MCSA/MCSE cost

Ger the man

Hi,
Im checking out a few of the private colleges that run MCSA/E for a heafty fee. Do people think its worth it? They have a high exam pass rate and are well organised but are you better off studying at home?

axer

Ger the man wrote: »

are you better off studying at home?

That depends on you - whether you will make time for study and whether you are willing to go and find the further clarification of information via the internet or elsewhere to explain things further.

You also have to look at how much is jammed into to how long a period of time. There are many MCSE courses out there that are just like a week - I don't think you could really come out understanding the concepts cramming like that.

I passed my 70-620 and CCNA via self study. I had done a course for the CCNA when I was in college in the evening time but realised how lacking it was when I went and studied it myself 2 years later. I am currently studying for the 70-290 exam which I am hoping to pass this day next week.

ntlbell

Ger the man wrote: »

Hi,
Im checking out a few of the private colleges that run MCSA/E for a hefty fee. Do people think its worth it? They have a high exam pass rate and are well organised but are you better off studying at home?

Buy the books and self study

the majority of courses a teacher tends to just read to you from the same book you would of read anyway.

If you can read, study yourself at home.

Ger the man

axer wrote: »

I am currently studying for the 70-290 exam which I am hoping to pass this day next week.

Best of luck! The fee isnt due for a good while yet so I have some time to decide

donaghs

Self-study can be difficult. If you don't understand something properly you don't have an instructor to go through it with you.

But I've done most of my IT Certs through self-study to save money (and sometimes time).

I've a few years of IT workplace experience behind me, and some knowledgeable colleagues also. This is a big help if your doing self-study.

Is it possible to pay per exam? That way after one or two exams you might have the confidence to go it alone.

accensi0n

donaghs wrote: »

Self-study can be difficult. If you don't understand something properly you don't have an instructor to go through it with you.

But I've done most of my IT Certs through self-study to save money (and sometimes time).

I've a few years of IT workplace experience behind me, and some knowledgeable colleagues also. This is a big help if your doing self-study.

Is it possible to pay per exam? That way after one or two exams you might have the confidence to go it alone.

Yes.

R3al

I studied my MCSA with a training academy and found that only a fraction of the material is covered in the classroom so most of the studying is in your own time anyway. When I upgraded to MCSE I just bought the MS Press books and studied at home and found I had no problem passing the exams so I would recommend studying in your own time if you are paying for the course yourself - if your work are prepared to foot the course fee then why not take the additional tutoring.

Col_Loki

I mainly used CBT Nuggets (video Lectures) which i found great covered almost all of the material and i had the MS Press books for any of the stuff it didnt. Dont think i could have done it just studying with books on their own.

Worked out alot cheaper and easier than doing any course (also no time off work).

axer

Col_Loki wrote: »

I mainly used CBT Nuggets (video Lectures) which i found great covered almost all of the material and i had the MS Press books for any of the stuff it didnt. Dont think i could have done it just studying with books on their own.

Worked out alot cheaper and easier than doing any course (also no time off work).

I have used the CBT Nuggets and found them great since the lecturers make them somewhat interesting. Some of the other tech videos e.g. TestOut, are unbelievably boring.

I did find that the CBT Nugget videos don't always cover all the material you need to know (often they add in extra stuff which is really good) so it helps to have a book or two to go through. The Exam Cram books are good to make sure you have covered everything.

CorkFenian

Definitely self study, use cbt nuggets and trainsignal videos (better than cbt IMHO) There is a world of information online which wont cost u a cent if u know what I mean....Save the courses for ones your employer sends u on IMHO or higher Cisco courses...

unklerosco

I'm doing the MCSA in Dorset College at the mo.. I'd highly recommend it, there's not a hope in hell I could self study... I've tried it before, if u can do it then its obviously the cheaper option..

MCSA is €3750, I get a grant that covers a good bit of that but I still think its worth it.. Also makes u put the work in knowing how much its costing. The Tutor is fantastic, he's very enthusiastic.. Really sound, its not just reading from the book n doing the labs at the end. Its read a page, discuss the page, use real world situations, whats not on the page that could/should be n then move onto the next page... He's really helpfull, I'm knowhere near the std that the other lads are with regards IT experience so he's given me advice n tips as to what to do, links to recommended sites, some presentations n course work from other courses to read up on.. N the main thing is he loves teaching, Tis why he does it 4 nights a week all year round...

CorkFenian

Fair play, its a lot of money though, but ure right , different strokes for different folks, if it suits you, its worth a lot to you, what IT role are you in at the moment??

unklerosco

Well we rent out IT gear so my job is to make sure it all works, image everything and set up small wireless/wired networks... I do nowt with server so thats why i'm doing the course..

CorkFenian

If you have the chance to get videos from Trainsignal\CBT I would recommend, like i said earlier, can be got for nothing if you do a search etc, excellent supplement to your course, best of luck, have the MCSA, have had decent exposure to comms rooms, servers so that helped...
Theres loads of sites you're probably using, u may have these, found these very useful myself

http://www.sadikhov.com/

http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

unklerosco

Cheers for that... been on the petri site, lots of info there. Getting my head around IP addressing, DNS n DHCP is fun... Lots of reading up to do ;-/

NullZer0

Just to let you know the MCSA/E course with IACT on St. Stephens green is very poor.

Don't get stung like I did (even though the company paid).

unklerosco

iRock wrote: »

Just to let you know the MCSA/E course with IACT on St. Stephens green is very poor.

Don't get stung like I did (even though the company paid).

I was originally gonna do it there but the fact that they've a sales team put me off.. They constantly hounded me and no matter how many times I asked to talk to a tutor I never got to...

