Online Course vs. Self Study Question

Okaycomputer

As a soon-to-be college graduate (One more year to go!!!), I wanted to start acquiring certifications soon so I can go out into the workforce with both a degree and certifications under my belt. I figured to make the CCNA the first certification to acquire.

I need your help in deciding whether I should go the self study route or take an online course. Let me say that money isn't really an object here. Not that I'm loaded, because I'm definitely not . Rather, I've found an online course that I'm very comfortable signing up for, for only $195. Of course, self-studying might save me a very marginal amount of money, but nothing that's gonna break the bank. Anyway, from your experiences, are online courses much better than self-study? Is it all just about perseverance and powering through in terms of self study?

All book suggestions and any other tools are definitely appreciated. Of course, I'd really appreciate any opinions on what others have done here and what others would suggest if they were in my situation.

I'll post a link to the course if anybody wants to know. I don't want to get flagged for spam or anything (I'm new to the group and don't know if that would get me flagged)

Thanks for all of your help everyone!

quickman007

What do you get for the $195? Videos, books, practice exams? And how long is the course?

scaredoftests

You also need to make sure the practice exams resemble the real exam.

Okaycomputer

Hey everyone sorry for the super late response but thanks for taking time to help me out. The course that I'd get would be 24 weeks long and would be a blend of asynchronous and synchronous learning. It has discussion boards to interact with the professor, power point slides, and tests along the way. If i were to score a 75% or above in the class, I'd get a 60% discount voucher for the test.

I'm assuming that's a good deal, but I'd also like to know how everyone thinks self-teaching would compare. From what I've heard, Professor Messer is a great option for self learning and there are plenty of options online to self-teach. Self-teaching options are definitely something I'd have to fully research before I went that way though.

I'll link to the course just so everyone can look at it and tell me what they think: Virtual Academy - George Mason University