total noob question

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I'm looking in to doing the MCDST at the moment and was wondering how to go about it. Should I get a book and pay for the exam and or who is the best course provider?

 

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You could buy some books for it then just take the exams yes. It's certainly a cheap way of doing it and many people chose the self study route.

It may also be worth checking your local colleges as some run full time / part time professional courses for things like the A+ and the MCDST. Usually a tutor lead course following the MS official curriculum and can be much much cheaper than a private training provider.

Private companies that provide training can also be good but will often charge a significant amount that can run into several thousand pounds. So if you choose that route you must make sure it's the right provider for you.

 

cool.. I take it the microsoft books are the best then?

 

Not necessarily no. They are usually pretty good and often come with a free trial version of the OS that the exam is based upon. Sybex also do some very good books when it comes to professional qualifications.

 

cheers for the info.. I'll go seek them out..

 

How much IT experience do you have?

 

I have nearly completed a CIW course.. have RSA Wordprocessing II.. always worked with computers and have an apititude for it so might as well make a career out of it.

 

Without being nosey...or ignorant at that.. are you ready to take that MS course? Given your current qualifications. Im not trying to be rude, just curious? Should u not take the correct pathways before doing the MS course/exam?

 

To be blunt, taking a CIW course and RSA Wordprocessing II is not really enough preparation for the MCDST. Although the MCDST is targeted towards help desk professionals, which is typically an entry-level or early IT job for many people, the MCDST exams do cover some advanced desktop troubleshooting scenarios. I'd suggest going after the A+ and Network+ exams before tackling the MCDST exams. The CompTIA exams will give you a foundation of knowledge that you can build on when obtaining the skills needed to tackle the Microsoft exams.

 

Sorry for the double-post! I posted in the middle of a database error.

 

what he said ^ twice

 

meh, i dont know if i find that entirely true...

 

I think what Sparky mean is there are people who can use computers and people who can USE computers.

Take me for example I like to think that I can USE computers infact I have always been technically minded, its the only thing I have ever been good at.

I could programme a VCR to record a weeks work of programs before I could do my 7 times tables, I new what a pixle and understood its methodology before I knew that mercury was the silver bubble in a thermometer.

Now untill I was 16 I thought you had to be really good a maths to be involved professionally in IT so I never gave it a thought untill I went YTS training and set up their new Olivetti 486 PCs networked under windows for workgroups as they had no IT guy and I thought I can do this.

That is why I believe I can USE computers.

 

agree with Sparky mate....

You may have built computers, ghosting, recovering data or whatever you do, but once you are supporting users in a professional domain environment, its not the same.

Yep some fixes may be the same, remember you wont have admin rights, loads of items will be locked down due to company's GPO and there are a shi7 load of other factors.

Give it a try, there is always the probation period for *both* parties.

 

That's absolutely true. It's one thing to be able to diagnose your home computer, where you are free to do whatever you want with the equipment and data, and where you can take as long as you want to fix the problem... it's another thing entirely to have to troubleshoot issues in a real-world networked environment, complete with time constraints, potential revenue losses, and a boss wondering when the problem will be fixed... even though you might have never seen that sort of problem ever before.

 

mmm... it's somewhat more than that. Things are just *different* in a real-world IT environment. Some people who are "very good with computers" in a home environment or a school lab environment don't do well in a business IT environment.

You may very well thrive in a business IT environment. But you cannot truly KNOW until you are thrust into a difficult situation - into the "deep end", so to speak. The only way to "train for it" is by actually experiencing it for real. And... to be honest, the only way you can understand what we're saying is to experience it and see for yourself. The difference will become plain to you rather quickly.

I have very little doubt that you'll get that chance pretty soon, GBL. ;)

 

I understand that I will only truly know when I am in a job and the shi& hits the fan as to what I really can do. I have been there a few times anyhow.

I used to work late at night when IT staff were not in work (although they were on-call should I need them) where the main license server has gone down so I can't receive or output the pages for the newspaper printing process. I have over time learned and am fully proficient in failing over to the back up server and getting all processes running on the one box (where as most run on server 1 and some on two).

The rips I can sort out too, restarting appleTALK and TCP/IP services that sort of thing.

 

When it's your primary responsiblity, everything changes.

I added a bit to my previous post (yeah, I know, I'm bad about doing that).