M2277 QA Training

Discussion in 'Training & Development' started by madskillz, Apr 23, 2009.

  1. madskillz

    madskillz Nibble Poster

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    Hi Guys.

    Here's my brief review of a recently attended Microsoft training course.

    Provider: QA
    Location: QA Birmingham
    10th Floor,
    Centre City,
    5-7 Hill Street,
    Birmingham, B5 4UA
    Tel: 0121 665 6465
    Type: 5 day non-resedential
    Instructor: Scott Hayes
    Funding: Company funded
    Cost: £1500

    I'm on the MCSE Messaging track and decided that to conquer the beast I needed a little help from the professionals. QA has a fairly good industry reputation as being competent in providing quality IT training and this course demonstrated this to be the case. By the way, the cost quoted here is from the QA website and not the price we paid. My company gets a fairly hefty discount due to it being a partner company. YMMV
    The set-up was your traditional IT training facility. Comfortable classrooms consisting of sufficient seating for approx 25 students, although our course only filled 50% of the seating for the room - whether this is intentional or the credit crunch is affecting class sizes in impossible to say. What is certain though is that the ratio of student to instructor being ~15:1 was perfect. Not too large to be excessive in the discussion fora, but not too small to lack the valuable input of real world experience from other students.
    We worked to the official Microsoft syllabus for M2277 and received the obligatory textbook, free QA pen and carrier bag! Useful for lugging that fairly sizeable textbook to and from the hire car.
    The technology environment was the usual contoso.msft MS forest via MS Virtual PC 2007, running on PCs with Pentium dual-core CPU's and 2Gigs of RAM. Hardly Cray super-computing territory but sufficient for our needs. No blue screens to be seen but some occasional hiccoughs explained away by the instructor as limitations of the virtual environment.
    The instructor demonstrated his knowledge of the subject very well with real world examples and plenty of appropriately placed humour to keep the atmosphere professional but relaxed at all times.
    Overall I'd score this course a solid seven out of ten and would definitely recommend QA as a company who I would use again.

    Hope this helps someone in choosing a Microsoft training provider in the Midlands area. :)

    Now its time to return to my VMWare laboratory for knowledge consolidation \ problem simulation before I book the exam next month.

    Cheers,
    Madskillz
     
    Certifications: MCSA, MCDST, ITIL v3 F
    WIP: 70-293
  2. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    Thanks for the review. I've wondered what their courses were like - when I booked my 272 the start time collided with a whole bunch of courses. The waiting room was crammed, so I got exactly nil pre-exam studying done. lol.
     
    Certifications: A+, N+, MCDST, 70-410, 70-411
    WIP: Modern Languages BA
  3. madskillz

    madskillz Nibble Poster

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    Cheers for the reply Arroryn. The lobby area which doubled as the canteen was standing room only on the Monday that the course began. This gave me chance to chat with a few students and find out what course they were studying etc. Helped me feel a bit more relaxed than usual in the introductions at the start of day one.

    For the rest of the week our Instructor arrived at least one hour before the lecturing started (09.30am) and opened our classroom up. He encouraged us to arrive early to complete any pre-reading or surf the Internet at our terminals - whatever we wanted to do. Just another nice touch that contributed towards the overall positive impression I got from QA.

    Madz
     
    Certifications: MCSA, MCDST, ITIL v3 F
    WIP: 70-293
  4. nXPLOSi

    nXPLOSi Terabyte Poster

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    Interesting read, nice post.

    Its very similar to my experience with xpertise (now also QA). I went on a couple of courses earlier in the year and found them extremely helpful. The whole setup is really geared for learning, but not going overboard and burning yourself out. The instructors I had were very knowledable and friendly. They also fully realise that the courses they provide are only part of a larger study method for the exam in question, unlike some training providers who try to sell "one week" wonders.

    Rep left. 8)
     
    Certifications: A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA 2003 (270, 290, 291), MCTS (640, 642), MCSA 2008
    WIP: MCSA 2012
  5. madskillz

    madskillz Nibble Poster

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    Cheers for the rep nXPLOSi. Glad you enjoyed reading my review.

    Madz
     
    Certifications: MCSA, MCDST, ITIL v3 F
    WIP: 70-293

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