Studying for MCSA

milkster

My workplace has offered to pay for some training that I might want and I have decided that I want to go for MCSA Cert. I have browsed through the Microsoft learning website and I see that they offer e-learning courses.

Has anyone here only used the web-based e-larning courses to study for the core and elective exams? Are these web based courses enough to prepare you for the exams or should I go and buy a book, or signup for a 5 day class? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

milkster

I saw somewhere on here that Syngress books are a good source for studying for the mcsa/mcse exams.

I found this book on the Syngress website, it this a good book?
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510008/index.html

dynamik

If they're paying, I'd have them get this for each exam:

CBT Nuggets (might be more economical to get an annual streaming subscription)
Transcender
MS Press book (Syngress for 293 if you go on to MCSE)
VMware Workstation
Technet Plus subscription (this will allow you to download all MS products for trial/eval use)

That's my typical list of study resources for the exams I do.

MS learning is alright. I haven't been extremely impressed. I'd definitely supplement that with other resources if you decide to use it.

Slowhand

I'll second dynamik's recommendation, but I can add one thing that I've found to be quite helpful, and that's the training material from TestOut. Like the CBT Nuggets videos, they're quite expensive, but worth every penny, in my opinion.

Good luck with your studies, don't be afraid to drop in to the forum and ask/answer questions as you go.