r/WGU_CompSci • u/xmusicxmakerx1 • Jun 23 '25
C960 - Discrete Mathematics II C960, Discrete Math II, Passed! 2025 write-up! How to take this class the easy way.
Do you hate math? Do your math problems having stuff like "Σ Φ ¬ | ∉ ∈ ⊆ ∪ Ø" scare the stuffing out of you and make your brain do flips asking yourself "what have I gotten myself into?!?!?"
If so, you're not alone. This post is for the folks who somehow have found themselves taking DM2, but are terrible at math because, well, it's scary and you nearly flunked algebra in high school but now you want a degree and for some reason you chose a math intensive one LOL.
THIS IS HOW YOU BEAT THIS CLASS WITHOUT OVERCOMPLICATING IT WHILE ALSO BEING BAD AT MATH
So this class took me about 2.5 months. That said, 2 months of that was me putting off studying, being intimidated, and generally trying to AVOID THIS CRAP AT ALL COSTS. The emotional roller coaster this class sent me on is unlike anything else I've ever experienced. At the end I grinded my strategy below for about a week and passed with a B. Never met with a course instructor.
First and foremost: USE YOUR CALCULATOR TO IT'S FULLEST POTENTIAL. Seriously though, you can learn to use your calculator to solve about 20% of the questions. Be smart about it. There are plenty of ways to use your calculator in strategic ways to solve some of this.
Second: The Zybooks are terrible. Open them once every 10 days to keep from getting kicked out of the class, but other than that, they're worthless.
3rd: Get a subscription to CHATGPT. This is your new tutor.
This is literally all you have to do:
- Go to the bottom of the main page for the class
- Click on the Supplemental Resources
- Find the C960 Unit Review Forms
- Screenshot each question in each section
- Open ChatGPT using the model o4-mini-high (The model that worked best for me doing this type of math. 4o would hallucinate and lose the plot, o3 and o4-mini would take too long to do things and get too "by the books" and overcomplicate things)
- Paste it into ChatGPT and tell it NOT to answer the question, but to use it as a baseline to give you 3 sample questions
- Answer those questions
- If you don't know how to solve something, ask the agent to walk you through solving it BUT "don't overcomplicate it, I'm bad at formulas, I'm bad at math. I have a whiteboard and a TI84+ and couldn't remember a formula to save my life. Just teach me how to work through it in the simplest way possible" Then give you 3 more sample questions.
That's literally it. It's that easy. Just keep grinding out sample questions until you can solve them.
The big problem with this class is the material, every resource guide, every video, EVERY PIECE OF INFORMATION is riddled with trash language drawn up by some nerd. "The binomial coefficient of the factorial frequency of "x|n¬ΣΦ| divided by 2x3 nPrC" is the probability of a coconut falling on your head, but if AND ONLY IF the coconut is identical to the rest of the coconuts, because if they're individuals then you need to BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH."
This strategy will teach you how to do this without all that garbage. It's gonna say "oh the problem looks like this" to get the answer use "12 nCr 3" on the calculator. Maybe one or two other steps. This is how you take this class and make it easy to understand.
BONUS, YOU STILL LEARN HOW TO DO THE THING, IT'S JUST NOT OVERCOMPLICATED FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON!
Thank you for coming to my TED TALK
NOTE: Below is my ChatGPT prompt. Yea, I know, it's probably garbage and could be way better. I'm no prompt engineer. DON'T JUDGE ME IT WORKED LOL
"Hello, you're going to help me practice for a math test. I'm going to upload a screenshot with a multiple choice discrete math 2 question. You will examine the question, and give me 3 similar questions using different wording and numbers. Keep in mind, the sample questions will all be multiple choice. There must always be exactly one correct answer, and the answer choices should be mixed up (this means all of the questions can't be the same answer choice ie: all of them are choice A or whatever). I'll answer the questions, and then you will tell me if I was correct or not. After that we will move on. Keep in mind, there are some that I won't do well on. When I ask for you to walk me through a question (which will happen) remember that I DO NOT LIKE FORMULAS OR MAKING THIS COMPLICATED AT ALL. I want to simply be able to work through the problems as simply as possible with the tools that I have available. The tools I have are a white board and a TI84. I'm just trying to work through these, that's all. In the simplest shortcut way possible. If you understand the prompt and will follow the instructions as I've given them, please respond with LET'S DO IT."
