r/WGU_Accelerators

Hi everyone!

I am a WGU BSHA graduate (45 courses in 2 terms, switched my degree from accounting to healthcare administration) and a current MBAHA student (7/11 courses completed).

I wanted to share my experience with WGU and anyone who wants to accelerate. Please let me know if you have any additional questions, and I'd be happy to answer them!

Please note: PAs (writing assignments) can take up to 3 days to grade (sometimes more if the evaluators are backed up). I have had some assignments graded in 1 day, and some have taken all the way up to the deadline, which is 3 days, at the same time that you submitted it.

I have not had any of my PAs sent back for revision or for high similarity scores. I strive to get as close as possible to 0%; it just takes a lot of editing/rewording, but some assignments require templates, which can raise the score higher.

I recommend ALWAYS joining WGU Connect for all of your courses. It will either include a SharePoint Page for course resources, or the WGU Connect group page will list all resources there under the course resources tab. WGU does an amazing job of providing all the resources a student could ever need, plus it offers help from the course instructors. Resources may include:

·         Study Guides

·         Recorded Cohorts (not live that you need to attend, they were recorded in the past and uploaded for future WGU students)

·         Course Topic Videos

·         Performance Assessment Tips, Guides, and Video Guides

·         Study Guides

·         Formula Sheets

·         Links/Contact Info for WGU Instructors

 

I try to complete all courses within 7 days, but I will allow extra time for courses that involve math (such as remembering formulas, solving problems, etc.).

 

For PAs, try to get them all written first, then scan them for similarities, and go back and make edits if needed. Sometimes. Ideally, submitting them all at once allows them to be graded within the same 3-day evaluation period, but understandably, that may not always be the case. From my experience, PAs do not require you to read ALL of the course material if you are accelerating. Open up the PA first, read over the instructions and rubric, and within the rubric, there will be hyperlinks that take you to the information the specific competency is based on.

 

For OAs, I would recommend reading all the course material unless you have prior knowledge of the subject and feel confident that you would pass with your current knowledge. Always start by reading the course material, taking the embedded quizzes, reviewing the study guide, reviewing the course topic videos/recorded cohorts, and any other additional materials provided by the WGU Instructors. Because of the acceleration, I sometimes take a chance and don’t read all the course material to finish the courses quickly. I have only failed 1 OA at WGU by a very slim margin, and it was only because I was overconfident and studied 1 day to get a class out of the way (in my BSHA). That was on me, and ever since, I have made sure to give myself enough time to complete my OAs. I have had no previous knowledge or experience in the business/healthcare industries, so all of this information is new to me as I start a new course.

 

When taking OAs, use your whiteboard; when math is involved, always have a calculator. I like to use my whiteboard to write out difficult problems and solve them by elimination. It helps me work through the problems and write down supporting information I remember.

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.

if the point of me is to accelerate and finish in a time line that I’m thinking of why can’t they add classes like I just finished one they added a mursion now that I couldnt schedule until Monday now I’m just stuck doing nothing until next week i feel like it’s very unproductive to not to be able to add atleast another PA that I can finish this week and have graded and then finish the mursion get that graded and complete my first term

I came into this term trying to finish my degree in one term, and I’ve proven I can accelerate. I’ve completed tasks and sometimes entire courses in a single day.

Now I’m sitting here with only two classes left, and it looks like I may be forced to pay for an entire second term because of delays that had nothing to do with my ability or willingness to do the work.

I’ve dealt with administrative delays getting courses opened, website/technical issues when I was ready to submit, and now work being held up waiting for peer reviews after I already completed my part.

Oh, and my favorite? My mentor told me that if I needed a class added, I could call over the weekend. Well, I did that on Saturday, August 1, only to be told, “Nope, we don’t let you do that the first four days of the month.” WT actual F!?!?! All the while, the calendar keeps running.

