Why is this on a financial management site? Because I literally earned my MBA after writing most of “Money…From Newborn to Nearly Dead.”
I took a four‑month book-writing break, blasted through 34 credits at Western Governors University, and paid five grand completing the MBA (Master of Business Administration) in 4 months. That’s not tuition—that’s a doorbuster sale on education. FYI, the book is now better due to some new MBA insights.
Most people spend years and a fortune on an MBA. I basically grabbed mine off the clearance rack and went back to writing.
No, that will NOT be the actual cover of the book.
(A Comedy of Determination, Deadlines, and Digital Resources)
The WGU MBA program turned out to be the perfect match for me—a health‑care professional in my 50s with zero business experience and zero desire to do group projects
where I do most of the work while many sit in a group procrastinating with a confused look on their face or with people who think “reply all” is a personality trait. I needed something self‑paced, online, and compatible with my days off or after‑work brain. WGU delivered.
If you want to network with other MBA students, an in‑person program might be your jam. My networking consisted of my mentor, instructors, and the occasional Facebook group where everyone is collectively stressed but offers suggestions.
💰 Why I Even Did This to Myself & How You Can Thank Me
I have been writing and will publish a book in fall 2026 titled “Money… From Newborn to Nearly Dead: A Money Autobiography & Financial Navigation Guide Over a Lifetime.” No, I’m not making the name shorter; it’s naming with a purpose.
To market it properly, I figured I should probably understand marketing & business. Shocking, I know.
No. This will NOT be the cover of the book.
Please help market my new book business & see how I’m using my MBA. FYI, setting all this marketing material and social media up took as long as, or longer than, the entire MBA program! View my online courses with a discount, money‑saving tips, humor, and behind‑the‑scenes MBA chaos, follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at @ThriftyThora, blog@thriftythora.com, www.linkedin.com/in/thriftythora (Hint: You will need to set up a LinkedIn profile for C216, the Capstone. It’s an example to look at. I passed the first time with my profile. Love to have you follow me.), and visit ThriftyThora.com (Find out how some of my money habits are like the Vikings). The more people follow, the more people “Chop Your Debt & Invest.”
⏱️ Can You Finish the WGU MBA Fast?
Absolutely. I finished in 4 months, which included a family death, starting to build a website, and spending extra time on the capstone. Without these plot twists, I could’ve done it in 3.
I worked about 35 hours a week, took Sundays off, prayed a lot, and studied about 30 hours a week like a caffeinated squirrel preparing for winter, even though I don’t drink coffee, tea, or energy drinks. Since I’m a pharmacist, I consider caffeine a medication. When I have an occasional headache, Diet Coke solves the problem since I don’t have a caffeine tolerance. Fortunately, during the WGU MBA program, I had no caffeine or headaches!
🧠 Is It Hard?
It’s pass/fail, which already makes it friendlier than most undergrad programs. I passed every OA pre‑assessment and OA on the first try,
which I’m pretty sure qualifies me as a business asset at this point. I spent about 30 hours on each class—except C213 Accounting, which took 60 hours because apparently debits and credits wanted to fight me in a parking lot, and C216 Capstone, which devoured 90 hours like it was collecting interest.
Could I have finished C216 in 45–60 hours? Absolutely.
Did I? No, since I wanted to learn and apply the information.
Because I’m writing a financial literacy book, I apparently decided the best way to understand business was to formulate successful bikes, spend lots of money, get some loans, market bikes, and make employees happy all over the world.
WGU MBA classes only become difficult if you procrastinate, don’t study, go through the motions of listening to or reading the material but don’t take the time to understand, or get hypnotized by your phone.
The internet also makes everything easier. When I didn’t understand a concept, I looked it up in four places, like the textbook, videos, or several places on the internet, until my brain finally said, “Ohhhh, THAT’S what that means.” When I hit a bizarre accounting question, I fed it to AI and got a step‑by‑step explanation. Bless the robots.
