FOUNDATIONS v5 - Woo-hoo!

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Hi everyone

I have been missing from the forum for a while, as It's really hard to study seriously, when you are sitting at home with the folders all around you Plus a screaming toddler.

Like I have always said, Scheidegger (skillstrain) are expensive, but hey, if It's worthwhile, then most things aren't cheap!

I realise that I now have 4 more exams for CIW Website Design Manager qualification.

But get this, The little lady done good!!!!

I passed this afternoon with 83% out of 85%. I also work part time.
My exams fees will be paid back, too. Boy, is the ball starting to roll now

Which exam next, I wonder?

 

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Congratson your pass, I understand where your coming from regarding kids and everything else well done .

 

Congrats!

 

Thanks fellas.

It was self-study. SkillsTrain just kept sending me the books. There were no practice exams, or any help except tutors at the end of a phone line.
The actual questions were nothing like the ones that I had in my Tutor marked assignments.
No brainBuzz, no cheat sheets , just a serious feeling that I didn't want everything to be a waste.

I'm a happy lady

 

Hey, well done you! I have just started studying for this, so it's encouraging to see someone pass. Keep at it

 

Congrats on the pass and good luck with your studies!

 

Ive been doing the course for ages now. Did you do the foundations material and then sit the exam or did they make you do the whole course first (Web languages, Server Administration, etc), before you sat any exams???

Well Done, by the way.

 

I'm doing this with Skillstrain (as is dee1810) and you sit each exam when you finish each section and your tutor team thinks you're ready.

 

Well, thats realy P***ed me off. Ive been with skillstran for 2.5 years and am just starting section 4. I was told you have to finish the whole course before you do ANY exams.

Are you sure about this?? How long have you been doing the course?? What section are you on, and how many exams have you taken???

 

Well done, dee. Congratulations.

 

Congrats dee, onwards and upwards hey

 

woah StuPeas.....

hang on guys... right, let's remind everyone who is interested of the whole story, I never mislead anyone.

There are some "old" threads on this forum that explain exactly what I have been doing for almost 4 years now. (phew, that long!!)
I first decided to do CIW Website Designer Manager (as it used to be called) when I had a new born son. He is 4 this month, right!
I had over the course of time, the Foundations Version 4 (3 folders), then I did JavaScript Fundamentals, then Perl Fundamentals, Server Administrator, and then I did Site Designer V4.
Then Foundations and Site Designer was upgraded to version 5, and then I did them too!
Last year in May, I finished everything, my boy went to nursery, and I got part-time work. I paid almost £3000 for the whole course.
I read threads throught this time, on nearly every forum "rubbishing" my training provider, (who are Scheidegger (SkillsTrain) and people whining about absolutely nothing at all.
If anyone whould like me to elaborate...(just search some of the CIW threads..)
Scheidegger DID recommend that I do the WHOLE course first
I do know friends from this forum, that have done Foundations and done the Exam... how it is approached is entirely upto the individual. I revised foundations some more, took the exam, passed! Now, I'm revising one of the other subjects and when I feel confident, I'll try again..which will be early May..

If anyone would like to ask me any questions, I will be very nice, but Brutally honest...
Send me a private message or even better, read some of the old threads on this forum...

I am glad that I went with SkillsTrain..and I think that 83 out of 85 says enough!! Woo-hoo.

 

Dee - congrats, and thanks for the honest remarks regarding SkillsTraim...

 

Hi Thanks

That was the quiet version.. although seriously, I did keep away from the CIW forums for a long time.. as it was starting to give me grey hairs...
The amount of money that they charge to do the course, and then someone "crying" about the damned thing, put me off for some time.. i was still buried in the course folders though.
(there are 14 folders altogether)

i still have the other exams to get through now.. but it will be all over by the Autumn.

i'm sorry that I was so vocal...

 

Oh shhh.. thank you for taking the time to say your piece

 

Alright there people.....?
I thought i would butt in and tell you all how i think it is.....

You see.....i got two quotes from ITskills and computeach, and both said the same thing....FIVE GRAND for the CIW course with the usual bo****ks of saying it will take you two years to complete and you wont get a job until you "at least" pass the site designer IDO 520 exam ( which i find hard to believe).

So....i thought i would do it my way, the cheap way.

I looked on ebay and found some CDRoms ( CBT), on the CIW course and within a couple of weeks bidded for and won the foundations v5 modules from prosoft, which all in all cost me 25 quid. Then, when i thought i was ready i located my nearest exam centre (in Hockley, essex) and successfuly passed the foundations exam. And that was only after three months of studying... as and when.

I did the same thing with the site designer/e-commerce modules....found them on ebay and paid 20 quid for them. I also brought a couple of books from Amazon called " HTML complete" and " XHTML pocket book" and i am well on my way to booking the IDO 520 exam.

My point is...this will only cost me around three hundred pounds (with the exams) so you DONT need to pay thousands for theses courses. Even if you look on the CIW web site you can buy the modules and CDRoms for under a Hundred pounds.
I would gladly pay three thousand pounds for this course if it meant sitting in a class room everyday for three months being tought by a professional, and then walking away with the certs.
Thats them teaching you.....not you being given a bunch of modules and sofware and told to go away and teach yourself for three to five grand.....no chance!!!!

Thew!......i am glad i got that off me chest , sorry if was a bit long.

Cheers guys!!

 

Of course, this is absolutely correct...

Lucky you for finding a much cheaper way of doing it...
well done!!

I wish I had thought of that. I am now a bit wiser, and I definately shop around next time..
It was £2,490 when I first signed up. (no hard sales tactic involved... I wouldn't let him get a word in edgeways..)
is it really 5 grand now????

to be honest, I'm not sure that I could justify that sort of cash.. I'm shocked now...

Blimey

 

I'm glad i have come to some use....i didn't want to sound like i was sticking my tonge out at you all, but i was so excited when i booked a date with computeach and when she told me the price i nearly spat me cuppa all over her!!

It is a waste of money and i was lucky to find the course on ebay ( which i never stop looking).

The other thing i was worried about was the knowledge you need with dreamweaver, flash and photoshop...which when you look at all the web deigner jobs out there, these are the skills you need as well as good mark-up knowledge.

Then while i was browsing on the adobe web site to look at how much these software programs are...i noticed you can download a FREE 30 day trial.....wow!! I could learn alot in 30 days. But who would teach me.....again i looked on ebay and found training guides on CDroms and for only a few quid.

All the best for your exams ....speak to again.

 

I started about 9 weeks ago, and this is what I was told at the time I signed up. It's possible they have recently changed the system. I think you now have to pass each exam before progressing to the next Section too. That's what the sales guy said, anyway, and I reckon I got a more truthful version of the spiel than most cos there was a guy from Head Office accompanying my sales guy as they were trying to get a feel for people's reasons for doing the training. I haven't taken any exams yet. Just waiting for Section 1 Part B to arrive.

 

So, in an update to the above. StuPeas was making me doubt I'd been told the truth, so I phoned SkillsTrain to check. It seems that you CAN take the Foundations exam after you finish that section, but that you can only take the other exams at the end of the whole course. Their reasoning for this is that when it comes to the exams some of the stuff you will be asked in each exam you won't have covered yet if you haven't done the whole course... which sounds very plausible till you realise that their training material has Prosoft Training written all over it (who also own CIW) and each section is broken down exactly to the same structure as the exams. So, it's obviously a ploy (the same as doing the Web Design module last) in the hope that a certain number of people will never get that far and SkillsTrain won't have to shell out for their exam fees or software, having already had the money for both from the student in question. It's sneaky, but I WILL finish.