MCSE - taking a course

daztrouk

daztrouk

daztrouk

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Before anyone says it, this is to be paid for by my employers, so no need for self study. I'm looking for a reputable company in London to study towards gaining my MCSE qualification. Any suggestions?
 
http://www.qa-iq.com/courses/IltCourseoutline.aspx?type=IltCourse&courseCode=MCSE03AC

I hate training companies almost as much as recruitment agencies as they are all really pushy and annoying on the phone, but going on the lesser of 2 evils I tend to use QA IQ for courses where they offer them.

However for an MCSE I'd look to go with Ambilogic (don't touch firebrand imho), just outside london but all the people I know who have gone with them have been happy.

http://www.ambilogic.co.uk/mcse/schedule.html
 
I'm currently in the early stages of working towards the MCSE - I have my 70-270 client exam booked for Monday.

I've studied the material at home after work over the last four weeks.

I assume these boot camps have good results as I imagine the instructors know exactly what to teach and what materials to use.

Out of interest do they use braindumps/testking type stuff?
 
M8 of mine went with Computrain after trying a few others that were pushey and wanted him to do class teaching all that. Last time I chatted he was doing ok so he must be happy with it all.
 
On another note (and sorry for the OT)... what do you guys think to teaching yourself at home using CDs and books? I'm working through mine at the moment but want to know if it's a waste of time.

I've got a bit of background so know mainly what the guy on the CDs is talking about, but obviously he can't answer questions like in a classroom :D
 
agw_01 said:
On another note (and sorry for the OT)... what do you guys think to teaching yourself at home using CDs and books? I'm working through mine at the moment but want to know if it's a waste of time.

I've got a bit of background so know mainly what the guy on the CDs is talking about, but obviously he can't answer questions like in a classroom :D
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Did you ask him! :p
 
agw_01 said:
On another note (and sorry for the OT)... what do you guys think to teaching yourself at home using CDs and books? I'm working through mine at the moment but want to know if it's a waste of time.

I've got a bit of background so know mainly what the guy on the CDs is talking about, but obviously he can't answer questions like in a classroom :D
Click to expand...

I'm doing my 70-270 client exam tomorrow, and have prepared for the exam purely via the home study route.

Allthough I am very familiar with XP, there is a lot to learn about for the exam.

One thing I found was that no single information source was fully comprehensive. Each set of material had something extra or something omitted which the other included. Over a period of four weeks, I watched CBT Nuggets, read the Sybex Book, Used the Testout Training Videos/tests, and Transcender mock exams to test my readines for the exam.

Bearing in mind the prices for these materials and the exam, it could possibly be cheaper to do the bootcamp in the long run.

Assuming I pass on Monday, I'm going to use the MS Press book, CBT nuggets and Transcender for the 70-290 server exam and see if they are sufficient to pass.

I would love to go on the boot camp, though before parting with thousands of pounds, I would want to find out exactly what I was paying for. It probably wouldn't be possible to gain a true insight into this if they employ pushy sales people :(
 
LordSplodge said:
Shame 70-270 doesn't ask many questions about XP then! Hope you know your 2003 Server questions.
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70-270 consists entirely of content relating to Windows XP, it's insallation (remote and CD based), interaction with AD and Windows Servers .

There is a fair bit about RIS, group policies, share/ntfs perms etc, but it is mainly XP baseds.

70-290 is the 2003 Server based exam. I'm actually quite looking forward to this one.
 
Good luck for the exam Hax. On another note, those who have MCSE's, what route did you go, Messaging or Security? I'm thinking Messaging, as i've been dealing with AD a lot at work and want to know more, just wondering about others......
 
daztrouk said:
Good luck for the exam Hax. On another note, those who have MCSE's, what route did you go, Messaging or Security? I'm thinking Messaging, as i've been dealing with AD a lot at work and want to know more, just wondering about others......
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Got both here, just looking into upgrading to Svr2k8 and Ex2k7 now (will it never end?? :()
 
Not wanting to Hijack the thread, just though I'd let you all know that I passed. I was very nervous but got a good score (well over 200 points above the pass mark) :)

Roll on 70-290 :) :)
 
Little bit off topic but somewhat relevant
I've not done an MCSE myself but I've got lots of experience in IT training and for those talking about home study what I've found is it's going to be tricky unless the same body setting the exams write the textbooks. Stuff like Cisco Certs are easy self study as Cisco Press write textbooks which are guaranteed to cover what you need to know because Cisco write the final exam, and example of the one's that are difficult would be the CompTIA Net+ (or any other for that matter) where you are reliant on 3rd parties for the learning resources. These will only be given a list of topics covered, and thus can only make educated guesses at the exam content and usually you find you have to read through 2 or 3 sources for the same parts of the course to cover all bases.
As for Centres to take qualifications, I try to stick to colleges and educational institutions as much as possible.The reason being they're non-profit for the most part and rely on word of mouth and pass rates to compete. Businesses tend to be more concerned about maintaining a throughput and raking in the course fees. These places also tend to charge quite a lot more for the courses. Also beware of the ones where you sign contracts! they do try and rip you off with bits that arn't inclusive etc.
 
HaX said:
70-270 consists entirely of content relating to Windows XP, it's insallation (remote and CD based), interaction with AD and Windows Servers .

There is a fair bit about RIS, group policies, share/ntfs perms etc, but it is mainly XP baseds.

70-290 is the 2003 Server based exam. I'm actually quite looking forward to this one.
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*cough* MCSE qualified + security *cough*

From my experience and that of others who I have spoken to the exam asks quite a few questions that assume 2003 knowledge.

Anyway, shouldn't you be doing the Vista exam and the 2008 Server ones? Got to keep current and all that!
 
oddjob62 said:
Got both here, just looking into upgrading to Svr2k8 and Ex2k7 now (will it never end?? :()
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I too will be doing the 2008 upgrade as well as the Exchange 2007 and Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP).

As for when it ends? That's easy. It ends once you move to middle or senior management and don't need to fiddle with technology any more. ;)
 
LordSplodge said:
*cough* MCSE qualified + security *cough*

From my experience and that of others who I have spoken to the exam asks quite a few questions that assume 2003 knowledge.

Anyway, shouldn't you be doing the Vista exam and the 2008 Server ones? Got to keep current and all that!
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I'd not bother with the vista one. Most companies won't make the transition before windows 7 hits the floor.
Plus XP and vista are quite similar underneath if you know one you can figure out the other.
Windows 7 might not be so similar and might need re-training.
 
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