studying a certificate's objectives and not actually sitting the exam ?

hi do u guys also study for some good certificates that are not worth paying/quite expensive but, not actually taking the official exam? (just scoring virtual practice tests) i did that for N+ (i didn't mean N+ is not totally worth paying, it's quite good, in my point of view some comptia & eccouncils are jus a bit expensive compared with some key certs to have such as CCNA, MCSA 2008, RHCSA, VCP, CISSP etc.) is this a good way to study? do u guys do that too ? now, i'm studying CCNA & MCSA 2008 , i'll complete them, but, i skipped A+ & N+ , planning to skip linux+ too.

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Comments

uyen_nguyen

I did exactly the way you did. Good luck for your decision.

Cerebro

I'm working on ICND2, but I'm also brushing up on some N+ to fill in any gaps. I probably won't take the N+ exam though. I hate the feeling of having gaps in my knowledge.

I'm thinking of doing a m$ cert after the CCNA, although their cert track seems a bit haphazard, with them changing everything next year? But I'm going over some active directory stuff atm.

dontstop

I think most of the guys on here would agree, people will do the exam for a couple of simple reasons:

You've done the hard work, why not get the piece of paper?
It presents to your employeer your able to follow through Study + Exam
The exam format is a pressure cooker, you think under pressure on other peoples terms
The real exams are normally harder than sims/question pools

clarknova

Agreed with dontstop. If I'm going to study the requirements, I'm going to take the exam. Especially if I can convince my employer to pay for it. Besides, if you don't take the exam how do you know that you really do know everything required? I can read the study guides, no problem. Being able to recall the information without having access to the manual is another thing. Taking and passing the exam shows that you know the material thoroughly.

dave330i

If a cert isn't worth paying for, then its not a good cert.

NetworkVeteran

good certificates that are not worth paying

This is an oxymoron.

+1 dontstop and clarknova.

I remember once saying I already knew most of the material on an exam, and I didn't want to bother taking the test. Weeks of study later, I was able to pass it.

jibbajabba

We have a couple of guys here who were sent to the official Microsoft course for Exchange 2010 and non one took the exam - which I thought is weird

Qord

I sort of took this route with A+ studies a few years ago. I was required to take 2 classes for my AS degree that covered A+ objectives (Hardware, Desktop OS), but since the actual A+ exam was not covered by the school I didn't take the exam. Prior to starting my CCNA studies, I went through the N+ stuff just to get an intro, but did not sit the N+ exam.

I think that if your goal is just knowledge on any given subject, then you can't go wrong studying the cert objectives as they usually do a good job covering a broad overview of a technology. I think it comes down to ROI: Is the price of the exam worth what you can get in return?

EV42TMAN

I've said this in other threads and i don't know if this is a Minnesota thing or not but some of the bigger organizations around here (banks, school districts etc) require that every IT person have they're A+ so i agree it may or may not be worth paying for based on your current skill level but, at that point i had lost 3 really good jobs because they required it and i didn't have it so i would advise you to get it. It can't hurt you all i did to prepare for the A+ when i took it was read the objectives, then i wrote down everything i knew about each objective. After that i double check transmission speeds of random connections and read the chapter on printers. The next day i knocked both tests out back to back.

tpatt100

I used to take exams after studying the course objectives back in the day, now a days I will not. I use the study guides to help me learn material if I am new to it. The study guides are usually written to be thorough so they are a good platform to get up to speed if I need to learn something.

I am saving up to build a vmware esxi box and want to learn VMware 5. I have the VCP5 ebook but I don't plan on taking the exam because it is not related to my work I just want a book that I can read and learn at my own pace.

NetworkVeteran

jibbajabba wrote: »

We have a couple of guys here who were sent to the official Microsoft course for Exchange 2010 and non one took the exam - which I thought is weird

Common. Less than half of those I remember being sent to official training courses bothered learning the material. The rest learn a few buzzwords and otherwise it was a day to relax. At one of my companies, we implemented a policy that educational expenses would only be reimbursed if the employee could demonstrate they'd mastered the material. A certification exam or a good grade in a class were ways to do that. That saved money on our educational budget, while allowing those who were taking advantage of those classes to actually learn to spend more.

YFZblu

The only time I would study a certification path but not actually attempt the exam is if the certification in question is a little out of my league in relation to my experience. For example, until I actually work in networking I probably won't attempt any CCNP-level exams; however I will certainly be expanding my knowledge and using CCNP material would be a great way to do that.

Maybe it's just me, but for the most part if I study a certification path I would have that little voice inside my head nagging me to take the test just because it's out there, almost challenging me.

JayTheCracker

thanks for the replies
happy to know ur points of view too

yep, A+ is a good one to have too , considering it ,not sure, can't tell yet.
a lot of things i want to do , lol, damn >< jus the money can't follow as i'm on a budget

that's why i'm picky

JayTheCracker

(just started my 1st On-the-Job training)

sratakhin

If I spend my time studying for something, I'll take the exam no matter what. I think my time preparing for the exam is worth much more than $150 that I'd pay for a test, so why not? After all, I consider it as an investment, not as an expense. Isn't becoming a CCNA or MCSA not worth several hundred dollars?

kurosaki00

chicks dig GIAC, CCIE, CISSP and stuff like that

log32

well if you understand what you read (book or vids) from the cert material why not take it then? I actually think setting a goal to achieve a certain certificate will make you read everything cover to cover without having the need to pass "boring" parts. and you eventually obtain a word/line extra in your resume, you can only benefit from this.