Due to the powerful internet and only pass/fail grading, all the classes are, in my opinion, classified as easy or medium, with NO hard classes. Some of the classes in the early 1990’s were hard due to the lack of the internet and not knowing where to look or who to ask to figure something out. Some of the material in the WGU MBA was hard, absolutely, but there are so many resources to help that it made learning easier.
🏃♀️ The MBA Marathon
Getting a WGU MBA is like running a marathon where everyone moves at their own pace—some sprint, some jog, some walk, and some stop for snacks. I sprinted at first, then switched to a jog.
Doing the program quickly helped me retain everything for the comprehensive exams and projects. Instead of the recommended “two weeks per class,” I did one class per week, so I had extra time for the tough ones.
📚 The First Three Courses (AKA: The Warm‑Up Laps)
The easiest courses are:
C200 Managing Organizations and Leading People
C202 Managing Human Capital
C204 Management Communication
Finish these quickly. They’re the MBA equivalent of stretching before the real workout.
After that, always ask your instructor to open two classes at once so you’re never stuck waiting for a paper to be graded.
🧰 Tools, Tricks, and Time‑Saving Magic
⭐ Studoc.com, My secret weapon.
It cost me $88 for the year, but honestly, I only needed a quarter ($35) because I finished so fast. Student notes saved me hours.
Printing notes off and taking notes by hand while listening to videos or reading other notes was invaluable and worth every cent on ink when I printed them off. I sometimes compared two sets of notes at once, as if I were analyzing ancient scrolls. Some textbooks from WGU were poorly written. Except for C213 and C207, I didn’t read the textbooks but used them occasionally in other classes to learn the material.
Many people use Quizlet. I paid $30+ for the upgraded plan. I used it a few times, but there were some extra questions mixed in that were not in the material we studied. I didn’t want to review material not on the OA.
This section has tips, videos, and links that cater to every learning style.
⭐ Grammarly & Word
Both are free through WGU. Grammarly saved me from “unprofessional tone” rejections. Word made formatting painless after a learning curve. I tried the first two assignments in C200 without Grammarly, and one got sent back as “unprofessional.” After that, I accepted all blue and red suggestions on Grammarly and didn’t have anything sent back for the “unprofessional” rejection again or similarity.
⭐ Instructors & Mentors
I set up weekly appointments with my mentor, who was very helpful in opening classes, offering tips, and cheering me on.
Instructors were found on the course page assigned to you after several hours of registering for a class, who can help you through the course, or try for another one that fits your schedule, found on the right side of the course page. Phone and email worked for the instructors and me. Some instructors, for the courses, are incredibly helpful; others are like decorative houseplants—nice to have, but not essential. Either way, they save time over the long run. Instructors sometimes offer supplemental lectures, which can be helpful, and may send recordings if you sign up for the course and miss a session.
⭐ OA Pre‑Assessments
Once I had studied the material, taken multiple quizzes in the textbook, or studied quizzes off Studocs, I took the OA pre-assessments. I only took them the night before, or 4-5 hours before the OA, to check readiness, scheduled the OA when the pre-assessment was passed,
and studied the material I didn’t do as well on. They’re like a dress rehearsal without the stage fright. I was able to pass all the OA’s on the first try. I also tried to understand what all the vocabulary words meant in the quiz questions I studied. The other words were sometimes quiz questions that appeared on the OA. I would even write them down during the OA preassessment and look them up later, or look them up during the pretest.
📝 How I Approached Each Class
I spent 30 minutes researching how to tackle each course before starting using:
Then I registered, opened the course, and immediately checked the Main Course Resource Document. This document is basically the treasure map. Course Community → WGU Connect → Resources → Course Resources
For PA papers, I followed the rubric like it was the Ten Commandments. If a paper got sent back, it usually took 5–30 minutes to fix. Chill…it’s not a huge deal if it gets sent back.
Here’s how to find the rubric. Studocs has them, BUT sometimes they are outdated. Follow these steps inside your WGU MBA account. Course Planning Tool → View Task → Task 1, 2, or 3 → Requirements
For PAs (Performance Assessments), cut (control C) and paste (control V) the Requirements, then just answer the questions for the OA. Answer each question specifically.
