Self Study or Take a Class

[necine]

I want to get my MCITP and CCNA within the year. My local community college runs a Network Administrator program that costs 6,000 that covers these two things. I am only helpdesk at the moment and have had limited access to servers/routers/switches. Do you think it would be better to take the class for $6,000 or to self-study?

 

[Brutus04]

That is ALOT of $ for community college! I took both parts of CCNA for about $200...look elsewhere.

 

[necine]

Originally posted by: Brutus04
That is ALOT of $ for community college! I took both parts of CCNA for about $200...look elsewhere.

A class or the tests? The tests are like $150 each. I already took the first part once and failed it.

 

[Pantlegz]

6000 for a class is absurd. typically the 1-3 day 'training camps' just teach you the test and when you get your cert you have no idea how anything in the real world works.

I'm currently in a 2 year IT & Networking program at my local community college and I would guess the total cost is about 6000 but they also give you TONS of real world situations, A+ N+ MCSE and CCNA Cert prep. And they're working on getting security+ worked in soon as well.

It takes more time but learning it for real would be very helpful esp when looking for a job. But if you're book smart and are only interested in your CCNA then there are several study books on amazon, and else where, just search around I'm sure you can find them they are typically 50-100 each.

 

[TheStu]

My high school offered CCNA, A+, MSDN and a couple other certification courses when I went there (i guess that would be about 5 years ago now). I took the CCNA and A+ courses mostly just to pass the time, and never did go for the test, but the practice tests I took led me to believe that I would have gotten both.

That was over the course of a school year at about 1.5 hours a day, 5 days each week, and was admittedly taught in such a way as to make sure that even the slowest in the class could keep up It could probably be done in a couple of months if you were in it for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week since it would probably be faster paced. For the CCNA stuff, we got a lot of hands on experience since we had a ton of routers and switches in the lab that we would configure and fiddle with.

$6000 strikes me as awfully steep, unless of course you are living in an area where the average income is something like 20x what it is near me (most all the Comm College courses around here I think run $300/semester or so).

Also, although the certs are important to have, will you definitely see a solid return on that $6000 investment in a reasonable amount of time? I mean, if having them means your job will pay you more money and increase your annual income by like 10G, then yea, save up for it and go for it. If your job doesn't have a position available for you that will make use of that knowledge (with no experience) then you just tossed $6000 down the hole since last I checked, CCNA cert is only good for 5 years before you have to retest.

 

[necine]

Originally posted by: Pantlegz1
6000 for a class is absurd. typically the 1-3 day 'training camps' just teach you the test and when you get your cert you have no idea how anything in the real world works.

I'm currently in a 2 year IT & Networking program at my local community college and I would guess the total cost is about 6000 but they also give you TONS of real world situations, A+ N+ MCSE and CCNA Cert prep. And they're working on getting security+ worked in soon as well.

It takes more time but learning it for real would be very helpful esp when looking for a job. But if you're book smart and are only interested in your CCNA then there are several study books on amazon, and else where, just search around I'm sure you can find them they are typically 50-100 each.

It's a year long class that gives you real world hands on experience... which i have to some degree but I'm so busy with helpdesk stuff at work i don't really get a chance to expand my knowledge-base.

 

[TheKub]

If someone else is paying? Class. If you are paying? Self study.

I've been sent to a few of the 2-5 day classes and they had marginal benefit over doing it myself. In some cases its a time saver as the lab scenarios are already set up you don?t have to spend 2 days installing software, creating accounts, etc just to practice the things you want to learn.

Having a teacher there to give you real world tips and answer questions is nice but in my experience they are professionals not teachers and as such their ability to share the knowledge may be lacking. Again this is my experience, which is not with a CC class.

Which MCITP spec were you looking at?

 

[jlazzaro]

Originally posted by: TheKub
in my experience they are professionals not teachers and as such their ability to share the knowledge may be lacking

ive seen a lot more teachers than professionals...in this case, they stick to the syllabus and can't answer questions not directly referenced in the material. a professional with real world experience may not be as polished, but will be a better resource.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: jlazzaro

Originally posted by: TheKub
in my experience they are professionals not teachers and as such their ability to share the knowledge may be lacking

ive seen a lot more teachers than professionals...in this case, they stick to the syllabus and can't answer questions not directly referenced in the material. a professional with real world experience may not be as polished, but will be a better resource.

and theres the thing that either way hes probably going to need/want a degree at some point, unless he can get great experience to put on a resume.

have a degree already, OP?

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
and theres the thing that either way hes probably going to need/want a degree at some point, unless he can get great experience to put on a resume.

have a degree already, OP?

Experience is great but more and more HR departments what to see letters after your name.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: necine
Do you think it would be better to take the class for $6,000 or to self-study?

It depends on how you learn best, how much time and money you have, and how motivated and self-disciplined you are.

I haven't done a CCNA program, but I've gone through most of Microsoft's Server 2003 and 2008 programs entirely through self-study. I read the 1000-page books, set up the test environments and do the exercises, and take the exams.

When available, I attend free Microsoft training sessions or webinars. Servers and networks are easily created at home nowadays using virtualization. All of the Microsoft technology needed is free or can be accomplished using (often generous) time-limited demo versions.

It can be done with self-study, but whether that's the best way for YOU depends on your situation.

 

[mcmilljb]

I've done classes at school, training through work, and self study. They're all good ways to learn. You just have to factor the costs and benefits you get from each one.

I did a class for CCNA back in high school. It paid off because I had a great teacher who helped me learn. After college I just recertified through self study, and I also did my CCNP through self study because I could buy some equipment. I also used some virtual equipment.

I had some Microsoft training (both classroom and online) from a previous job. One led towards getting certified as a MCP and the others more directly related to what we were doing. I just picked the exams similar to them, studied the material I didn't learn and took the exams I needed for MCSA 2003. It also helped I could virtualize servers for testing, and it made it a breeze for Microsoft's simulator questions.

There are also tons of trialware, tutorials, videos, papers, etc available on the web. You can use those as an add-on for any method you choose. Most are free and readily available just from searching on google.

 

[necine]

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: jlazzaro

Originally posted by: TheKub
in my experience they are professionals not teachers and as such their ability to share the knowledge may be lacking

ive seen a lot more teachers than professionals...in this case, they stick to the syllabus and can't answer questions not directly referenced in the material. a professional with real world experience may not be as polished, but will be a better resource.

and theres the thing that either way hes probably going to need/want a degree at some point, unless he can get great experience to put on a resume.

have a degree already, OP?

I have an associates and I'm working on my bachelors right now. I will have it in a year.

 

[necine]

Originally posted by: TheKub
If someone else is paying? Class. If you are paying? Self study.

I've been sent to a few of the 2-5 day classes and they had marginal benefit over doing it myself. In some cases its a time saver as the lab scenarios are already set up you don?t have to spend 2 days installing software, creating accounts, etc just to practice the things you want to learn.

Having a teacher there to give you real world tips and answer questions is nice but in my experience they are professionals not teachers and as such their ability to share the knowledge may be lacking. Again this is my experience, which is not with a CC class.

Which MCITP spec were you looking at?

MCITP Server