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fire_munki

fire_munki

fire_munki

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25 Jun 2005
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I don't know if this is the right section or even if anyone can help.
I just failed my Network + exam to day and have decided (I think) that trying to teach myself just isn't going to work.
The test centre run courses and before I pay rather a lot of money for them does any one have any experience of them?
The company is called Bluescreen IT.
 
Unless your employer is paying for you to go on these courses,I strongly recommend against using the companies to pass qualifications.

It's much more cost effective to do the reading yourself. Not to mention playing with the equipment you can buy (and keep!) instead of giving the money to someone else.
 
I used the mike meyers book and online practise exams.
Doing well at the end of chapter testing but can't string it together.
Any other books/course of action people can recommend?
 
while the n+ looks good on your CV, going for a job with n+ on your CV will not make much of a difference. depending on what job you are looking to get maybe we can suggest better topics to learn that will be better than spending 1000s on an n+ cert.

Sometimes you can know the n+ very well but just not do well with tests and in reality you always have google and other resources when you are working to help you out. SO if you can not name all the components to the OSI model in a test, BIG DEAL. I have worked in IT for 5 years and knowing the OSI model has not be relevant once. Still good to know though and i recommend everyone reads an N+ and A+ book.

just an example.
 
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Yamahahahahaha said:
Unless your employer is paying for you to go on these courses,I strongly recommend against using the companies to pass qualifications.

It's much more cost effective to do the reading yourself. Not to mention playing with the equipment you can buy (and keep!) instead of giving the money to someone else.
Click to expand...

I'm doing the N+ myself atm. If attending nightschool - like myself - you have to do the reading yourself. You just can't cover enough of the material in the limited time available in class. I only realised that after downloading a bunch of practice exams and finding a good 50% hadn't been covered :eek:

And the guy saying "N+ won't get you a job". Probably true, although I've seen a few jobs down here asking for N+ and A+ as minimum. I'm guessing MS certification would be a lot better - in fact it's what I'll be doing after the N+.
 
The N+ is pretty straight forward so books should be enough to self teach, when you get onto the Cisco and Server stuff you'll benefit more with courses. Try QA for training, if you're interested I can email you my contact where I haggled a nice discount for my work training :)

MW
 
The key to passing these types of exams is to use practise tests like Transcender or Testking. I prefer Transcender. Like edscdk, I learnt more doing these than Idid attending various expensive courses. Read the course book then start answering questions - after each answer read the explanation for why the correct answer is correct and, often more importantly, why the others are incorrect. Write notes while doing this to read when you get a spare moment.
 
I know of the company Bluescreen IT, some of the guys in my office have used them as a testing centre as they do/used to do the prometric exams.

I'd echo the comments that for the A+/N+ I wouldn't want to fork out much on a course. I liked the Mike Meyers book for the Security+ so maybe give his N+ book a try.

If you're going to pay for a full blown course you're better off jumping into a CCNA (obviously the N+ will help you a bit here) or one of the MS server exams (not going to get an MCITP very cheaply this way).

I guess a lot depend son how much are you willing to spend?
 
Issue with using things like testkings or exam collection is it’s too easy to just learn the answers or remember the answers when you see the question appear. This might be ok if you plan to only take low level jobs but when you get to the higher levels it’s a big no no.

The amount of people I have seen over the years get a job and manage to somehow get pass the technical test is shocking and most get found out straight away. This results in them either leaving because they are over there head or getting fired. Recently at a friends company they had someone that had 14 different MCPs but couldnt answer any questions related to the exams he had took. This is a position you never want to find yourself in think of how bad you would look in a techincal interview.

My best advice is if you can afford it get yourself a VM setup for Microsoft exams and follow the book step by step until you understand all the inner workings and have an environment with a few servers and PC's that work and talk to each other.

I have N+ A+ and Server+. These exams were about 5/6 years ago and back then were already very out of date. The only reason I did them was because my work at the time were happy to pay for the exams. Personally after doing Comptia exams I wouldn’t suggest doing them but remember the exams have been updated since i took them so could be different these days.

My last piece of advice would be if you are going to use test kings or exam collection only use them to get understanding of the areas you need to work on or to see if you are ready. Dont sit there for a day read the questions and answers repeatedly until you can see the answer without even thinking about what the questions is asking and then take the exam the next day.

The simple rule is if you don’t understand what the question is really asking or what the problem is but you somehow know the answer then there is something really wrong with the revision you have done.

There are lots of forums that can help if you’re having trouble understanding what is being said in the book and would like someone to explain it differently for you. Microsoft used to be great at this with Server 2003 stuff. I would read a page of the book 6 times and not understand, but someone could explain what was really being said in a sentence it would all make sense.

Good Luck (Sorry for the long winded reply)
 
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No. Why do people waste their money on these crap certificates. Get a degree and stop trying to take the short route because most employers don't look to keen on it.
 
franco_22 said:
No. Why do people waste their money on these crap certificates. Get a degree and stop trying to take the short route because most employers don't look to keen on it.
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I have a my dipolma of higher education but since I'm just answering calls behind a desk it makes sense to do something with my free time. But thank you for your well considered reply.



