New Horizons Certification courses

TallDarknFugly

Hey People, sorta newbie here. I have a dumb question but I've searched for instances already and obviously there hasn't been any one else dumb enough to ask such.

Okay, I'm military, active duty for the next couple of months and I've been an IT for as long as I've been active. I'm trying to obtain some certs to go hand in hand with my experience by the end of the yr and I came across this seemingly good deal with New Horizons. The certs include CCNA, MCSE, Security +, A+, Certified Ethical Hacker.....

My question is, has anyone here had any experiences with New Horizons or any other cert schools? How was it? Was it worth the money? Do you really learn that much in that little time? Pretty much asking for a review, I guess. Thanks in advance, guys.

Cessation

TallDarknFugly wrote:

Hey People, sorta newbie here. I have a dumb question but I've searched for instances already and obviously there hasn't been any one else dumb enough to ask such.

Okay, I'm military, active duty for the next couple of months and I've been an IT for as long as I've been active. I'm trying to obtain some certs to go hand in hand with my experience by the end of the yr and I came across this seemingly good deal with New Horizons. The certs include CCNA, MCSE, Security +, A+, Certified Ethical Hacker.....

My question is, has anyone here had any experiences with New Horizons or any other cert schools? How was it? Was it worth the money? Do you really learn that much in that little time? Pretty much asking for a review, I guess. Thanks in advance, guys.

No exp with that company. Depends on how much it costs, and how they teach.
But if it was for the right price and they werent using **** then I would check it out.

GL and thanks for serving our country.

Cess

TallDarknFugly

Cessation wrote:

TallDarknFugly wrote:

Hey People, sorta newbie here. I have a dumb question but I've searched for instances already and obviously there hasn't been any one else dumb enough to ask such.

Okay, I'm military, active duty for the next couple of months and I've been an IT for as long as I've been active. I'm trying to obtain some certs to go hand in hand with my experience by the end of the yr and I came across this seemingly good deal with New Horizons. The certs include CCNA, MCSE, Security +, A+, Certified Ethical Hacker.....

My question is, has anyone here had any experiences with New Horizons or any other cert schools? How was it? Was it worth the money? Do you really learn that much in that little time? Pretty much asking for a review, I guess. Thanks in advance, guys.

No exp with that company. Depends on how much it costs, and how they teach.
But if it was for the right price and they werent using **** then I would check it out.

GL and thanks for serving our country.

Cess

Thanks for the prompt response C. It's a real good deal as far as I'm concerned. I guess I'm just sorta wary of anything sounding too good. Getting fresh prepped for CCNA in 5 days sounds kinda extreme..... even for a genius like me:D


Edit: Nice dog! I have a Shep that looks just like that.... same color and everything. Been shedding alot lately so I keep him in. 70lbs in 5months. Gonna be a monster!

Cessation

Cess[/quote]Thanks for the prompt response C. It's a real good deal as far as I'm concerned. I guess I'm just sorta wary of anything sounding too good. Getting fresh prepped for CCNA in 5 days sounds kinda extreme..... even for a genius like me:D[/quote]

lol. wow 5 days? that is extreme. No experiance from that Im guessing. Alot of memorization. what a mind blower. Um... If it costs less than 7 I might do it if I were in your shoes. IDK. im tired from studying the 70-290 =/ damned group scopes!

TallDarknFugly

Cessation wrote:

Cess

Thanks for the prompt response C. It's a real good deal as far as I'm concerned. I guess I'm just sorta wary of anything sounding too good. Getting fresh prepped for CCNA in 5 days sounds kinda extreme..... even for a genius like me:D[/quote]

lol. wow 5 days? that is extreme. No experiance from that Im guessing. Alot of memorization. what a mind blower. Um... If it costs less than 7 I might do it if I were in your shoes. IDK. im tired from studying the 70-290 =/ damned group scopes![/quote]Honestly, I'm in it just for the cert on my resume right now. I'm real good at figuring stuff out as I go so the class would be a nice starting point. Everything else would be learnt as I go. I do enjoy working on networks and learning new stuff. The objective however is to have certs to market my resume asap so I can get a job. I have 6yrs experience as a network admin so I'm at a point where it's just certs holding me back. I would study for it, but I have sort of a deadline

