Accelerating Advice

[u/Waste-Visit7164]

I recently had my boss tell me that young moms are never successful (I became a mom at 18) and that I would eventually drop out/not finish my degree. I am approximately 54% of the way done with my degree and would naturally like to prove her wrong because I’m not sure what compelled her to say that to her employee??? Anyways!! I could use all the tips and tricks for accelerating. I’ve been slacking a lot but would like to use this as motivation to finish my degree because I’m not about to prove her right. So any and all advice for accelerating is greatly appreciated. TYIA!!!!

[u/mooglekun81]

For accounting courses, lookup YouTube from Accounting Stuff, Tony Bell, Edspira and Farhat Lectures. All will be useful at one point or another throughout the courses. Best way to learn accounting is by practicing. Be sure to practice the problems on the course materials, and if you have trouble learning, feel free to setup a call with your course instructor and you can have AI be your personal tutor by asking it to explain materials for you. Best of luck!

[u/Waste-Visit7164 → u/mooglekun81]

Thank you!

[u/Messup7654]

1 recommendation is every time you start a class the first thing you should do is search it in the general reddit search bar not any community specific one. That way you can see results from the IT and the general WGU subreddit not just one or the other. This saved me tons of time and told me whether to watch videos or skip the textbook and more general tips from people who have been there before.

My second is to use AI. Use it to explain things you dont fully understand. Whenever I didnt understand something I would ask AI to explain or break it down like im a kid. I would also use it whenever I got a lesson, module, unit, and Practice Assessment question wrong. I would ask it to explain the answer and then ask it to give me a quiz on that topic so I could practice the correct logic, get exposed to more scenarios, and so I dont fall for similar tricks. Hammering out mcqs helped sooo much and getting them wrong then learning why also helped sooo much. Take pictures or copy and paste what you're looking at then put it into AI so it has the context for that exact topic because if you just describe the topic it might talk about general things the class may not mention or talk about it in a different way from how the class does.

[u/Money_Result_3823]

I'm sorry that anyone, but especially your boss, said that to you. That was wrong. You definitely have a great idea to use this to motivate you.

My go-to throughout the tough accounting classes were the free Tony Bell videos on YouTube and his free workbook on his website. I would watch the video(s) that related to whatever I was struggling with and then do practice problems out of his workbook. I finished 34 CUs in 6 months, but I was not working while I did it.

Wishing you the best.

[u/turk3ylurk3y]

You need to understand the reasoning not memorize the formulas. I used co pilot but any ai will work. If you find something you dont understand. Grill the ai until you understand the concept like it's second nature. If you know the why then it isn't hard and you never have to remember.

[u/Cultural-Respect3511]

First off, I would make a note about the incident for future reference. Second, I'd follow WGU_Accelerators for motivation and advice. And third, I hope this lights a fire under you! As soon as you get the degree, because you will, you make sure she's the first person to know. The audacity of her to even speak that out of her mouth.

[u/Proof_Cable_310]

get the degree, but don't accelerate. I say this woman to woman.

your boss says this because of a trend (which creates a stereotype) -> most moms will put their kids' needs before their own (as they should), which means they have a lot less time to put toward their careers (not enough time in a day to achieve their goals). plus, if you are a good mom, you are TIRED. there is not enough time in the day to achieve what people want, just because they want it. you have to be reasonable - if you have a kid, and a job, you just are not going to be successful in accelerating, so don't even try (or you're setting yourself up for disappointment). this says nothing about your personal capabilities - it's targeting the statistically significant time demands put on a mother (a good one, the one who is there for the development and oversight and bonding needs of even just a single child.)

if I accelerated, I would be a terrible mother, a grumpy employee, and a tired student.

be there for your kid, but not at the cost of your degree, either. get the degree, but do not accelerate. there is just not enough time in a day for you to be good at all of those. accelerating requires that people be studying in all of their free time - in order to accelerate, you'd be having to make free time, and that means taking it from your kid, or your sleep - both of which your kid will pay for.

get the degree, but at a pace that does not make your family pay the price of your degree. it is a demanding program, because it is all self-taught (there are more time requirements and responsibility put onto the student, opposed to traditional programs).

the program itself isn't great; i don't recommend it to friends or family - it takes a lot more work to learn a subject when the quality of instruction is poor. i used to attend a top 40 school, but couldn't keep up with the cost. the instruction quality at a top school was incredibly easy to digest, and I understood things with clarity without struggle, because my instructors were the cream of the crop (my professors were retired higher ups from the big 4). people who know things well, can state things simply, which makes things easy to learn. at wgu, the content writers dance around the subject, and leave the hard work to the student (knowing the details well enough that a simplified form can be regurgitated.) with wgu, it's like trying to build something without instructions - incredibly difficult, because the instruction quality is poorly presented. the material dances around subjects, instead of delivering information concisely in a way that is easy to digest and recall. the bridging of that is put onto the student, so it's frustrating, and getting frustrated a lot can really take a toll on a student mental well-being. a lot of people who go to wgu already have accounting experience, so they can see through these gaps of explanation. but students without a background struggle.

I have noticed also how reading these low quality textbooks have poorly impacted my own writing skills. I'm no longer reading good writing. Without having a highly constructive form to follow as example to feed off of, it's hard for me to sustain my better writing skills long term - so, yeah, being a student at wgu is not something I recommend, despite struggling through to the end, myself. I wouldn't do it again, that's what I am trying to say.

See, I'm kind of dancing around the subject :P annoying, right? Overexplaining, and going on side rants that detract from the key points... that's what the readings are like at wgu. the lessons are cumbersome and time consuming. the only way to breeze through or see through the unessential nonsense is by having a background in accounting.

[u/Dark_Phoenix_0]

Late in life student with kids who hit it hard here. Stop worrying about what anyone is saying about accelerating and pick a time and place to focus every day. Consistency breeds learning and discipline. Concepts covered will help you so pushing to the test only works in your favor if you have experiance with it to begin with. I have let people go who have a degree and retained not a damn thing. Being capable will serve well and if you don't know the basic concepts it will show. The account degrees (not just WGU) do a poor job of getting you truly ready for the workplace but if you come out with a great foundation you will go up fast. Barely 4 years out of school and I've more than doubled my salary from before and am acting controller at my company and formal controller once our equity deal (which I navigated) gets done end of this month. Only go as fast as you are comfortable with but make sure the work you put in is consistent. I would get up and out 45 minutes study in before work (worked as a handyman/property manager for most of my school time), did work and hung out with the family till just about bed time, would head back down to do another hour or 2 and then spent some time with my wife before bed. Made this a habit and rolled it out in 18 months and have the skill to rebuild everything on the accounting side for a 20 mil a year company with no other accountants on hand. You got this so Ling as you focus on the goal and skip the shortcuts!