That’s what bothers me most. I’m not asking for extra time because I procrastinated. I failed a test and then didn’t realize I had to wait to meet with the professor, who then decided when I was ready to retest—and that process ate up almost two months by itself. Then nobody tells me I can’t add classes after the 15th of the last month of the term until around August 3.

Had I had one class left? No problem—I’d apparently qualify for a one-month extension. But two classes? It feels like WGU is flipping me the bird.

At this point, the “no opening classes after the 15th” rule feels less like an academic policy and more like a way to force people into another term and another tuition payment. PROVE ME WRONG.

Has anyone else dealt with this? Did you successfully appeal or get WGU to work with you when administrative or technical delays prevented you from finishing before the term cutoff?

Taking the OA in a few days. Any tips/recommendations?

I’m starting WGU soon and I’m building a personal study/knowledge system in Notion before I begin.
I’m doing the B.S. Health Information Management (BSHIM) program, but I’d love advice from students and graduates from any WGU program because I’m interested in how you managed WGU overall.
Instead of just making a basic assignment tracker, I want to create something that actually helps me learn, study, remember information, and get better as I progress through the program.
For those of you who have been through WGU:
What do you wish you had tracked, documented, or saved from the very beginning?
I’m especially interested in:
Course difficulty and how long courses actually took
OA vs. PA strategies
Pre-assessment scores and weak areas
Study resources that were genuinely useful
YouTube videos/channels, Quizlet, Reddit posts, study guides, GitHub resources, etc.
Instructor/cohort tips
Things you wish you knew before starting particular courses
PA evaluator feedback and lessons learned
Study methods that worked particularly well with WGU
Active recall, spaced repetition, flashcards, or other retention methods
Tracking competencies/mastery rather than just completed assignments
Things you wouldn’t track because they eventually became unnecessary clutter
I’m also experimenting with AI to help organize my own notes and resources, create study questions/active-recall material, identify weak areas, and connect information between courses.
If anyone has built a useful Notion, Obsidian, Anki, NotebookLM, AI, automation, or similar workflow for WGU, I’d love to hear about it.
And if you know of any GitHub repos, open-source projects, templates, tools, or unusual resources that improved your WGU experience, please share those too.
My goal isn’t to build the prettiest student dashboard. I want something simple enough to use every day but powerful behind the scenes—and something that will remain useful after graduation.
If you could restart WGU tomorrow, what would you make sure your Day-1 system captured?

Hello, I’m wondering if there is anything I should do to prepare for accelerating the BSIT before I start. I transferred 46 percent of the degree in, including the A+ and Network+ and all the gen eds. I work full time in a grocery store w no IT experience. Is there any preliminary studying I should do or anything else to prepare? Or should I make some kind of plan? Thanks

D415 - Software Defined Networking
E010 - Foundations of Programming (Python)

Last 2 classes then I’m graduating. 4 1/2 months left in the term. Hopefully I can do it 🙏

I know I saw this post, not too long ago, but I can’t find it or remember what the resolution was. I finished orientation and under my degree plan it is green and says completed and passed, but when I go to the course material page at the bottom, it says assessment performance assessment orientation status not passed.

Hello

I am thinking about enrolling in at WGU and pursuing a degree in business management/admin. Anyone that has graduated or is currently in the process of taking classes to graduate in this program I’m looking for advice. I currently come from a healthcare profession. I’m looking for details such as are the classes hard, do you think it’s doable working full-time? Overall, how is your experience and is it overall worth getting the degree? I’m very nervous as you can tell. Typically how long does it take to graduate/ finish classes?

Hi everyone!

I start at WGU September 1st with 17 classes left to go in the BSSCOM degree. I hoping to be able to complete it in one term.

I went over Reddit’s notes on ways to study - take the Pre-Assessments, use Studocu, watch videos, use that flash card website, and notebookLM.

I’m wondering what, if anything, did you change in your day to day that made your journey easier and made it bearable for someone with a very full life. Kinda like putting on workout clothes makes it more likely that you’ll actually work out, or how meal prep saves time where it counts when done right. You get me?

TIA