In some courses, the template or the assignment is at the very bottom of the Requirements section. If using the template, be sure to follow ALL the requirements on the rubric; sometimes, they don’t have all the requirements in detail.
⏳ Time Spent Per Class
Most classes: ~30 hours
C213 Accounting: ~60 hours
C216 Capstone: ~90 hours
The capstone was actually fun—like tying together all the loose threads of the MBA sweater.
🙏 Final Thoughts
If someone who hasn’t been in school for over 30 years can finish an MBA in four months, while working, building a website, and taking Sundays off—you can absolutely do this.
Work hard, avoid your phone, and treat it like a marathon you fully intend to finish.
Orientation Course – ORA‑4: The “Super Easy Button”
Honestly, this course is so basic that it makes boiling water look like rocket science. Fill out your goals (spoiler: “survive accounting” is a valid one), why you want to study (because Netflix doesn’t give degrees), and a schedule (aka, “How many hours can I stare at my laptop before my brain melts?”).
I didn’t bother with the course material because, well, it’s basically motivational wallpaper. My schedule looked like this: 6 hours two days a week, 2 hours four days a week. In reality, I cranked out 10 hours on two days, 2-3 hours on the rest, and still took Sundays off for spiritual recharge and other life days off. Boom — finished in just over 3 months. One course per week, except for C213 Accounting (aka lots of material so “The Boss Level”) and C216 Capstone (aka “Final Boss with extra side quests with a thrill”).
#1 Rule to Pass Your PA (Performance Assessments)
Follow the Rubrik like it’s the sacred scroll of MBA survival.
Copy & paste the rubric, answer, repeat. If it’s not in the Rubrik, don’t write it. Seriously — don’t get creative here. This isn’t fan fiction; it’s business school.
Paper length? As long as you answer the questions, you’re golden. My papers hit the required length because the questions practically begged for explanations of the right length. Think of it as karaoke with a teleprompter: just sing what’s on the screen.
⭐C200 – Managing Organizations and Leading People- Easy
This class is so easy it should come with a warning label: “May cause overconfidence in your leadership abilities.” Honestly, finish it quickly before you start thinking you’re the next CEO of Subway just because you wrote a SWOT analysis about your local sandwich shop.
Step 1: View Task → Requirements
Translation: “Open the thing, read the thing, do the thing.” It’s basically the IKEA manual of MBA courses, except with fewer Allen wrenches.
Step 2: Clifton Strengths Assessment
This is where you answer 10,000 questions about yourself until a PDF tells you you’re “strategic” and “empathetic.” According to me, my husband, and my coworkers, it was surprisingly accurate.
Task #1:
I studied my results, Googled scholarly sources, and pretended I was writing a paper that would change the world. Spoiler: it didn’t. But hey, Studocs.com gave me a sample paper which I didn’t copy with APA formatting, so at least my margins were world‑class.
Task #2:
This one was easier, because I got to invent a fake organization. I created a SWOT analysis and a CliftonStrengths assessment for a pharmacy. I even gave my leader a funny name — because nothing says “serious MBA work” like working with Drug Director Dirk at Shopper’s Resort Pharmacy competing with Walblue, DWT, and Bullseye pharmacies. An online competitor was Rainforest.com.
⭐C202 – Managing Human Capital- Easy
This course is so easy it should come with a complimentary hammock and virgin piña colada. Honestly, it’s the “OA nap class” of the MBA program.
Step 1: Pretend to Read the Course Material
I didn’t actually read it. I skimmed the Summary and Application like a true academic rebel, memorized the flashcards, and boom — I was basically a human capital Jedi. Fourteen chapters? More like fourteen speed bumps that took 30 hours.
Step 2: Quizzes Galore
Once I had the flashcards down, I took the chapter quizzes. It was like playing trivia night, except the prize was an MBA instead of half‑priced nachos. I took the final quiz to review, repeat, and prepare for the first OA.