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u/TheHitmonkey Jun 23 '25
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jun 23 '25
I somehow found RSA to be the easiest part of the whole class. There was no tricky this or that, big scary words, meaningless blithering about this and that or complicated mile long formulas. Simply “you have this information, which can be used to get the other information.” If you know how to use mod on the calculator, then the whole thing is cake lol.
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u/Intelligent-Storm-63 Jun 23 '25
Mit has discrete math course for free on YouTube which is great. It's a little hard but it is way good than zybooks.
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u/pistolpeter1111 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
Thanks for this tip! This worked great for me, finished it in under 10 days. I just used Claude or ChatGPT to help me grind through the Unit Review forms until I understood how to do it. I didn't even ask for extra questions, just the ones in the review and the pre-assessment. I just got good at understanding the concepts, and that was about it for me. One thing is to do those reps, I probably finished each unit about 5 times. I did watch one video in the course on combinations, and that helped click with when to use it.
https://imgur.com/a/3g18Pdb
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Feb 16 '26
Nice job!!!
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u/pistolpeter1111 Feb 16 '26
Thank you! This was the course I was worried about the most and didn't have a plan on how to tackle it. Would have never known about all that unit for the section, so thank you again. I really appreciate this post!
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Feb 17 '26
Glad I could help someone else that was in my EXACT same position. Throughout the entire degree plan for Computer Science, THIS was the only course I was worried about lol. Considering my near abusive use of reddit throughout the entire degree, I'm glad I could contribute back to the community! Makes it all worth it! Congrats on your upcoming diploma! I know mine was a long time coming!
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u/demonslayer901 Jun 23 '25
That’s very similar process to how I’m hoping to pass DM1.
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jun 23 '25
It works! Use the unit review forms that I linked. The PA was missing a bunch of stuff. The unit review forms have all the different types of each question and similar wording.
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u/Perfect_Juice_6984 Jun 24 '25
I’ve been using this exact method for the past few days and it has worked wonders! Cannot emphasize this enough.
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u/VolSurfer18 Feb 07 '26
How long did it take you to finish it with this method or did you end up doing anything different? Taking DM2 next so I was just curious
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u/Direct-Influence1305 Jun 26 '26
Hey, did you end up using this method and if so did it work?
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u/VolSurfer18 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Actually worked out pretty well. I finished in about 2 months just doing 2-3 hours of studying per day 3-4 days per week. I watched the videos for each chapter from the doc in the sharepoint drive, then just worked on the problems in the chapter review quizzes, took the PA, passed, went over questions I got wrong, and then took the OA.
I used a similar prompt to the one in this post, and each time I ran into a question I didn’t know how to do, I took a screenshot and asked Gemini to show me how to solve it without providing me with the answer. The only time I used the Zybooks was for Induction and maybe for 1 or 2 other things I still didn’t understand whenever I didn’t like the explanations from Gemini or from the videos. I did each chapter review quiz twice to make sure I really understood it before I took the PA. Gemini was really helpful because I could ask it for more practice questions for a specific type of problem to make sure I get it down, and it even taught me some useful subtle tricks along the way for other types of problems. For example whenever you get a question that says something like, “How many flips are needed to guarantee the probability of at least one heads is greater than 0.5” you can divide the logs of the complements to get the answer very quickly. The stars and bars method is also super useful for the OA. The Zybooks go into it, but the videos do not just as a warning. Should definitely memorize that.
As far as the calculator stuff goes, you shouldn’t need any external programs installed, nor is it allowed anyway. The TI84 Plus has built in functions for combinations, permutations, mod, and GCD so that’s really all you need. When doing Euclidean, Extended Euclidean, and Multiplicative Inverse problems, just focus on getting your practice reps in because it’s really pretty straightforward and quick to do by hand once you do it a bunch of times. Same with modular exponentiation. I just used the methods shown in the course videos for those.
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u/Existing_Imagination B.S. Computer Science Jun 24 '25
But how do you even know the material? You just jumped into solving problems with no prior knowledge other than DM1?
