I would pass quickly... Well, when I assume, I'm an ass. I took my first pre-assessment on 02/26 and only got 63%. The cut score is 61%. I was not going to risk failing the final because I was "close enough". I studied for two weeks and took the pre-assessment again... 68%. GAH! I was so bummed because I thought I did way better. I reviewed the coaching report for a full 24 hours, then took the final... 75% Woohoo! Not quite as high as I would've liked, I thought I had at least 82%, but I passed. My mentor pointed out that his students with a lot of Excel background struggle in this class more than the newbies. I'm interested to see how my sister does because she's an Excel newbie. I did learn some new stuff, but I think people with Except experience may jump ahead and get an "I knew that" attitude. So anyone about to take this class, forget EVERYTHING you know about Excel and go at this like you have never seen or heard of Excel!
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About Me...Eight years after graduating high school, I decided this is my year to start my college degree. I am happily married, mommy to a five year old boy, four year old girl, three year old girl, and two year old girl. Three have four legs and one has two. Archives
April 2016
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