Step 3: Pre‑Assessment (aka “The Dress Rehearsal”)
Click the Pre‑A, see what’s covered, panic slightly, then review the flashcards again. If you pass, congratulations — you’ve unlocked the magical ability to schedule the real exam. It’s like a video game boss fight, except the boss is a proctor watching you through a webcam.
Step 4: The Logitech Camera Olympics
I got the Logitech C920S Pro HD camera, slapped it on a tripod, and then stacked books like I was building a Jenga tower just to get the right angle. The proctor doesn’t want to see your ceiling fan; they want to see your “I’m totally not cheating” face and surroundings.
Step 5: Practice Assessment
Yes, I scheduled a practice run just to make sure my camera didn’t decide to betray me mid‑exam. Nothing says “MBA student” like rehearsing how to sit in front of a webcam.
Step 6: The Waiting Game
Proctors are like mysterious wizards. Sometimes they appear in 5 minutes, sometimes 20. It’s basically a lottery: “Will I get Gandalf the Quick or Merlin the Late?” Either way, you’ll eventually get to take the test, and spoiler — you’ll pass IF you’ve taken time to learn, thoroughly studied, and not been distracted by iPhone or Android or life.
⭐C204 – Management Communications- Easy
This class is so straightforward that it feels like “Business Email 101: Don’t Reply All.”
Task #1: Write emails, a blog post, a persuasive letter, and customer complaint responses. Basically, you’re role‑playing as a manager who’s trying to sound professional while secretly wishing you could just send memes or YouTube videos instead. Oh, and you also explain biases and intercultural differences.
Task #2: Create a Panopto video with PowerPoint slides welcoming new employees, AKA you are in the corner talking while your slides are in the background. Translation: “Pretend you’re the world’s most enthusiastic manager while talking to your webcam.” Then write an executive summary, which is basically saying, “Here’s what I just said, but shorter.”
Panopto itself is like Zoom’s quirky cousin — you’ll spend more time figuring out how to record than actually recording.
⭐C212 – Marketing-Easy
This class is fun, but the paper is long enough to cover the subject material, which is very long.
Back when I took it, we got to pick two products to market globally. I chose mine as if I were pitching my e-book and audiobook on Shark Tank in Canada, except the sharks were imaginary and way less scary. Now, I hear they assign specific products, which is basically like being told, “Congratulations, you’re marketing what WGU wants you to.”
My strategy: print the assignment, scribble notes like a mad scientist, and then write the paper. Google became my best friend, because let’s be honest — textbooks are just expensive paperweights, even if they are online, although still needed. Watch the videos under the course resources that explain how to do the assignment.
Pro tip: talk to an instructor. They’ll either give you golden advice or just say, “Follow the template.” Either way, you’ll feel like you’re doing something official. I created a logo, motto, and theme in C212 Marketing, which helped me understand what to do in my business.
Medium difficulty, maximum time drain. Honestly, this class felt like trying to binge‑watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy in one sitting — long, detailed, and you keep asking yourself, “Wait, what’s happening on this balance sheet again?”
It took me twice as long as any other class (except the Capstone), not because accounting has more formulas than a math teacher’s nightmares (a formula sheet is provided on the OA), but due to the massive amount of material. I only remember 2 really hard accounting math questions on the OA. The rest were basic since I had studied the material and done the quizzes.
Survival Tips:
Print study guides or notes from StuDocs. I wrote them by hand and didn’t print the study guides & notes. Big mistake!
Sandwich blank paper between pages for notes, doodles, or sketches if you are bored.
Print the sacred formula sheet from Studocs— it’s basically the cheat code for the OA. Write notes.
Videos:
Click “Go To Course Material,” watch the videos, take notes, and memorize the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement contents like they’re the lyrics to your favorite song. Don’t rush — accounting is like IKEA furniture: skip a step and suddenly your bookshelf is upside down.
Quizzes:
Take them all. Figure out why you got things wrong. Spoiler: it’s usually because accounting is sneaky. Use AI to solve equations or understand concepts.
