How to Start Studying For Certifications

[zimbo]

I hope this article I put together helps anyone starting out in IT and that they continue being active members of Certforums

How to Start Studying For Certifications

The most important thing to realize when you start studying for certifications is to be realistic. If this is your first certification in the IT world or you trying to get your foot into the market you need to realize certifications such as MCSE and CCNA/CCNP won’t help you get anywhere. You are better off starting off with something like CompTIA’s A+ and then progressing to the Network+. From there you will have a solid foundation to progress to something more complex in Microsoft or Cisco certification programs for example. The purpose of this guide is to answer some of your questions regarding certification process and how to get into the job market as soon as possible!

Training Companies

If you have decided to take this route and find a company to train with as yourself a few questions:

• Is this value for money?
• Will I complete my training?
• Does the company provide the service they say they provide?
• Are there any hidden costs?

There are many of us out there who are not suited to study by ourselves and need that extra help. Do you research, read about the company you going to sign up with and make sure you are 100% sure that the course is for you. Don’t sign up to something and then in a year’s time say IT isn’t for me or it’s too hard and you just lost thousands of pounds. Lastly make sure there are no small print details you don’t know about – find out everything!

Books

How else are you going to learn all that new information? You going to need to buy a study guide – if you can get one vender-specific do so, they ones who wrote the exam material in the end didn’t they? I’m not saying other publisher’s should be ignored but in the end of the day the decision is yours, read what reviews have to say for the book and decide from there. Don’t limit yourself just to study guides because they don’t contain all the material needed to pass exams. You going to have to invest in a couple of reference books as well, these will show topics in much more detail and depth that will help you prepare better for exams .

Hands-on

One of the most important parts of study! When I mean say hands-on I’m talking about getting your hands dirty. For example in the A+ exam – find an old PC and take it apart then put it back together – learn where everything goes and what happens when it does! If you doing MCP exam 70-291 and you are covering DNS – implement a primary DNS and secondary DNS on two different PC’s and see what you need to do to get a copy from one end to the other – you will learn so much more with hands-on.

Practice Exams and Questions

With some many people taking certification exams today – the market for illegal material such as REAL exam questions is growing. Make sure the practice questions you have are legal or the company you bought them from are legal. Most often study guides come with questions, these are ok but where you start looking for questions on the internet 90% of your searches using Google will yield braindumps – illegal questions from the exams that people sell. Don’t be tempted because in the long run these braindumps will not help you land a job and hold onto that job.

Forums

Ask anyone today studying their most valuable tool and they will answer forums. Forums such as this one are full of knowledgeable people who have experience in the industry for some many years. Don’t just sign up and never show face or sign up and just read – post your problems and get help and in the future you too will also be able to help people.

Book your exam

Finally book your exam! Don’t keep delaying it by saying “I’m not ready” for the next 3 years! Otherwise you will start losing interest. Before you set out studying set a date and book your exam. This will put a little pressure to study and make sure you study well!

[Sparky]

Nice one zim

[tripwire45]

Well done, mate.

[zimbo]

so trip when are we co-authoring our new book... "How to pass MCSE in 5 days"?

[Boycie]

Excellent Rep left

[tripwire45]

Originally Posted by zimbo

so trip when are we co-authoring our new book... "How to pass MCSE in 5 days"?

Never. I couldn't pass the MCSE exams in five years.

[Alex Wright]

Well done Zimbo, great post!

Might be a good idea to pin this thread!

Alex

[C_Eagle]

Nice one. Excellent pointers for new starters.

[BosonMichael]

Originally Posted by zimbo

so trip when are we co-authoring our new book... "How to pass MCSE in 5 days"?

I'll help you write that book. In fact, I'll provide it to you, below.

How To Pass the MCSE Exams in 5 Days... or LESS!

This book will tell you, in detail, how to pass all of your MCSE exams in five days. Be sure to follow these steps precisely. Otherwise, you may not be able to complete your task successfully. This is the only proven method to get your MCSE in five days or less.

Training companies will fill you full of promises that they can get you twenty-seven different certifications in three or four days by following their course of study or by attending a "bootcamp". But BEWARE! They're simply out to get your money, and those courses will not help you to get the MCSE as well as my proven method can.

Also, avoid websites and companies that offer braindump questions. Useless memorization and regurgitation of multiple choice questions will not guarantee that you can successfully pass all 7 MCSE exams in 5 days or less. My method is the only proven method, and will make you a better tech than simply memorizing questions and answers. Follow my method and you will succeed.

To be able to pass the MCSE exams in 5 days or less, we need to do a little prep work in advance. Here's what you need to do:

First, get an IT job.

Next, work in the industry for several years, learning Microsoft-based technologies to the point where you have an intimate knowledge of how things work and why things work the way they do. Get a grasp of the theory behind the real-world concepts. Be able to administer the workstation and server OSes without any outside assistance, including being able to use each of the features found in each OS. Finally, be able to design and implement a Windows-based infrastructure from scratch. After you've gotten to that level, you're probably ready to pass the MCSE exams. Are you ready? Let's go!

Day 1:
Schedule all your exams for the next four days. Take the remainder of the day off to get well-rested... you've got a long week ahead!

Day 2:
Take your workstation exam in the morning (currently 70-270). Take your server exam in the afternoon (currently 70-290).

Day 3:
Take two of your core exams today. Typically, these are exams that deal with networking concepts (currently 70-291 and 70-293).

Day 4:
Take your AD exam in the morning (currently 70-294). Then take a deep breath and attack your design exam in the afternoon.

Day 5:
Take your elective exam in the morning. If you've already got the Security+ certification, then you've already gotten your MCSE... and in 4 days, no less! After you finish all your exams, use the rest of the day to celebrate by playing computer games on your self-built computer (uh... you DO already have a self-built computer, don't you?).

Congratulations! You've done it! You're now part of the elite MCSE club. If you see me on the street, at a Predators game, or at a technical conference, be sure to greet me with the secret handshake (you'll get those instructions in your welcome packet).

Feel free to pass along the information you learned here to everyone you know. Photocopy this book, send it via e-mail, post it on forums, or take a picture with your digital camera, if you must. After all, it's more important that aspiring techs follow these steps than spend the money to buy this book! However, if they like the information they receive from you, I gratefully accept donations to my PayPal account.

Enjoy your new IT certification! I look forward to working with you out in the "real world".

All rights reserved, (c) 2007, BrainBeacon, LLC.

[tune]

Can I get that in hardback?

[tullochbhoy]

Thanks Mate!
Excellent advice!!- I'm going to try booking my exam early from now on!!(I'll let you know how it goes!!)

[samsdad]

thanks for the sound advice Zimbo rep left

[Qatariya]

Thanx alot ,
this articale will help me alot
because I want to start to take certificate