To Duggan, thanks for the advice I have the IT admin at work help to explain bits as I get stuck, I just want to test myself before going a taking the expensive test.
 
franco_22 said:
No. Why do people waste their money on these crap certificates. Get a degree and stop trying to take the short route because most employers don't look to keen on it.
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Sorry to disagree with you here franco but I see employers wanting experience over degrees every time. Degree are great if you don’t plan going into support roles that require Microsoft exams. Most people in the private sector start at level 1 jobs even with degree's.

My example here is that I don’t have a degree but when i started as a level 1 all the people that started around the same time all had degrees but started at the bottom because they had no experience of support or the job. I was promoted over all of them with less time under my belt so degrees aren’t everything or put you in any advanced position.

I'm not saying degrees don’t get you ahead if you have two people that are the same with experience in the same field and time under their belt then its likely they will go with the person that bring the most to the table.

I wanted to go to uni but glad i didn’t as i don’t have any debt and I’m the youngest in my field in every company I have worked in.

And no I'm not out to say all degrees are crap and rubbish all I'm simply saying is that in support all the places I have worked for like to have someone with experience then someone with a degree who has never worked in IT.
 
franco_22 said:
No. Why do people waste their money on these crap certificates. Get a degree and stop trying to take the short route because most employers don't look to keen on it.
Click to expand...

LOL degree. Let me guess - you're either doing a degree, or you've just finished and believe that the world owes you a job for your awesome achievement of being a parrot for 3 - 4 years.

A degree will not help you in the sort of career path the N/A+ qualifications take you down. These are just your entry level qualifications, but I'd take someone with those over someone with a degree for any entry level support jobs. Certification like that offered by Microsoft, VMWare, Mitel, Cisco, etc is certainly no pushover if you want to be a competent techie (i.e, not using the braindump sites linked above) and will take you far far far further in an infrastructure/ network type career than any degree you can name.


Should probably add that I do have a degree, but I've never kidded myself that it somehow worth more than professional certification coupled with experience.

[edit] Profile confirms it:

Occupation
Law student

[/edit]

Good look being unemployed / knocked down a few pegs when you finish your course.
 
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Not that this will help anyone but I've got my 7th and last Microsoft exam in 3 weeks, MCSE here we come :D (I'm just happy!)

I started in IT support (most 2nd/3rd line stuff) around 3 months after graduating, the degree doesn't help me in the slightest, but got me the all important interview. Actually I think the only almost relevant bit was C# programming helped me dive right in to shell scripting.

I was very lucky to get the job.

Oh, I also used examcollection to help me study. Definately didn't do it by memorising answers though, just highlighted my weak points.
 
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Hellsmk2 said:
LOL degree. Let me guess - you're either doing a degree, or you've just finished and believe that the world owes you a job for your awesome achievement of being a parrot for 3 - 4 years.

A degree will not help you in the sort of career path the N/A+ qualifications take you down. These are just your entry level qualifications, but I'd take someone with those over someone with a degree for any entry level support jobs. Certification like that offered by Microsoft, VMWare, Mitel, Cisco, etc is certainly no pushover if you want to be a competent techie (i.e, not using the braindump sites linked above) and will take you far far far further in an infrastructure/ network type career than any degree you can name.


Should probably add that I do have a degree, but I've never kidded myself that it somehow worth more than professional certification coupled with experience.

[edit] Profile confirms it:

Occupation
Law student

[/edit]

Good look being unemployed / knocked down a few pegs when you finish your course.
Click to expand...

lol, I have a MSCE. Reason why I'm doing my degree is because pretty much every employer I've talked to couldn't give a rats ass about it :rolleyes:.

Most companies don't care what you're doing as long as you're educated and you're not doing a mickey mouse degree like history or philosophy.

Although yeah, if you want to be an electrician or a plumber then certainly go get all the certificates you want. But don't tell me an employer would take someone with a MCSE or some Cysco certificate over someone with a degree in computer science or networking
 
franco_22 said:
Although yeah, if you want to be an electrician or a plumber then certainly go get all the certificates you want. But don't tell me an employer would take someone with a MCSE or some Cysco certificate over someone with a degree in computer science or networking
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That's pretty much exactly what I'm saying - having worked in the industry for the past ten years, I've yet to see more than a couple of folk go up the ladder with a computer science degree. I have seen multiple comp sci grads waltz into a business full of confidence, only to leave very quickly a few weeks later.

Someone with a comp sci degree doesn't know their elbow from their arse in computing terms, let alone how to design/ administrate a network.

I'd also hazard a guess that in networking terms, the guy with the cisco qualification would win EVERY SINGLE TIME against the guy with a degree in networking. One is hands on practical experience that requires someone to know how to configure cisco kit to a good degree, the other is four years of theory where the most experience with networking gear was in a classroom where a prof stated that a large part of the net runs on cisco kit.

(I also question the qualifications of any 'IT professional' who can't spell cisco).
 
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