Huge OA Tip:
Whenever you see a general accounting question, stare lovingly at the formula sheet. It answered about 10 questions for me. Honestly, the formula sheet deserves its own fan club. Learn accounting and your formula sheet well, and C214 will be easier and faster.
⭐C206 – Ethical Leadership- Easy
After accounting, this class felt like a mini vacation. Three papers about leading people — example, people-oriented, and enjoying leadership. You take another evaluation of yourself with an Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI). It’s interesting to read about all the leadership styles.
Listen, take notes, cut and paste requirements into Word, write the paper, repeat.
It’s basically “copy, paste, write, submit, nap.” Compared to accounting, this was like being asked to write an essay on why babies are cute.
⭐C214 – Financial Management- Medium
Medium difficulty, but only because it makes you feel like you’re auditioning for Shark Tank with spreadsheets. The instructors on the videos & BootCamp are very good teachers and cover what is needed on the OA if you take the time to understand what they are saying. Listening to them multiple times will not help if you don’t analyze what they are saying.
Step 1: Print the Formula References
These are basically the Rosetta Stone of finance. Without them, you’re just guessing numbers like a contestant on The Price Is Right. Studocs has them.
Join WGU Connect – Resources – Course Resources – BootCamp & Efficient Study Plan
Step 2: BootCamp
My instructor told me to do BootCamp first, which I did while taking notes. It’s like financial CrossFit: lots of formulas, lots of sweat, and you’ll probably cry once because, apparently, I enjoy living dangerously. I then printed off notes from Studocs and took notes on the videos on the Efficient Study Plan and formula sheet. Studied all these notes. Watched Bootcamp again without taking notes.
Step 3: Pre‑Assessment → OA
Took the Pre‑A, then scheduled the OA like I was booking a dentist appointment I don’t want but know I needed. I reviewed only the Excel portion again in Bootcamp, because nothing says “MBA student” like practicing financial formulas at midnight then taking the OA.
Result: Exemplary on Excel. Translation: I am now legally allowed to interpret fancy charts that nobody will read.
⭐207 – Data‑Driven Decision Making-Medium
Medium difficulty, FYI, the evaluators are pickier than Gordon Ramsay judging scrambled eggs.
Tasks #1 and #2: Find the template at the bottom of the rubric instructions. Watch the videos on how to do them in the resources section. Do them before the OA test. They take forever to come back because evaluators love sending them back with comments like, “Please clarify this sentence,” when the sentence was literally, “The sky is blue.” I had passed my OA and started C215 by the time I finished all the edits exactly as the evaluator wanted.
Instructor Advice:
Be brief so they can’t nitpick too much. Basically, write like you’re texting: short, blunt, and impossible to critique.
Equations:
Write out every single one in the decision tree analysis. This was a section that the evaluator wanted more explanation for.
OA Study Strategy:
Print notes from StuDocs, read the material and understand the videos in the course material, and join WGU Connect recordings like “Play to Pass Gaming” and “Are You Smarter? Jeopardy Game.” Spoiler: I almost wasn’t smarter. This was the OA I nearly failed, but hey — a pass is a pass.
⭐C215 – Operations Management- Medium
Medium difficulty, but only because it makes you feel like you’re running a factory in your brain.
Step 1:Print off the StuDocs study guide starting at chapter 5. Because apparently chapters 1–4 are just warm‑ups, like stretching before a marathon.
Translation: “Click through 17 links until you find the one that actually matters.”
Step 3: Review concepts, watch videos, and take quizzes. It’s basically like playing Who Wants to Be an Operations Manager? Except the prize is a passing grade instead of a million dollars.
⭐C211 – Global Economics for Managers- Medium
Medium difficulty, but only because economics loves throwing curveballs. Economics is a fascinating topic that explains why governments make different choices that affect how money works.