Cessation

Honestly, I'm in it just for the cert on my resume right now. I'm real good at figuring stuff out as I go so the class would be a nice starting point. Everything else would be learnt as I go. I do enjoy working on networks and learning new stuff. The objective however is to have certs to market my resume asap so I can get a job. I have 6yrs experience as a network admin so I'm at a point where it's just certs holding me back. I would study for it, but I have sort of a deadline

6 years as a Network admin and a deadline? Go for it. I hope the Govt is payin for it. ha. But yeah you have my permission young padawan. Go Go Go

Megadeth4168

New Horizons is where I have taken every one of my ceert tests. I have also had classes there in the past the my job sent me to but they were not certification classes.

I had level 1, 2 and 3 Access classes there and honestly I was not too impressed. The classes were each 2, 8 hour days. I had a couple problems there.

1. They try to cover too much information in too little time

2. There is not a lot of individule help, they try to keep moving on to finish with their lessons even if that means some people were falling behind.... Every classes I ended up sitting next to someone who had no clue what they were doing and I was always helping them catch up.... Could be that the classes were a waste of my time because I already knew everything covered in all 3 classes.

3. In the level 3 class, half the people in the class should not have even left level 1... They were clueless! They should have had some kind of test to make sure you were ready for the next class.


I'll ask my boss later today about his experience with New Horizons. I know his wife took MCSE classes there and I know that He took some kind of Flash class there.

Danman32

I took CCNA with NH in Tampa, but they happened to outsource that class to another company that was sharing the office.

They wanted me to get MCSA 2003 with them, but since I have experience and had some 2000 courses, I self studied that.

They also set me up with Security+, but I thought it over and self studied that too.

I was supposed to be in SCNP classes now, but that was posponed due to some kind of emergency on their part.

After passing Sec+, I emailed my rep to get started with career development/recruiting, only to find out a week later he is no longer with the company. Nobody is returning my emails regarding this, and I am not happy with them. I hope this is only a glitch, perhaps because of restructuring in the office, but they still should be giving me feedback and I am getting none.

The classes are typical training classes offered by any other training facility, and the cost was the same too. CCNA is a 5 day bootcamp, and does assume basic network knowledge. Retail cost on exams. Fortunately my company paid for them, and the company that handled the CCNA training packaged 3 attempts to CCNA exam, which is what NH should do as well. I was offered no practice exams for CCNA, though they were supposed to. As I had indicated, I hadn't taken any other classes with them yet, so I can't say if that problem was specific to CCNA.

You may want to self study the Comptia exams. To me, it equates learning to drive on your own, versus going to driving school.

I am glad you posted this question though, as it gives me ammunition about letting them know that their reputation is on the line if they continue to ignore me. I would consider taking classes for CCNP, but as it stands now, not with them. I could instead take the same money, and get my own routers, switches and books. Note though, my issues are with the Tampa, FL office. That does not reflect how NH runs things in other areas.

Mr Big

To put it bluntly, my experience with new Horizons Sucked!

I practically studied myself. I was under the impression that it was instructor taught, with routers and switches. I walked into a "Mentored Learning" classroom in front of a computer watching a VIDEO of a guy "trying" to teach you CCNA. The classroom was mixed with people who were persuing their A+, MCSE, and so on. Don't get me wrong, there is an instructor there, just one for the entire classroom, and if you have any questions you can ask him. However, even HE isn't CCNA certified. He has no Cisco experience what-so-ever, he just took the video classes like I did.

So I basically answered my own questions and self taught. They called him the Cisco expert. Yes the course is 5 days, or work at your own pace, but you can't get certified after 5 days, instructor led or not. They recommend you take the class a second or third time for it to saturate. Me, well I only went for 3 days and stopped going.

