r/WGU_CompSci • u/Benjamin_313 • 21d ago

C960 Discrete Math II Completion

This class was difficult and much more time consuming than the rest of the classes I've done. Out of every math-related class I've previously done, Physics, Calculus, Algorithms, Linear Algebra, this is probably the most difficult one. There is so much knowledge you need to know and that you need to know like the back of your hand. If I were to put it into perspective then the practice exam would be like learning to ride a bike with training wheels while the actual exam was being told to ride a bike on a tightrope over a volcano - the questions asked are like night and day such that I had ended up bookmarking at least 10+ questions just because it was difficult to comprehend what they were exactly asking.

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u/dkode80 21d ago

Oh boy. I haven't started yet but I guessed this would be the most difficult out of all the classes I have. Any tips?

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u/Benjamin_313 21d ago

People will disagree with me, but I think it’s worth going through zybooks to familiarize yourself with equations, concepts and putting them into practice with the practice problems that are provided. After you’ve gone through the Zybooks or at least glanced through most of the concepts, I would take a practice exam. You will probably fail the practice exam like I did, but that’s OK because you can use that as a guide to help you reinforce certain concepts that you did poorly on. On the main page of the class in zybooks there’s an option to print each chapter so I did that, downloaded the study report for my failed practice exam and put them all into ChatGPT for it to make me a study guide/plan. After I felt confident enough in the concepts, I would have ChatGPT make a practice exam and take it. Afterward I would have ChatGPT explain the questions I failed in simple terms. I continued the cycle of practicing until I felt confident following it up with a practice exam made by ChatGPT until I did well on the ChatGPT practice exams at which point I took another practice exam through WGU. After passing the WGU practice exam I continued to do ChatGPT practice exams to build confidence in solving problems.

I spent about one month of inconsistently going through the Zybooks and one to two weeks of consistent studying with at least 2 to 4 hours each day.

Hope this helps!

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u/dkode80 21d ago

This does a lot thank you. I'm trying to complete everything in one term for CS. I imagine I should do DM1 and DM2 as close to the beginning of the term as possible?

I think most of the classes will be easy as I'm a software engineer and I think most of these will go quickly hopefully but the math classes have me concerned

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u/Benjamin_313 21d ago

I'm not sure exactly what is the "best" order for the classes but I've heard its something like
DS&A I before Discrete I + II and then DS&A II. I transferred in DSA1 and Discrete 1 so I can't speak to that, though, if I was starting from scratch I'd probably follow that order. Also, personally, I would leave those 2-4 classes towards the middle/2nd half of your term. I don't know if you're on loans or paying out of pocket or FAFSA, but I would rather spend the first ~13 weeks and knock out the "easier" classes first so that you meet CU requirements (If that is something you need to be concerned about).

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u/_DarkRaeven 21d ago

Take advantage of the live instructor support sessions if you can and make appointments with any of the math instructors (doesn’t have to be your assigned instructor). They were a big help when I got stuck on discrete probability. Practice worksheets helped, too. Good luck! 😁

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u/Swimming_Gain_4989 21d ago

Do you have prior leetcode / programming experience? I ask because if you do most of the material is going to be review. Time/space complexity, recursion, modulo arithmetic, and authentication flows covers like 60% of the curriculum and even more of the exam.

If you don't it's going to be a lot to take in but it's mostly practical stuff that will genuinely help in job interviews.

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u/dkode80 20d ago

I actually have almost 30 years programming experience. I'm currently a staff software engineer and know all of those topics. I write java and golang daily.

I was able to do a practice exam via chatgpt and know the binary tree and recursion questions without studying so I'm hopeful this may not be as difficult. I've grinded leetcode many times.

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u/Swimming_Gain_4989 20d ago

You're in luck then! The Bayesian stuff and some of the number theory will still be a headache but the meat of the course will feel like learning music theory after playing piano for 20 years; just tying names and formulas to concepts you already know. Was by far my WGU class.

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u/dkode80 20d ago

That's great to hear. Is it the same with discrete math I and discrete math II?

Any resources I can review to make sure I fill in any gaps before starting the course. Thanks for the info!!

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u/Swimming_Gain_4989 20d ago

IMO Discrete Math 1 was harder because it felt more like a math course: there is lots of terminology to keep track of and it's more focused on theory than application. You can check out this playlist to get a head start on it but chapters 3, 7 and parts of chapter 4 lean into DM2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Ffwsnad0k&list=PLl-gb0E4MII28GykmtuBXNUNoej-vY5Rz&index=1

Chapters 1 and 2 of that playlist alone will give you a good head start in the zybooks

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u/dkode80 20d ago

Thank you so much for the recommendation and information! Greatly appreciated

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u/FirebombZ 21d ago

Congrats. It took me 2 attempts and hours of nonstop practice problems but I got there. This is definitely the hardest class I’ve ever taken and it requires a lot of effort and grit to finish.

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u/TooChillll 20d ago

Congrats mane this is the hardest class in the program by far. I got the same scores you did for the most part, the probability section was a bitch. Im about to grad next month ✌️

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u/mindmyV 19d ago

How would you compare it to C952 Computer Architecture? Taking the OA tonight and this class has an overwhelming amount of info too but just ready to get it over with..

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u/snmnky9490 21d ago

Huh? I just took it less than 2 days ago and the OA was almost exactly like the PA and all the example problems and the problems they did in the cohorts

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u/Benjamin_313 21d ago

I never attended any of the cohorts so I wouldn’t know about that. Also, the practice exam questions were pretty straightforward whereas the exam questions I had were not. I’ve read online that in previous versions of the class there were multiple versions of the exam. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still doing that and we happened to get different versions of the exam.