Courses or Classes for MCSA?

aquageek

I'm currently self studying for exam 70-270 and am intending on taking 70-290 and 70-291. I'm just wondering wether it's worth spending the money on courses at New Horizons?

I have access to computers to set up a lab, and access to people in the industry if I have questions, and there's always techexams.net

I also noticed (somewhere) on the MS website that the courses provide you with either all or some of the knowledge to meet the objective requirements, and sometimes some e-learning is required. It was a chart with circles half filled, or filled entirely. Can't seem to find it now, I'd be interested in seeing it again if anybody knows what I'm talking about.

So what do you think?

genXrcist

aquageek wrote: »

I'm currently self studying for exam 70-270 and am intending on taking 70-290 and 70-291. I'm just wondering wether it's worth spending the money on courses at New Horizons?

I have access to computers to set up a lab, and access to people in the industry if I have questions, and there's always techexams.net

I also noticed (somewhere) on the MS website that the courses provide you with either all or some of the knowledge to meet the objective requirements, and sometimes some e-learning is required. It was a chart with circles half filled, or filled entirely. Can't seem to find it now, I'd be interested in seeing it again if anybody knows what I'm talking about.

So what do you think?

I say take the course. Self-Study is cheaper but it requires a lot more self-discipline. In addition, with Self-Study it's difficult to get a feel for whether or not you are ready for the test. You can always post on TE but being able to talk about it with your instructor and classmates will prove valuable.

Are you paying for the course or is someone else like a business or State grant paying for it?

As someone who as self-studied for the A+, Network+, MCDST & the CCNA since Sept. 2008, I am looking forward to the 70-290 & 70-291 courses I just signed up for. Of course, the State is paying for it but none the less, I sure am looking forward to the mental break.

jnwdmb

I cannot speak for New Horizons, because I have no personal experience with them, however I have heard both highly positive and highly negative reviews regarding them. IMO, I would recommend taking a course of some kind if you are new to the technology. I took a course with a local Technical school when I first became interested in IT and it proved to be very beneficial to me. If I would of tried to self study on server topics like DHCP, DNS, RAS, ect. I would have taken a significant longer amount of time to reach a full understanding of it. It was well worth the money for me to do it that way and be guided through the beginning stages of learning. I do not feel as though self study is not an option, and I plan on doing the majority of my future studying on my own, but having a solid knowledge of the core principles and basics to get me started on my IT journey was worth the extra money and probably saved me quite a bit of time as well.

kctxau

Don't overlook some of the online video training. VTC.com has good tutorials and is very affordable, $30 a month for access to all of their courses. Take a look at the 290 training video
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (70-290) Tutorials
View "creating user accounts" in the Administration section for instance. The first three sections are free (all of their videos have a number of free sections)

nel

For me, it would depend on how much the course is and how long the duration is. If its new horizons i would suspect a 5 day course or something?

If that was the case i would save my cash (cos i suspect you'll need a bit for NH courses) and go and buy some excellent reading material. Also get some VM labs going. 5 days is to short a time for most folk (including me) to learn material to a high standard. You could also look into CBT's.

For most it takes a few months to go over the material and be comfortable with it and your at a stage where you need to cement that knowledge and lay the foundations - not to try and rush it in a few day course.

Jst my opinion..

aquageek

Thanks for your input guys, especially for the link there kctxau. Appreciate it.