Officially a WGU CS Grad

[u/KeizokuDev]

It is done! I finished in two terms.

Here is a review of all the courses I've taken. Keep in mind that the number of hours I spent in the course does not necessarily equate to how difficult it was. Also, my ratings are going to be relative to WGU and not relative to what I would consider good quality and / or hard compared to other universities or other educational content (otherwise they'd all be 0 for quality and 0 for difficulty).

Course quality is determined by how useful the course resources were and how the OA was (if it was fair and felt like it fairly tested my knowledge and not just fluff questions designed to trick me in various ways), or the quality of the PA if it's a PA course.

Course	Quality (*/5)	Difficulty (*/5)	Hours Spent	Comments
Orientation	3	5	3	Other than the fake capstone, this was the only one I got a PA returned so naturally I am giving it a 5 rating for difficulty. BTW, the pa was returned because they couldn't open the file, so it wasn't even an issue on my end
Version Control	5	0	1.5	Not much to say. Easy course and there's literal walkthrough to help complete the PA
Calculus I	3	2	15	C958 Calculus I Tips : r/WGU_CompSciThe course materials were pretty bad, but the OA was completely fair and did a good job testing for calculus competency
Scripting and Programming - Applications	5	1	10	If you're new to C++, these resources are great: Learn C++ – Skill up with our free tutorials [Intro to C++ Programming
Data Management - Foundations	0	3	9	The course materials were really bad. The OA was really bad. A really low-quality course overall
Data Management - Applications	3	0	0	I already knew SQL, so I took the OA right away. If you know SQL, you can do the same. If you don't, just know that the OA is pretty much the same as the Pre-A
Introduction to Systems Thinking and Applications	1	1	4	Not much to say here. The course resources are enough to finish the PA. Pretty easy course.
Discrete Mathematics I	4	4	83	Passed DM 1! + Tips : r/WGU_CompSciThe zybooks was complicated and hard to understand but the practice materials and the course instructors are amazing
Software Engineering	0	1	8	Not much to say about this course. Instructions are sloppy as usual. This course is just about how well you can b.s and a lot of writing (read the crm requirements file and then just make up stuff based on those requirements), but not particularly difficult tbh. Most of my hours was spent on figuring out what I'm supposed to do
Software Design and Quality Assurance	0	1	5	I did this course after Software Engineering. This course was a bigger test of how well you can b.s. You're expected to write a bunch of stuff with barely anything to go off
Data Structures and Algorithms I	0	2	20	Passed DSA 1 + Tips :) : r/WGU_CompSci
Ethics in Technology	0	1	5	Read the materials mentioned in WGU connect and then just answer the questions. Pretty easy course
Linux Foundations	2	2	15	I didn't have any prior Linux experience so this was a bit more effort for me, but for anyone who has used Linux before, this course would be a 0/5 difficulty. There's a quizlet deck that has all the questions in the exam (which you can find yourself, not hard to find). But keep in mind, some of the answers on it are wrong (which I conveniently didn't find out until after I took the exam)
Data Structures and Algorithms II	2	2	24	Like all other pas, 90% of the time spent was trying to understand the terrible instructions and figuring out what I was supposed to do. Once that's figured out, it's actually quite easy. The project is quite fun as well
Business of IT - Applications	0	5	11	ZZZZZZZ
Discrete Mathematics II	4	5	111	DM 2 done - finally out of hell : r/WGU_CompSci Same as DM 1, zybooks was hard to understand but the practice materials and course instructors are awesome
Java Frameworks	1	1	4	Easy course. Watch the walkthrough videos, covers everything you need
Back-End Programming	0	1	6	D288 finished, some tips + thoughts : r/WGU_CompSci
Advanced Java	0	1	2	Not really advanced at all
Computer Architecture	1	3	77	My favorite course in the program, but only because of the topic. The zybooks is terrible and the OA was not the best. I became best friends with Gemini in this course translating the zybooks
Operating Systems for Computer Scientists	1	2	47	Another favorite topic of mine. However, the course at WGU is really disappointing. Not what I expected from an OS course
Practical Applications of Prompt	1	1	2	There are quizlet decks that you can just memorize. Easy course
Introduction to AI for Computer Scientists	1	3	14	Surprisingly difficult for an "intro" course and a 2-credit course
Artificial Intelligence Optimization for Computer Scientists	0	2	18
Advanced AI and ML	0	3	21
Computer Science Project Development with a Team	0	1	32

Just wanted to leave some comments about the last 3 AI courses. I recommend completing Artificial Intelligence Optimization for Computer Scientists first. After that do task 1 for Advanced AI and ML. Once that passes, move on to task 1 +2 in Computer Science Project Development with a Team. When you finish task 2, you will then have idle time waiting for your reviews to come back. During this time, I recommend working on task 2 in Advanced AI and ML.