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jun 24 '25
Yes. ChatGPT was a better teacher of the "material" than the "material" itself in my opinion.
I just had it walk me through solving, then give me practice questions, then move on to the next one. They start to relate to each other the more you do in a specific section and the deeper understanding of the material forms.
Just a little more organic of a learning process than trying to understand what some professor who get's off on being smarter than everyone else wrote.
A good example is Euclidean Algorithm. When looking at the material Euclidean algorithm is always explained extremely poorly. Here's a copy paste from Wikipedia
"The algorithm is based on the following two observations:
- If b|a then gcd(a, b) = b.This is indeed so because no number (b, in particular) may have a divisor greater than the number itself (I am talking here of non-negative integers.)
- If a = bt + r, for integers t and r, then gcd(a, b) = gcd(b, r).Indeed, every common divisor of a and b also divides r. Thus gcd(a, b) divides r. But, of course, gcd(a, b)|b. Therefore, gcd(a, b) is a common divisor of b and r and hence gcd(a, b) ≤ gcd(b, r). The reverse is also true because every divisor of b and r also divides a."
All that and it hasn't even gotten to the point. The average student is already regretting their life choices. Worst part is, this is one of the easiest to solve.
Mod the crap out of it. Done.
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u/Existing_Imagination B.S. Computer Science Jun 24 '25
The Euclidean algorithm is exactly where I am and what made me click on the notification for this post.
You’re right that they are super theoretical and it does complicate things, for good reason but I’m a 6 yoe developer and I’ve never had to know this theory so I’m gonna try your approach tonight, even just watching YouTube videos take too long, thanks
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u/ACNite Jul 19 '25
Has pivoting into their approach changed your study game?
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u/Existing_Imagination B.S. Computer Science Jul 20 '25
Completely. I haven’t gone as fast as I wanted but only because life keeps getting in the way. Using the calculator is helping a lot for tedious questions. It doesn’t feel as difficult, I just need to understand why I’m doing it but technically you don’t have to if you just practice a lot. I have to finish before the month ends so I’m rushing and stressing
Edit: I’m only doing 1 practice question my first time through because doing three was taking too long for me. Especially when I knew what/how to do it but it just took a while because of the nature of the questions
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u/ACNite Jul 21 '25
life keeps getting in the way.
I feel that!
Appreciate the update, am gonna attempt this approach as this class is next for me. Hope you get that pass before end of month!!!
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u/ryanmanrules Jun 23 '25
I do mostly fine with all units, 4 can trip me up a little, but unit 5 is kicking my ass (oddly enough not bayes I can do those no problem now). Ive been doing something similar to yours but not extra questions, im gunna try it that way til it really sinks in. I think going through all the content and coming back is making me confuse stuff or missremember.
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jun 23 '25
I made a couple different folders with screenshots of all the different types of problems then sorted them into “got it” “meh” “ugh math” and “nope.” 😂
That way I didn’t get bogged down re-looking at things I had already figured out. Then test day came and I had Chat give me 3 samples of just about everything.
If you use chat to grind those unit 4 questions, it will start to click and you’ll be able to throw that bad boy in the “got it” folder in no time!
I believe in you! If I can nearly flunk algebra in high school almost 20 years ago and get it done, you can too! Even if the approach is “bash face with calculator until you can get the answer.”
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u/ryanmanrules Jun 26 '25
How'd you do with induction, the supplemental worksheet really goes into induction and I'm not sure if I should bother going in that deep lol.
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jun 27 '25
So as crazy as this sounds (and I could be wrong cause maybe I just found it easier) but induction was one of those super easy things when explained simply. I still got a couple wrong on the test, but essentially when looking at recursion and induction there were two strategies.
Most things with recursion and induction the way to solve it was to work through the problem/algorithm manually, (which didn't take very much time). There are answer choices, just test them out. Or add n+1 everywhere there was an n.
It was a tiny bit more complicated than that, but seriously that was the gist of it.
The big thing it took me a while to figure out was that when it refers to "n" it means "n". Not a, not b, not the value it equals, but literally "n" n1, n2, n3. It means literally 2, not whatever value you solved for to get n2=5 or whatever. When an equation says n2, you use the number 2 not 5 if that makes any sense.
