IT peers, i need some solid advice.

gambino

Hi

I am going to get my A+ cert
-should I do it by myself and learn from micheal meyers and professor messor or Take a 3month course which cost $1100? Course is 1 day a week on SAT from 9 til 4pm(APR20-JUL20)

Also In janurary there is a course called Network Administration and Security Professional, its 1 yr full time cost 17k. You get

CompTIA Storage+ Powered by SNIA (SGO-001)
CompTIA Network+ (N10-004)
CompTIA Security+ (SY0-201)
CompTIA Linux+ Powered by LPI (LX0-101 & LX0-102)
Microsoft Technology Specialist : Windows Server 2008 Active Directory (70-640)
Microsoft Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring (70-642)
Microsoft Technology Professional: Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator (70-646)

Is this course worth it? Not sure which path i am interested in yet. Thanks.

Xyro

Please do yourself a favor & study independently.

You can complete all of these certs for a fraction of the cost and experience less stress doing so since those are wayyy too many certs to try & finish up in a year, IMO.

For 18K you could complete most of a bachelor's degree at WGU!

gambino

Thanks for the input.

Raywire86

Learn how to self study. A+/n+ is not hard at all. Use your local community college to take general computer science classes cheap. Some even have cisco academies.

If you learn how to learn on your own, you'll do better. IT is not the industry to need to have your hand held. Buy the micheal Meyers book and set up a routine! Good luck.

jabney

Those courses are a ripoff IMHO. Do self study you can gt most of those certs for 800 with self study.

Mikey12184

I took my Comptia A+ last year and all i used was professor messor, michael meyers and then previous exams closer to the date.

However do not rely to closely on the previous exams as you will learn the answers to the questions and not gain the knowledge that your going to need in the future.

Exam was quite simple really, Good luck

dbrink

I would pass on that training for $17k. If you have money to burn then I would take ~$1k and build a rocking machine to run ESXi for a virtual environment for your labs. You can easily self study every one of those exams except for maybe the Storage+ and I'm not sure how valuable that even is.

Cisco Inferno

those places are a ripoff. sure they'll teach you how to **** the exam. thats about it. You cannot pass all those exams in one year, let alone retain the knowledge. remember, cheating an exam = not learning anything, not learning anything = one awkward interview. Dont be that guy.

xocity

You can get all the comptias done in 4/5 months with about $200 in books and free videos online. You can buy a cheap computer for VMs for about $400/$500 and finish the in 6/7 months of faster if you focus and save the extra 16k for future studies. Only money I would spend on a class is either CCIE bootcamp or a University.
I attended a 8 month course at new horizons computer learning center a while ago (it was paid for by the government since I was unemployed) they went throught the CCNA and MCITP and 70-680 and at the end of each class, they would give out the **** for the exam. The next week we had 80% of students that passed the 70-680, then when we got to the Microsoft exams, more then half of them didnt know what DHCP was or how it worked. It was embarrassing. DONT BE THAT GUY.

If you **** a cert and go for an interview, your going to have a bad time.

gambino

Thanks for the responses. Bump for more.

f0rgiv3n

+1 for self study. You save lots of money by doing it and sometimes you can learn better that way. By going the self-study route you can spend more time on things that you have a hard time grasping the first time you read about it. I self studied for pretty much all of my certs.

About7Narwhal

If self study isn't your thing, you can save a lot of money by looking around at the local Community Colleges (NOT the tech places like ITT). A class is usually only 300 or so and they will provide the same information as the other place. Self Study is a great way to save a lot of cash, but sometimes an instructor led course helps. Good luck with whatever you pick.

Edit:

This post was made in response to the A+ question, I would strongly suggest staying away from the 17K course. If you were going to pay that much, you may as well go to WGU and get a degree for 10K more.

N2IT

You could self study and pick and choose the technologies you want to learn.

I would recommend getting your A+ on self study and then decided what you want to do next. Being new to the game, which I am assuming, I would do A+ give it a break and really think through what you want to do next. I always thought MS 680 - 640 would be a good follow up to A+. I've heard really good things about Linux + as well. Either way good luck!

gambino

Thanks for the info.

I am about to buy CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, 8th Edition (Exams 220-801 & 220-802) michael meyers but it doesnt include windows 8. Does the a+ ask windows 8 questions? Gonna use it along side professor messor. I might just sign up to cbt nugget or train signal.

About7Narwhal

In theory, the A+ is vendor neutral and should not require any specific knowledge relating to an OS. That said, I required XP and Vista (yes.. Vista) knowledge when I took my A+ CE in 2011. I would assume knowledge of Windows 7 will be covered in the book you have purchased and basics will probably be on the exam. Windows 8 would be very surprising this early in the game. You should be fine.