On-Site Instructor Led versus On-Site Virtual

poolmanjim

Hello,

I have been eyeballing the site for awhile and finally have a good question.

My company is on the verge of promoting me from Help Desk to Systems Engineer. They modified my "duties" for this next year even though the promotion is far from official or finalized. They would like me to train for and pass three Microsoft Server 2008 R2 exams. I have chosen to target in on the 70-640, 70-642, and 70-646.

I have been self training using the Microsoft Press books for about 4 Months now off and on. I have only "finished' the 70-640 book and I'm now going through it again taking notes and doing the labs. I also have been responsible for maintaining some of the servers and upgrading them already.

My question, sorry for the long lead in, is what kind of training should I gun for: On-Site with an Instructor or On-Site with a Virtual Instructor?

I want to do On-Site with an instructor as it seems to probably be a bit more dynamic and I believe I would learn more. It is also significantly cheaper and my boss likes the cost reduced (they company is footing the bill). The problem is that the virtual class offers Test Prep materials (MeasureUp) and a test pass guarantee if I pass a proctored pre-test with a 90% or better.

What are you experiences with different types of training?
What would you suggest for someone new like myself?

Thanks for any help. Sorry for the lengthy post.

nycid

look at Trainsignal... Its suiting me nicely for the MCITP track. For less than a $1k you can get all the testing and info you need, along with technet you should be good to go if your disciplined enough!

poolmanjim

Thank you for your reply, Nycid.

As much as I like your solution, my supervisor has a thing for onsite training and doesn't believe in self-training, so unfortunately that is not an option (that being said a friend of mine has some TrainSignal stuff he is going to loan me).

AlexNguyen

For someone new, I would take a training in class. The labs are well prepared for the course. You can share experiences with other classmates from other companies.

When you know more, if your company has a Microsoft Services Premier Support, take a Premier course. You'll a learn a lot from a Microsoft guru. You can also ask Microsoft Premier for an ADRAP (Risk and Health Assessment Program for Active Directory) on site. You'll spend 4 days with a Microsoft field engineer learning the ins and outs of AD.