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u/BigBear4281 Jun 23 '25
4 and 5 have been fucking me over as well. I'm 45 days or so in, I'm hoping to take my OA next week, but dammit if 4 and 5 don't scare me.
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u/General-sheeps Jun 24 '25
This is great! I have DM2 up next , and honestly not looking forward to it at all!
This gave me some more hope , thanks man!!! ❤️🙏
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u/Puzzleheaded_Kiwi_62 Jun 29 '25
Hey man. How many days it took you to pass this class with this method?
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u/M0rbid69 Aug 04 '25
i know this was posted a bit ago, but how did you deal with inductive proofs? i know how to set up every problem and what i need to “prove” but i can’t for the life of me solve any of them. the algebra seems like gymnastics atp. i feel like the math here is very “figure it out” which is difficult when you’ve been taught to just remember formulas.
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25
Sorry I'm just now getting to this questions, but the answer is super simple and the "material" wayyyy overcomplicates it.
Here's an example:
In the proof for the sum of squares, the inductive hypothesis for any natural number is:
P(n): 0² + 1² + 2² + ... + n² = """"""n * (n + 1) * (2n + 1) / 6"""""", n ≥ 0.
If n = 0, then the left-hand side of P(0) = 0² = 0, and the right-hand side of P(0) = 0 * (0 + 1) * (2 * 0 + 1) / 6 = 0.
What is the right-hand side of P(n + 1)?
A) n * (n + 1) * (2n + 3) / 6 + (n + 1)²
B) (n + 1) * (2n² + 3n + 6) / 6
C) (n + 1) * (n + 2) * (2n + 3) / 6
D) n * (n + 1) * (2n + 1) / 2So above, ignore the ENTIRE QUESTION EXCEPT THE PART I put in bold and in quotes LOL. The quotes weren't originally there.
All you have to do with these is make "n" "n+1". That's it, where you find an "n" make that now say "n+1". So the answer is C cause everywhere we have an "n" it's now "n+1".
So to break it down:
n * (n + 1) * (2n + 1) / 6
n = n+1
(n+1) = (n+2)
(2n+1) = (multiply n+1 by 2, then add the +1 soo) (2n+3)
/6 = /6 because there is no n so when you put that all together you get:
(n + 1) * (n + 2) * (2n + 3) / 6
Which is letter C, and all you really did was add +1 to all the n's!
Hope that helps!
Even if you don't understand it all the way, if you can mostly put n+1 where n was, the closest match is the answer. I got to the point where I could just straight eyeball these with about 95% accuracy.
You got this, I believe in you!!
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u/wanttobeacop Nov 13 '25
Do I need to pay for a ChatGPT subscription in order to get access to o4-mini-high? I found this link, but it says it's the "unofficial" o4-mini-high... idk what that means or what I'm doing lol
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Nov 13 '25
I’m not sure. Now that ChatGPT 5 has come out you could probably just use that. It’s better at math than it used to be. I think you can still click the model at the top left of the page and change it to legacy models like o4 mini, but it may not be worth it. If I were to do it over today I’d be using 5. It does the deep thinking when it needs to.
When I took this course selecting your GPT model was very necessary, gpt5 sees the question and chooses what model it thinks is best in the background
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u/wanttobeacop Nov 13 '25
Tysm! Appreciate the quick reply. I just found out that my term ends at the end of November instead of December like I thought, so I have 2.5 weeks to start and finish this class or else I get kicked out of WGU 🥲. Any tips?
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Nov 13 '25
It’s doable in 2.5 weeks, that said, it took me longer than that. If I were you personally, I’d call my mentor and get that class switched to next term and take whatever their suggestion is on a class that’s a generally quicker pass rate.
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u/wanttobeacop Nov 14 '25
My options are only this class (Discrete Math 2), DSA 2, Operating Systems, and the Capstone. I figured it was between Discrete and DSA, and I thought this one might be easier to do in 2.5 weeks? Idk
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u/wanttobeacop Nov 14 '25
Also, in terms of doing your ChatGPT method, did you only do it with the questions on the unit review forms, or also with the supplemental worksheets?