Everyone there coached you and told you you were going to get a 40K a year job and such and they were going to place me with some known companies, however after they got my money, I never heard from them again, and it's so hard to get a hold of them. So my overall experience with NH was very misleading. Don't fork over your 2 grand to them, your best bet is to find a Cisco Networking Academy at a local college or self study.

Danman32

I guess you have to research the specific training facility you are going to go to, since it seems to be run as a franchise.

I've been to MS classes that my company used to provide (they used to be an official training center for several vendors), and sent me to other MS trainings. I attended a couple of Netware classes also, my first was a bootcamp for CNE, so I am accustomed to one week classes that you have to study after taking the class to pass the test. That's not uncommon. Everyone in my CCNA class had network experience.
I did come close to passing CCNA the last day of class. I needed more hands-on training under the same time pressure as the test for the sims. I think I impressed the instructor even if I did fail.

TallDarknFugly

Mr Big wrote:

To put it bluntly, my experience with new Horizons Sucked!

I practically studied myself. I was under the impression that it was instructor taught, with routers and switches. I walked into a "Mentored Learning" classroom in front of a computer watching a VIDEO of a guy "trying" to teach you CCNA. The classroom was mixed with people who were persuing their A+, MCSE, and so on. Don't get me wrong, there is an instructor there, just one for the entire classroom, and if you have any questions you can ask him. However, even HE isn't CCNA certified. He has no Cisco experience what-so-ever, he just took the video classes like I did.

So I basically answered my own questions and self taught. They called him the Cisco expert. Yes the course is 5 days, or work at your own pace, but you can't get certified after 5 days, instructor led or not. They recommend you take the class a second or third time for it to saturate. Me, well I only went for 3 days and stopped going.

Everyone there coached you and told you you were going to get a 40K a year job and such and they were going to place me with some known companies, however after they got my money, I never heard from them again, and it's so hard to get a hold of them. So my overall experience with NH was very misleading. Don't fork over your 2 grand to them, your best bet is to find a Cisco Networking Academy at a local college or self study.

Wow, Mr Big! That's a scary post considering your location specifies "Jacksonville" and that's exactly where I am! If I'm correct there's only one NH branch in Jax and it's the one on A C Skinner Street or something like that. I hope you got your certs elsewhere cos that's where I'm registered at. lol.

With all this info though, guys even though this school is obviously not as good as we deserve for our money, given my current status and deadline...... If you were in my shoes what would you do? These guys are saying I can go thru the course as many times as I feel like till I feel comfy enough to take the exam so the 5 day thing really doesn't have top eb 5 days. I can do 10, 1, 20...... till I'm comfy.

TallDarknFugly

Danman32 wrote:

I guess you have to research the specific training facility you are going to go to, since it seems to be run as a franchise.

I've been to MS classes that my company used to provide (they used to be an official training center for several vendors), and sent me to other MS trainings. I attended a couple of Netware classes also, my first was a bootcamp for CNE, so I am accustomed to one week classes that you have to study after taking the class to pass the test. That's not uncommon. Everyone in my CCNA class had network experience.
I did come close to passing CCNA the last day of class. I needed more hands-on training under the same time pressure as the test for the sims. I think I impressed the instructor even if I did fail.

I just noticed your certs. Didn't know there's a "Exchange 2000" cert out there. Was it hard to get? I love working on exchange and hope to eventually make it my central area of expertise....



THANKS FOR THE RESPONSES, PEOPLE!!

Danman32

Took the Exchange Administration exam in 2002 I think. Had been working with Exchange 5.5 little by little late 90's while doing Groupwise support. Then migrated to E2K when that started becoming popular, and was sent to a class. Self studied after that, and passed the test.

So, for MCSA 2K, I have the messaging specialization.
It wasn't too bad of a test. Typical MS test though.