I thoroughly studied three different versions of the Studoc Study Guide Questions V3 September 2024, Study Guide Questions (no date), and V4. It felt like Pokémon cards: gotta collect them all. I printed one, took notes from another, and didn’t watch the videos. Here is one version I used for V3. I’m not sure who wrote it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PvuFLGPEK0yp3hn4Eny9kLvJI3BTyBNX/view
Quizzes: Take them all. Yes, there are a lot. Some are word-for-word on the OA, which is basically the academic version of déjà vu. Spend more time understanding the study guides with focus questions and quiz questions in Join WGU Connect (below) than watching videos. I had scheduling conflicts that week, so I didn’t watch the videos.
Print them out, make notes, and guard them like treasure maps. They’ll be on the test, and they summarize these topics way better than the Centene textbook. Honestly, these study guides rock!
⭐C216 – MBA Capstone- Medium
Medium difficulty, maximum drama. This is the grand finale, the “season finale” of your MBA journey — complete with plot twists, financial cliffhangers, and bots trying to crush your dreams in the carbon fiber bicycle industry.
Step 1: Marketplace Simulation
Jump in ASAP, do the microsimulations, and get building your bike business. You pick a city to start your business, including New York, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, or Bangalore and build your empire, and hope your carbon fiber bicycle business doesn’t crash harder than a freshman’s first Excel spreadsheet. I played against four bots over six quarters. Spoiler: the bots lost.
Step 2: Strategy Shenanigans
I invested heavily, took out loans to fund the investment and even stay afloat, and invented my own advertising campaigns. Basically, I went into debt just to flex on the bots. And it worked — debt is temporary, bragging rights against 4 bots in a money simulation are forever.
Step 3: Task #1 – Panopto Pitch
Record a video asking for $2.5 million. Translation: “Please give me Monopoly money so I can expand my fake business.” I slapped a script on my slides, read it dramatically, and used an app (Otter) to transcribe it. I had to edit the transcription to turn in. Boom — instant MBA theater.
To speed up the process, while waiting for Task #1 to be graded, work on Task #3.
Step 4: Task #2 – Business – Analysis Report
Use the template at the bottom of the View Task – Task Overview area, but don’t trust it blindly. REVIEW ALL DETAILS IN THE RUBRIC. The Requirements are sneakier than fine print on a gym membership. Forget one detail, and your paper gets sent back faster than a bad Amazon return.
Step 5: Task #3 – Resume & LinkedIn Glow‑Up
Combine your resume, LinkedIn profile, and three academic or professional artifacts. Basically, it’s “Enhance My Profile: MBA Edition.” Mine didn’t need revisions, which means I’m officially LinkedIn‑ready to look important while secretly still Googling “how to make a LinkedIn profile.” www.linkedin.com/in/thriftythora Love to have you follow me.
Final Boss Battle:
I beat the bots, finished in the top 10% worldwide, and walked away with a Cumulative Total Performance of 43.77. Translation: I am now the proud owner of a fake bicycle empire and a real MBA. More importantly, I had fun — which is rare in business school.
🎓 Graduation Victory Lap
Congratulations! You’ve officially survived the MBA marathon. Now it’s time to talk to your mentor, who will send you the magical “Apply for Graduation” email.
It’s basically Hogwarts acceptance letter vibes, except instead of a wand, you get student debt (hopefully not) and LinkedIn endorsements.
While you wait, if you want to:
Copy all your documents off of WGU Word, PowerPoints, and Panopto files like you’re hoarding snacks before a road trip. Panopto is sneaky —search for Panopto WGU log in- [Settings] Gear Icon- Outputs- Download Podcast, and stash it away on your personal computer. Because nothing says “future reference” like rewatching yourself nervously pitch $2.5 million to a webcam.
Final Step:
As a thank‑you for all this wisdom, please follow me on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Find me at @ThriftyThora, visit ThriftyThora.com, and check out my blog at https://thriftythora.com/blog/. The more people follow, the more they’ll learn to “Chop Your Debt & Invest”… and the more I’ll feel like an influencer who just graduated from MBA School from WGU in four months with no debt!
