MCSE Course - What company/learning college?

[MarkyG]

y0!

Am looking at starting my MCSE again in the new year as my last one with Advent went tits up. Basically they went into liquidation and because I paid in full up front on a debit card, I lost the whole amount I paid! (£5,450.00)

Had a company called Home Learning College contact me a few hours ago and an advisor is coming up tomorrow avo to speak to me more in depth about it. I know what the course entails, and half the stuff I know nothing about (eg. Server 2008, Active Directory etc) but have knowledge of hardware and basic networking.

I know I'm competent enough to do it and all in all am just wondering who on here has the MCSE qualification behind them, who you took it with, how much you paid (not an exact amount) and how you found it.

Cheers for any info guys

MarkyG

[jus_tin]

I had a quote from home learning, fink it was about 1,500. Was a couple of years ago tho. Since then found an I.T. Job and they are paying for my courses. Just done my MCDST so about to start MCSA then will do MCSE. The 2 lads above me have done all the exams and have told me it gets hard especially when it comes to networking, but study hard and it will be fine.

[Penn]

Bear in mind the exams towards the MCSE (inclusive) are all "old" qualifications now. You should really be looking at doing the MCTS -> MCITP certifications as they cover the new technology that more and more companies are starting to use.

I'm currently studying for 70-640 Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring. You can apply your 2008 knowledge back to 2003 systems as long as you can identify the features that are only in 2008.

Companies are now looking for people to migrate them from 2003 to 2008 which is another bonus of having the newer qualifications and up to date knowledge.

I self study through reading (Exam cram books are good), experience at work as well as watching CBT nuggets and building my own environments in VM's. If you have the will power, it's the cheapest way by far and getting hands on is only real way to learn.

[Brendanp]

Started my apprenticeship course last week where I get:
Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist (MCTS)
Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)

and a few other qualifications with NiTP (http://nitp.co.uk/learners/index.php).

New to it at the moment but it's fairly easy just getting all of the acronyms stuck in my head is becoming a pain.

I haven't found the networking too hard as I learnt a fair bit during the last 2 years on another course which has helped a great deal so far.

[Slugshead]

Honestly, the MCSE's are a waste of time, they need to be renewed every year. Besides by the time you finish rolling out server 2008 and windows 7 with your shiney new qualification... You'll have to start again..

[Slugshead]

Find yourself an old server to play with or install a VM or two and play around and actually 'learn' something rather than faffing with a text book

[lyndon]

I used these guys, CCNA and compTIA

http://www.firebrandtraining.co.uk/