UK IT Training –Review Part 3 – A+ 5 Day Course

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Part 1:http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=18792
Part 2:http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/thread18793.html


Ok, so its now been 3 weeks since I passed my ECDL and booked onto the A+ course. The course is held on the 5th floor of the tower, in a well equipped air conditioned room. Each student has their own computer to work on in the software sections and a computer between two to work on when building and examining the insides. The computers themselves are fairly powerful computers nothing old and I was pleasantly surprised.
Training began on the Monday, and I have to admit the morning was a little bit slow. the basic introductions, to each other and to the course etc took up the best part of the morning, and I felt this could have been done a little more efficiently and sped up. The afternoon however moved onto the real learning, Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to hardware things so this is where we began. I myself was a little bit bored still because I knew the basics but respected that many in the class were starting from scratch and needed to learn this stuff.
The days were pretty simple, layout
Start 9:30am
Break 11am ‘ish for 15 mins
Lunch 1’oclock ‘ish for 1 hour
Break 3pm ‘ish for 15 mins
End 4:30pm ‘ish
This worked quite nicely breaking up the day into manageable sections, though I did always feel that 4:30 was a little early to finish and we could have benefited by and extra 30-60mins each day.
Tuesday, to me this is where the course became interesting, I really started to learn new things here all the little details that I didn’t know. I really started to enjoy myself; to me this was the best day so far.
Wednesday, alas we moved on from the hardware I so enjoyed and started on software, I was pleasantly surprised to realise just how much I already knew. This being so I started getting a little bored again, but knew that the rest of the class were learning well.
Thursday, again more of Wednesday, I knew most of the things, learnt the more nitty gritty technicalities but was still pretty bored, I’m sure that I will start to enjoy the courses more when we get into networking which I know little about.
Friday, was a kinda fill the gaps day, a session of learning everything that had not been covered really. At the end we all sat a mock exam to give us a taste of what the exaMs would be like, I passed mine fairly well, but also found the parts I was weak on thus knew where to revise. The day finished about 3:30ish really so a little early but not so much.

Overall, I would say the training was good, the trainer we had was a nice guy with a good style of teaching, he made it easy for us to learn and ask questions at any point, he also made the training enjoyable and good fun. The content of that week, I don’t believe would be enough without the book, I think there was a fair few details missed out, but if you use the book to revise as well, then all should be good.

Its now 1.5 weeks after finishing the course, I was ill for a few days so didn’t feel like much studying but got over that, got down to studying the rest of the book and going through my note’s learning my weak points etc. Now I try to book the exam. I think about this late on a Wednesday, phone up and find out the exam booking is from 10am till 4pm each day. Fair enough.

I phoned up 10:15am on the Thursday and got through, after holding for 5-6 mins I was sent back to UK IT reception who said someone from the exam board would call me back. 11:30, still not got a call so I call them again, another long wait and my number is taken again, they will call me back.
1 o’clock, nothing. 2 o’clock, nothing. 3 o’clock, nothing. 3:50, nothing, hang on they close in a min, I better call them. “Sorry, they have gone home”. NICE!!!!!

Friday!!!! I call them about 11:30ish, again they will call me back….I call about 1 O’clock, after a LONG time on hold I get though to someone who takes my details, name, house number, postcode, debit card details, when I want to book it for, ok, they call me back when its done. 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock….I call again, sorry they’ve gone home, they will call you back when its sorted though….

Saturday, I know they are not open today, but I suddenly think to myself, if I have not been booked into a course, what happened to my debit card details? Are they lying around scribbled on a piece of paper? I check my online banking, Nothing been authorised, no-one has attempted to take payment. I check the Vue online service; I’m not booked onto any course. Its Saturday. I’m PISSSED OFF!!!! Come Monday, there’s going to be hell to pay!!!!

 

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The Tower? Sounds like a prison of some sort

 

That's not very professional in the way they acted I would say. However regarding the debit card info, I don't think anything is going to happen.

Also I was wondering, isn't there a way to register for the exam using the internet? I mean maybe it's different in the UK, but I usually schedule all my exams online.

 

The UK IT contract says I have to take my exams in their Vue centre and we have been told we have to phone them to book

 

Ohh I see, thats too bad. It's just doing it online is much quicker.

 

UPDATE: Phoned Monday....Gave them hell, EVENTUALLY got it booked for tuesday (today)

Took both tests today, PASSED BOTH!!!!!!!!!! YEAH BABY!!!!

Tried to bok onto a N+ Course, but theres one running this week so i gotta wait for one to be scedualed now.(brilliant, proberbly another 3 weeks :-( just what i need)

 

Congratulations

Now go down the pub and chill out

 

Yeah, indeed i would but i have to wait 4 weeks till my next course, and i intend to know everything by the time i arrive.

My course requires me to be at a certain stage after a certain period of time, this seems to leave very little time for revision. thus if i can learn it all, use my 5 days training as touch up and revision, i can take my exams almost immediatly after the training course. (in theory)

Now i need to find as much N+ training material as possible!!!!