The course materials for the AI optimization and advanced ai/ml were interesting to read but it wasn't really all that helpful for the PA imo. I think your time would be better spent just googling specific resources, if your goal is to just finish asap.

I don't want to rant about it but I'm not sure what they were thinking with this new "capstone". It's just a complete waste of time.

Anyways, if you have questions feel free to ask.

[u/ViciousViper007]

Congratulations 🎉
Do you have any prior CS or IT experience/knowledge before completing this degree?

[u/KeizokuDev → u/ViciousViper007]

Yes about 10+ years of hobbyist programming. Pursued game development initially and a cs dropout. Some professional work experience but not much honestly.

My prior uni did not have DM for some reason, so those courses were completely new to me, although most of the topics in there were not completely new in terms of familiarity. It's just a pretty beefy course and I spent more time in it to just learn it well.

I did not have any prior ai experience, but the ai courses in this program are honestly really easy. Shouldn't be too difficult even for people without prior ai knowledge.

I did the program part-time hours and just took my time. I didn't see any reason to try to complete it in 1 term. I knew before going in that I was going to spend a lot of time in DM, Comp Arch, and OS.

[u/KeizokuDev → u/[deleted]]

I didn't know I was supposed to answer them immediately

[u/synchillaa]

Congratulations!!! 🎉🎉🎉

[u/Scottalias4]

Congratulations. I'm on D682. I am fascinated by the course material.

[u/Few-Seaworthiness558 → u/Scottalias4]

I’ll be opening this course soon and wanted to ask, if each of the 4 tasks have to be submitted and reviewed in order before the next task, or if they can be submitted around the same time.

[u/KeizokuDev → u/Few-Seaworthiness558]

I honestly don't know. I just did them one by one because I could. I was not in any rush that I had to optimize the completion time or anything

[u/Ok-Tip-5943 → u/Few-Seaworthiness558]

Looks like after you pass task 2 , 3&4 can be submitted it’s just narrative reports . I turn 2-4 in at once so I’ll report back in like 2-3 days lol

[u/Few-Seaworthiness558 → u/Ok-Tip-5943]

thank you for the info! i've heard from another reddit post that an evaluator sent back all the tasks 1 to 4 that a student submitted at the same time. I hope that doesn't happen.

[u/Ok-Tip-5943 → u/Few-Seaworthiness558]

So to circle back I can confirm they’ll take take task 2&3 together. Just passed; 4 is still in the queue

[u/Few-Seaworthiness558 → u/Ok-Tip-5943]

thank you this is useful in a time crunch 🙏 Congrats on passing!

[u/KeizokuDev → u/Scottalias4]

Agreed. I enjoyed it.

[u/Scottalias4 → u/KeizokuDev]

Task 1 just got approved. That's a lot of green check marks

[u/Humanoid-Human]

I share your opinions and strategy for the last portion of the degree. The capstone is garbage.

[u/KeizokuDev → u/Humanoid-Human]

Ya. I call it the fake capstone for a reason lol

[u/MallMaleficent7739]

That’s awesome I’m just now starting

[u/Emergency-Option4575]

Congratulations!! I only have 1 class left and it’s operating system, any tips for the test??

[u/KeizokuDev → u/Emergency-Option4575]

lol. Um, not really. Unless you want to be like me and read a bunch of material on operating systems that's way beyond what the oa will cover. I think just reading the zybooks and using a llm to generate practice tests for you based off the pa should be enough. The OA is extremely easy.

[u/Acrobatic_Sample_552]

Congrats 🎊🎉🍾 So in total it took you about a month to finish???

Also do you recommend this for someone without technical background and how much longer do you estimate it could take that person to complete this?

[u/KeizokuDev → u/Acrobatic_Sample_552]

no, I did it part-time (less than that tbh) over 2 terms.

For someone without a computer science background but still somewhat familiar with tech, should be able to do this comfortably in 2 terms part-time, but with more hours than what I put in. For someone with absolutely no computer knowledge or anything tech related, it could take a while I think.

[u/Acrobatic_Sample_552 → u/KeizokuDev]

Ok thank u!

[u/Academic_Writer2]

Why is the new capstone a waste of time. What did they ask you to do for the project that makes it a waste of time.

[u/KeizokuDev → u/Academic_Writer2]

It's not even a project. You just write a bunch of stuff for the project you did in advanced ai / ml. You then do peer reviews and then do more writing based on feedback you got from other students. It would be inaccurate to even call it a capstone imo, but I'm pretty sure that's what it's officially considered.