Was meant to do it in BCT but after it got called of 3 times I went to Dorset, as did two of the other lads that gave up on BCT... Glad I did in the end as its a very good college

Ger the man

iRock wrote: »

Just to let you know the MCSA/E course with IACT on St. Stephens green is very poor.

Don't get stung like I did (even though the company paid).

Are they that bad? Poor in what way? I was in contact with them and they hounded me for a while

ronan125

Hi Guys

I have a question i'm hoping someone can answer. I have a few years working in IT (mainly tech support). I am looking around for somewhere to start the MCSA course.
My question is, is there any point in doing the MCSA for XP/Server 2003. I know there are Microsoft courses for Vista and Exchange 2007/Server2008.

If I do the 2003 course which will most probably take 6-9 months will I then need to take the upgrade courses straight away.

Is there a more up to date MCSA course?

Feelgood

Hi Ronan,

Note that Exchance and Windows 2008 are only out and most businesses wait 2-3 years before upgrading to a new release so that sufficient updates and fixes are available and so that they know the release is solid.

To answer your question, yes it is definitely worth while doing an MCSA 2003, you will find that a lot of places have only moved from WIN2K to 2003 in the last year or so, while some are still even planning there upgrade to WIN2003!!.
Unless your going for a job with a very adventurous IT dept, I would say the updated skills on 2008 won't be needed till around 2010.

AFAIK its only a single exam to upgrade from the MCSA 2003 to the new replacement MCSA for 2008 (Can't remember the name of it)

Hope this helps.

unklerosco

And Dorset college do the Vista exam instead of XP...

Ger the man

Heard lots of good things about Dorset, they want 3.5k for MCSA

ronan125

Feelgood thanks for the reply.

My issue is that the company I work for are running Exchange 2007 and are in the process of upgrading our servers to 2008.

I plan staying with this company for at least another three years by which time 2008 should be a lot more prominent.

Is there a certification path that will lead to a MCSA or equivilent in 2008. All i can find at the moment is the MCTS for vista and EX2007

axer

ronan125 wrote: »

Feelgood thanks for the reply.

My issue is that the company I work for are running Exchange 2007 and are in the process of upgrading our servers to 2008.

I plan staying with this company for at least another three years by which time 2008 should be a lot more prominent.

Is there a certification path that will lead to a MCSA or equivilent in 2008. All i can find at the moment is the MCTS for vista and EX2007

If you will be exposed to 2008 then you might as well follow that path.

MCITP: Server Administrator
MCITP: Enterprise Administrator

Ginger

In response to your message, so others can benefit from it.

You can do your MCSA/MCSE with a view to upgrading if you want. You just need to structure it correctly so you limit the number of extra exams you need to take.

For the MCSA you need 2 core exams, 1 client and 1 elective. The 2 core ones are set at 70-290 and 70-291.

Its the client and elective where we can get sneaky. You will notice that the requirements for the client exam are either XP or Vista. If you do the XP client exam you can do the Vista client exam as your elective (I kid you not!). By doing it this way you come out with MCP, MCSA 2003 and MCTS Vista.

But the main reason you would do a vista exam is that is a requirement for one of the 2008 certs namely the Enterprise Admin. So if upgrade your MCSA to Enterprise admin you will need 3 exams instead of 4.

So when you do the upgrade from MCSA to 2008 certs, you will not be required to do the Vista exam as you will already have it covered.

To upgrade to MCITP Server Admin (2008 MCSA) from the MCSA 2003 you will need 2 exams which are 70-648 (Upgrade exam) and 70-646 (Pro Exam)

So by doing a total of 6 exams you come away with 6 certs and coverage from 2003 to 2008 (excellent for migration projects).. just an idea

Of course the investment is heavier and the time spent is going to be longer but being honest 3 of those exams arent that difficult relatively speaking.

You can do the XP, Vista and Windows 2003 Server core (70-290) exams in about 3 months really if you have any experience of using the software. The AD exam will require a bit more work depending on your experience. Its quite possible to get those 3 out of the way, 1 exam per month, doing about 2 hours a night, with common sense and having worked on the product before hand.

I can tell you from experience on 2 of them (Vista and Server core), that working with them and playing with them in a VM was sufficent for me to pass them easily enough and I am a dev by trade.

As for doing courses, it depends on your ability.

I find those who have the abillity/aptitude for computing have a problem with courses as they move too slow for what they are doing and they end up either daydreaming, browsing the web and ignoring the subject matter.

These people are better at the self study route. You will know if you are this type of person if you are given a small bit of information and you go off and try it for yourself without wanting/needing the guiding hand of an instructor. Unfortunately you need the discipline and motivation to do it.

The easiest way to guage what you are up to, is to first do a practice exam. To do this, log onto http://www.measureup.com and buy a pratice exam for the exam you want to take.

Do the practice exam. I usually take it without doing any study to really guage where I am at. If I manage to score around 90% I take it again with a different question set. Again if I score around 90% I will schedule the exam for a month out, so that puts my mind in motion that I have an exam and a very visible end point to achieve.

If I dont score as high as I want, I will know from my score roughly how much knowledge I need to get. Now with the MeasureUp exams you can deduct 20% automatically from your score to give you a better idea of how you are getting on.

I will generally study for a bit and from there, dropping back about every 2 weeks to see if I am improving or not. Its a good idea to keep going back as it gives you a jolt of either confidence or a kick in the arse to get moving. Based on my scores, I will probably know when is a good time to book the exam.

Now that is my way of doing things. It works for me, and your mileage may vary.

What I do suggest is similar. Buy the practice exam, do it, see how you get on. If most of the questions seem like Greek then maybe you should look at shelling out for a course. If its a case of I would have known the answer, if I had read the question, read a bit of the book etc etc, then you probably will be ok with self study and have saved yourself a packet in the mean time.

Hope that helps

Standard Toaster

Very helpful Ginger. Bookmarked.