SELF-PACED STUDY — This method is the cheapest. You can start off with $70 Cdn and go from there. Just go out and buy one study guide, put in two to four hours everyday, and move on to the next course. If you're currently employed and your boss is pushing you to get certified and you don't have $10,000 Cdn, then self-paced study is the way to go. However, you must be very disciplined, since no one is watching over you to make sure if you've done your homework. This method is becoming very popular because thousands of dollars worth of software can now be obtained for free from Microsoft.
CLASSROOM TRAINING — Classroom training can cost you $7,000 Cdn if you decide to take all six courses with an instructor. Each course you take is about two weeks, and costs about $1,500. Some training centres offer discounts if you take all six courses with them. The plus side to classroom training is that the instructors are certified themselves, and they've probably been in the industry for a while and can share their experiences with you.
ON-LINE TRAINING — This method is also becoming popular. On-line training is just as flexible as self-paced training. The teacher comes to you, over the Internet, with on-line training. You can also use e-mail to forward questions to the instructors during non-business hours. There are several companies offering online training. Microsoft is one of them. Although they're probably not the best out there.
The worst thing that can happen to anyone striving for certification is to fail one or two exams in the process. It is estimated that somewhere between fifty and seventy per cent of the people fail their exams when taking them for the first time. So if you fail one, two or even three exams, don't think you're the only one. You're in the majority.
In my next article, I'll go into details as to why the exams are so tough to pass.
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