MCSE/MCSA certs anyone??

[CaffeineMe]

I've been working on MCSE 2000 for awhile now, trying to set the record for the LONGEST time taken to complete the full course of 7 exams. When done, I fear I'll have taken nearly 2 1/4 years for the full MCSE cert (I've suffered motivational issues, ie. studying is teh suxk0rz). :scratch:

Anyway, I got myself motivated now and have a goal in place to be done by year end. Employer pays for the tests and a cash bonus upon completion, so I am not out any $$. :thumbup I have 3 of them completed, and JUST missed my 4th on Friday. :mad2: I retest this week and then it ought to be a downhill slide for me.

Anyone else around here completed this? Any advice or resources you can recommend to help me wrap this up asap? I want to be done and get the voice out of my head that nags me to go study when I am otherwise enjoying myself. :banghead:

I've been working w. Transcender's and various books, but have also peeked at the braindumps out on the net. I've studied longer and harder for these exams than I think I ever did for anything during 5 yrs. of college.

What real world value would anyone assign to an MS cert? My employer seems to think pretty highly of it, while other dismiss it almost entirely. Experiences?

[Spinner]

Being a certified MS tech will really bump up your credentials, it will prove to any employer that you have the skills, and the motivation required to back them up. Stick with it dude, it's a worthwhile thing you're doing.

SPINNER

p.s (I've moved this to the pub):)

[SimGuy]

Can't tell you much about the 2000 certifications, but on the old WinNT 4.0 certs, I purchased a few learning packages off E-Bay, put together 4 old computers I could install the "evaluation" version of NT Server & Workstation 4.0 on and basically played until I got the jist of everything.

Took the tests and have my NT4 cert now ('bout bloody time) :)

Although I haven't held a position that requires the use of my NT4 certs (and probably won't, seeing as NT4 is quite dead), employers do look see it as proof that you were motivated enough to complete the rigerous training required to obtain the cert.

Good luck :)

[topherice]

Test King study guides are the best there is. They have the questions you will see on the exam... Before all you haters start flamming about being a paper MCSE let me say that Test King study guides do have the questions you will see on the exam, but they also have very detailed explanations of why each answer is correct/incorrect. Format is as follows:
Question, answer, explanation, reference, incorrect answers, explanations, reference.
I recently took the 70-227 ISA Server exam and 0wned it in 25 min. Test King r0xk0rz.w00t!!!w00t!!!

[Clutch]

Just stick with it man. If you really want it, then you will find some motivation to stick it out. That's really the only way to do it. Just study your ass off, look at various online tests, read through books you already know, just study until you think you have the knowledge to complete the test. I wish you the best of luck.

[profdlp]

Remember, it's not always what you know, but what people think you know.

I spent a year and a half working under a guy who got the job solely because the owners were impressed by his A+ certification. He was a danger to any computer he worked on. It got so bad that when one of us "real" techs had to go out on field service, we would yank the power jumper off the computers we had on our bench, since he liked to come in and play "techie" while we were out. When we returned we could tell he'd been at it again because he would always ask something like "That comp on your bench has a dead power supply, right?"

Then they hired a new office manager, also with the mighty A+ cert. If you told her that it was impossible to comply with the customer's request to install Office XP because they only had a 1 Gig hard drive, which was full to the brim, she would usually ask "How much more ram does he need?".:banghead:

But, they had a title (and made more money) because they had taken the trouble to study for and pass the test. (Which I do give them credit for.)

It'll be worth the effort.:thumbsup:


Prof

[Spinner]

Ah yes! the ever so popular confusion between hard disk capacity and memory.

Classic.;D