Accelerated Degree Diary 4 – General Update

Transcript located below video if available

Transcript below video if available

 

So, a bunch has happened since the last video.

I’m sorry if there’s a little noise. I’m sitting right next to a window, it’s like a super nice fall day but that means it’s a little warm and I need the breeze.

So, a bunch has happened since my last video, namely that the Cubs have won the World Series, so that’s kind of a big deal, whether you’re a Cubs fan or, like me, your wife is of Cubs fan and you don’t really care. But it’s kind of like a moment in history, so that’s pretty baller.

Anyway, it is now November 5th, which means it’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these videos, and a lot has happened. I am now at 45 credit hours on my transcript. When I started I had none, and now I have 45. It’s been almost 3 months. So, if there’s anybody who’s watching this who’s like, “whatever, this guy is blowing smoke, there’s no way you can get much done in a year” yes, you can, and you can get that much done in 3 months. Less Than 3 months even.

So, I started the second, well, probably the middle of the second week of August, and I didn’t start doing stuff then, I started like, “okay, I’m going to go part time at my job and my wife is going to get a job”, and we started that transition. That’s when we started managing our lives towards this goal, the second week of August. So, now it’s been since then…roughly 10, 11 weeks, that we’ve been on this journey. But maybe 8 weeks since I’ve actually been taking classes. It took almost two and a half weeks, the whole like, ‘getting into school’ process to get going. So, in that time, 45 credits. I’m very excited, super stoked.

I’m also tired. Tired of the study, tired of the time it takes, tired of the intensity of what it is. I mean, it is not a joke. But if you’re feeling like it’s impossible, I can tell you, 45 credit hours in 3 months is not impossible, because I just did it. 2 days ago I took my test that put me from 42 to 45. Totally stoked, but tired.

Okay, I expect to be at almost 70 credits, or right around 70 credits, by the end of the year. That means the rest of November and the rest of December, I expect to go up another 25 credit hours. Yeah. I’ll be breaking down how I get that done, and I’ll be breaking down how I got to where I am.

Here’s a list of upcoming videos I’m going to be putting out. I’m going to keep this one really short, but here’s what is coming up.

So, the first one is: How to write a good paper fast.
I actually made that video two and a half weeks ago and I was about to publish it, and I published it for about 45 seconds. I started watching it again, and I said, you know what, this is not how I want to explain this, and while I think half of it was really good, half of it was not very good… because I tend to be a little rambly. So, I said “I’m going to take this down and really polish this thing before I throw it out there.” I want to make sure the advice I’m giving on that is really good, because I’m saying “this is how you do something”, and I didn’t feel like I said it very well. So, I’m going to be putting out that video, but I’m going to polish it up, and I’m going to shoot it back out. How to write a good paper fast.

Second: What the CLEP, DSST, and TSEP experiences are like, and how to prepare for that.
And how to prepare for that mid-test freak out. I’ve done it a bunch now, I’ve taken like 12 tests now or something like that, and there’s a moment in every test where I panic. So, just sort of dealing with that. Now, I passed every test, which, a lot of that has to do with preparedness and some of it has to do with luck. But, a lot of it has to do with preparedness, because I chose things where I knew what I was digging in to. But some of it does have to do with luck, so just dealing with that.

Another video will be: Time management and Tools.
Time management is something that I really struggled with. I said this in one of my very first videos, but I like World of Warcraft, and I like video games in general. It’s how I de-stress. WoW Legion, like, I don’t know if anybody watching this plays World of Warcraft, but World of Warcraft Legion is freaking the best expansion of Warcraft. It’s the best MMO that I’ve ever played. Right now, Legion is the best that any MMO has ever been, as far as I’m concerned. I haven’t played like a bazillion MMORPGS, but I’ve played maybe a dozen, and I’ve played WoW for 12 years, and this is as good as it’s ever been. So, some struggle dealing with time management, but also finding some really awesome tools online, and just finding a way to stay in that mental space.

The next one is: Study Tools
I’ve found some really cool study resources online, in different communities, that actually support sort of the CLEP and DSST test taking process. People that you can talk to, or ways that you can find study resources. Things like that.

The last one is: My take on PLA, or prior learning assessment
It’ll be specifically for Thomas Edison State University, and how that PLA process has gone so far. They have two mandatory classes, PLA 100, which kind of gets you prepped to see if you could potentially do something with PLA (prior learning assessment) and then PLA 200, which actually walks you through the act of putting together what you need for your portfolio. I took both of the same time. PLA 100 is only a four week course, so, I toasted that thing already. But, I’ll be making a video of my review on that.

So, those are the five videos that I want to be putting out in the next couple of weeks.

So, yeah, that’s what’s going on, that’s the basic update. Still killing it, and very excited, tired, but too pumped to quit, right? Like, I can’t even believe I’ve gotten this far already. I’m basically a third of the way done. I’m slightly over a third of the way done. Over a third of 4 years, haha! Normally 4 years right? So, of 120 credits I’m over a third of the way done, and it’s been less than 3 months. I’m not stopping now. Yeah.

Oh, also I got a new job and I love it. I work for Creavo Media, and I’m the business manager there. We build websites and we host websites. We do full custom builds, it’s freaking sweet. We actually have really awesome people on our team, and we just partnered with this super cool company called SearchLab who does Search Engine Optimization, and they get you found, man. They’re basically the guys who took over when Yellow Book, no not Yellow Book, Yellow Pages, stopped doing their stuff. So, SearchLab is crazy cool, and we’re partnered with them now, and I’m the business manager for Creavo like I said. And we do full development, full design, for whatever. If you need a website or if you need your website hosted, we can get that done for you. It’s a ton of fun. I love it. I like my job. It’s been awhile since I could say that, so, it’s awesome.

Alright, that’s it. That’s all I got. See you guys later.

Questions? Hit me up.