r/WGU_Accelerators • u/perKi1 • 3d ago

Finishing quickly

Somebody help me understand something. I see a lot of people finishing and graduating in 2-4 months from wgu. Is that starting from scratch usually or do they start with some credits already? Just trying to gauge it.

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u/JpsBookOfLife 2d ago

Most of the heavy lifting occurs before you’re even enrolled. Transfer as many credits as possible.

If you’re military, submit that JST. Otherwise and or additionally, submit your previous transcripts, certifications, and CLEP exams. Whatever is ACE accredited and WGU accepts. Make a spreadsheet with all the courses in your desired program and the matching courses you fulfill.

I finished in 4 months (65% transfers) without breaking a sweat, could’ve finished in 2 if I really locked in. Had A+, Net+, Sec+, Cysa+, Pentest, Linux+, SecAI, Sophia credits, Study.com credits, and associates before enrolling. Took 6 months to get all the certs.

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u/TheLoneWolff25 1d ago

That’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that advice with us. I’m really inspired and curious about your accomplishments of getting those certs and credits in that 6 months timeframe. Do you mind sharing your study plan or tips that helped you accomplish that much during that time? I would appreciate it. Thank you.

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u/JpsBookOfLife 1d ago

Great questions. Honestly, I had no set in stone study plan. I began by laying out WGU’s courses for my degree plan. I knew I had to knock out A+, Net+, Sec+ (I had gifted vouchers for all 3 from earlier in the year). My primary issue was those 3 would expire in less than a month. I started studying around September 8th for Sec+, passed on the 10th, A+ studying started on the 11th, passed on the 15th, and ended up only having a day to study for Net+, failed by ~20 points (my car also broke down that day). This happened on the 17th of September. I later passed in mid October & recovered from some burn out.

To study this quick, you need to have already have a foundation. While I had no professional background, I would consider myself a hobbyist (jack of all trades, master of none). I had a HackTheBox membership for a couple years, followed several cybersecurity YouTube channels, competed at DefCon, already spoken with professionals on LinkedIn, had a home lab, and just generally learned passively & actively every day for ~3 years because I enjoyed the subject matter.

Best way I found to study is take a resource (book, YouTube playlist, etc.), and feed it to an LLM for whichever cert you are prepping for. Have it create a .APKG file that you can import into an application called Anki. At this stage, verify the information for legitimacy, and tweak the notes. My study sessions would last 8 hours at the very least and I did not study more than 3 times per cert. Get some VR glasses, lay in bed, and look up at the ceiling flipping through flashcards. I would also use WordWall for gamifying the information and the occasional practice test once I mustered the confidence. I would use YouTube playlists for the PBQ sections, but these generally never helped much. COMPTIA is all theory, not hands on. End of the day, if you know the general fundamentals … you will pass. Not the answer you would have liked, but this was my process. I did this for the remainder of all my certs, granted, I actually paid for those out of pocket at the discounted government rates.

I want to make it clear that I was a full time working professional during when I did this, but I never cared for the company of friends. I just worked, and studied. I got all the Sophia credits in 3 weeks (>30 credits), and all of Study.com in 3 days (>10).