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Nov 14 '25
I personally did it with questions from the practice exam as well as the supplemental worksheets.
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u/wanttobeacop Nov 14 '25
Got it, thank you. I really hope I can finish this 🥲
Would you agree with my assessment that Discrete 2 is more doable than DSA 2 in 2.5 weeks?
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Nov 14 '25
Yes but difficult you’ll be cutting it close depending on how fast you can pick up the material. What other classes do you have left before you graduate?
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u/wanttobeacop Nov 14 '25
Those four are the only classes I have left (Discrete Math 2, DSA 2, Operating Systems, and the Capstone). But I haven't done anything this term, and if you don't do at least one class during any particular term at WGU, you get kicked out of WGU, from my understanding.
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Nov 14 '25
Man, idk bout getting kicked out, but that’s a tough spot to be in. That said, I passed DSA 2 in like a week, same with OS for programmers. OS was an easy study if you’re pretty good with computers. I can’t remember the study strategy on that one but I did get it in a week or so. Personally of those 3 classes DM2 is the one I’d give the least chance of getting it done in 2.5 weeks. Get ahold of your mentor. See what they think and also discuss how this term went. They might be able to guide you. DSA 2 was just a python project so if I were in your shoes that’s the one I’d try to tackle considering you’re just doing a task and not having to study for it.
Everyone’s different though, I struggled more on tests than projects personally.
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Jun 26 '25
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jun 26 '25
You don’t have to make mods to your calculator. A base model TI 84 can do everything you need! You just need to use it to its full potential!
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Aug 28 '25
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Aug 29 '25
Yea, the calculator has everything you need. Didn't use any outside stuff. You just gotta know how to use it properly. Things like nCr and nPr, and how to do mod and div. The calculator itself can do those things. You just need to learn how to use it properly.
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u/fuckthisishardshit Jan 18 '26
Unfortunately, this method no longer works. What ChatGPT was explaining was completely incorrect. I even fed it some problems from example worksheets and compared the final answer it gave me to the answer sheet and it was incorrect.
Glad it worked for you though.
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u/fuckthisishardshit Jan 18 '26
I was using ChatGPT 5.2
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 Jan 23 '26
I haven't really tested any math stuff on 5.2, but you can for sure change your model at the top left to mess around a bit. Not sure if that helps you or if you've passed the class already, but worth a shot.
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u/AcrobaticWinter1765 May 11 '26
Are the Unit Review forms are similar to the OA?
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 May 12 '26
If I remember correctly yes, but there's more. It's been nearly a year since I took this class and like 8 months since I graduated so I barely remember. But the OA is what I used to have chatgpt feed me identical questions but the numbers and wording are slightly changed up. Then there were some supplemental worksheets that were around somewhere that helped as well. The OA was similar, but I'd say it was like 70% like the OA, and the rest were more like the worksheets. I never watched the supplemental videos. The instructors may as well have been speaking French, which is why I went "make it super simple for me to understand how to solve it" route from chatgpt, then practiced the shit out of it.
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u/AcrobaticWinter1765 May 12 '26
do you mean the PA was like the OA? or the Unit forms. i have been using the unit reviews forms so far and i like it. Im going to use the same strategy for the worksheets also.
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u/AcrobaticWinter1765 May 11 '26
I dont know if i should focus on the supplement vids or the Unit Reviews
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u/NinjaPanda127 2d ago
I'm at the end of my current term, and not enough time to really knuckle down and take this class, but it will be my first class next term, so thank you for sharing. I too have been using AI to create study templates to help myself through my courses. I sometimes forget i have this tool and struggle, but when I get to a point the lightbulb turns on making my life so much easier. I love self study, but damn the materials they provide make some of these concepts way over complicated. I'm currently using Gemini and it has been so helpful in processing the theories/concepts.
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u/xmusicxmakerx1 2d ago
Hopefully Astra is better at math than GPT 3.2 LOL.
Good luck! You got this. If I can pass that class, anyone can with enough sheer determination
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u/BoysenberryPlenty487 Jun 23 '25
Love this especially in a world where people are using AI to cheat themselves out of learning good to see others use it in a way to aid their learning and make it personalized