MCSE - London / Surrey (Guildford or near)

[cava83]

Hi,

Anyone done the intensive MCSE course in London or Surrey?

Need to get mine out the way, but rather do the intensive course.

If you have any recommendations, that's great.

Thanks,

Gabi.

 

[The Hoff]

Not sure how they (intensive courses) work mate, but it's 7 exams to complete, which despite relative ease (if familiar) seems like a lot to bash out in presumably a week?

Personally, if you have the experience I'd use CBT Nuggets for revision, Testking/Pass4sure for some exam practice and just book 3 exams in a day!

I've got some if the above if you can't find them online (though my upload it s**te).

You have IT experience?

I did my training at Global Knowledge (Bank), exams can be done at any Prometric centre.

 

[cava83]

Hoffmeister.

Yap, do have experience, manage the infrastructure and so on at my work.

Just don't have any qualifications and it's about time.

I know quite a bit of stuff, just not all the way MS would do it.......

Got some of the trainsignal videos, all 2008, relavant but not the same as the 2003 question set.

Tried one test king exam, they write so much and it can be rather confusing.

What stuff do you have? I'll buy you a pint or five for your efforts as you are in london.....



Thanks,

 

[The Hoff]

Got all of the CBT Nuggets you need (which IMO are a lot better than the courses). Don't mind putting them (videos of me) on a DVD for you and meeting you, only problem is I won't be in London until middle/end of next week.

PM me your address and I can send them if you need them sooner.

BTW there's some free videos on the CBT Nuggets site, check them out.

 

[cava83]

Don't want videos of you, just the relevant material thanks

Next week is fine, i'll catch you somewhere in London.

Thanks, very kind.

Alternatively, how big are they, maybe I can host them somewhere?@

 

[DMS]

CBT Nuggets are definitely the best way of going about your training (unless you don't have time to watch them all).
The whole MCSE exam pack is about 20GB IIRC, although they cover every possible exam that can count towards the MCSE so you don't need all of them. I'd suggest you work out which exams you want to do and download the individual exam discs - ~ 500mb each.

You'll definitely need:
70-290
70-291
70-293
70-294
You will also need to pass one of the client OS exams. I recommend the vista exam 70-620 because if you know your way around Windows Vista you can't really fail it - it's a piece of piss. It's also more current than the XP one (70-270) so it'll be valid for longer, and it gets you an MCTS instead of an MCP.
The other 2 (or 3 if you specialise) exams are up to you to choose. I did 70-298, 70-299 and 70-351.

 

[cava83]

Thanks DMS and The Hoff

Awesome.

I was thinking of doing the following;

270 - windows 7 configuration
297 - Designing a windows server 2003 AD Network & Infrastructure
630 - Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 configuration

 

[Magic Johnson]

The W7 one requires a basic knowledge of Windows Powershell.

 

[DMS]

I've got to do 70-630 myself. I've been sent on 3 SharePoint courses since October and now the company wants me to take that exam. I don't know why though, I don't really do much SharePoint stuff beyond sorting out broken permissions so it's mostly outside my remit.

 

[Magic Johnson]

We're Sharepoint mad here, they're choosing to outsource rather than train me up!

Would have loved to do it, I really think SP is going to be an intengral part of businesses in the future, would have been perfect on my CV. Still the MD wants it up and running now so I guess training wouldn't have been the best bet.

 

[cava83]

Always get overuled by the MD.

Can be rather annoying.

Sharepoint is sexual, if you have everything internal, even better.

Even if your company doesn't pay for it, I think it should be done.

2010 is amazing, really good.

Depends how quickly they need it really.

Maybe we could do joint study sessions for the 630 exam.??

Thanks,

Gabi.

We're Sharepoint mad here, they're choosing to outsource rather than train me up!

Would have loved to do it, I really think SP is going to be an intengral part of businesses in the future, would have been perfect on my CV. Still the MD wants it up and running now so I guess training wouldn't have been the best bet.

 

[Magic Johnson]

Aye, the most annoying thing is they over-complicate things, want something that isn't really possible and just generally don't have a clue!

I've been asking for books on SQL etc but they just don't listen. Hopeless.

Are you asking me about joint study or DMS? Lol.

 

[DMS]

I've done the WSS 3.0 (5060A), MOSS 2007 (5061A) and MOSS 2007 Advanced courses already. I can remember most of what I did and I've got the official course books to read up on anything I've forgotten. So when I end up doing the exam, I probably won't revise much.

 

[cava83]

PMSL

DMS - do you have that course material by any chance?

MJ, I will leave DMS to you, I just want to pass the exams :rasp:

 

[DMS]

I've got the student workbooks you get given when you attend the courses, so I don't have a digital copy I'm afraid.
You might be able to find digital copies out on the interwebz though. Do a search for 5060A, 5061A and M50047. M50047 is the Advanced IT Pro course for MOSS 2007 and TBH if you know bits and bobs about SharePoint you might as well just skip the other two and do this, since it covers everything you learn on the other two courses anyway.

 

[iain187]

i get to choose what i do so im going on my sharepoint courses soon


i think the practice exams are more helpful that anything if you have plenty of experience, i found i had to concentrate more on how MS were trying to ask me a trick question than the actual technical knowledge

although ive not done any simulator questions yet

 

[ChrisR]

If you really want an intensive course just go somewhere like Firebrand and get it done.

But personally for this I'd try self study first.

 

[DMS]

I did my SharePoint courses with QA. They also do the other Microsoft training courses, and they're very good. Don't know about cost though since work paid for them.

 

[ChrisR]

I used QA quite a bit, they are good but (and I'm not sure if it's the same for the MCSE course) they are training course only, no exams.

Firebrand are full on accomodation, food, course and exams.

Always used to choose QA over them but have used Firebrand for a couple.

I know with QA I used to be able to get 3 5 day MS courses for about 2k, but you can probably get them to do one or 2 for between 1000/1500. Book price is 1500 for 5 day MS courses.

 

[iain187]

I did my SharePoint courses with QA. They also do the other Microsoft training courses, and they're very good. Don't know about cost though since work paid for them.

are the sharepoint ones from them any good? we use QA at our work

 

[DMS]

Yeah the SharePoint ones are decent enough, although personally I wouldn't bother doing the 5060A and 5061A courses if I were you, just go straight for the M50047 - you won't be missing anything.
As ChrisR mentioned, QA only do training though, so you'll need to book the exam separately through Prometric.

 

[iain187]

yup, we get 15 days of QA courses p/a and can put our exams on expenses here