Comprehensive self-study solutions
Last month, I reviewed four computer-based training (CBT) MCSE sample-exam programs from leading vendors in the MCSE product market. But what if you need more than an exam-generation program? What if you need a program that helps you study the subjects in which your knowledge is weak—the areas that the sample-examination programs helped you identify?
If you're ready to knuckle down and concentrate on adding to your knowledge to pass Microsoft's MCSE certification exams, you're in luck. In addition to exam generators, an entire classification of electronic CBT study guides exists to help you prepare for your certification tests. These CBT materials rely on the power of a multimedia system with video presentation capabilities to help you study for your examinations. This month, I examine four popular CBT self-study programs: CBT Systems' MCSE Courseware, Mastering Computers' Precision Learning Value Packages, Microsoft Press' Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Core Requirements Training Kit, and Wave Technologies' MCSE Career Pack.
MCSE Courseware
CBT Systems offers a self-paced, comprehensive training program that helps you prepare for the examinations you must pass to earn your MCSE. The MCSE Courseware program consists of 13 bundled courses that cover the Microsoft core requirement and elective examinations. MCSE Courseware is Microsoft-approved.
Each course in the MCSE Courseware program comprises several components. Pretest components let you test your knowledge of a subject area before reviewing the subject matter. The simulation component lets you interactively perform various tasks (e.g., changing the system Registry), just as you would on a real system. Training sessions present easily digestible chunks of information and include interactive pop quizzes to involve you further in the learning process. Finally, the post-testing component lets you gauge your mastery of the course material after you review the training session.
The time it takes to install the MCSE Courseware software depends on the number of courses you want to install. To contain my testing software, I had two CD-ROMs of course material (66 different lessons: 35 lessons on one CD-ROM, 31 lessons on the second). Installing just one of the two CD-ROMs took over an hour and copied 22,000 files in 133 directories onto my hard disk. CBT Systems' software is comprehensive, and if you intend to install it locally on your hard disk, be sure you have plenty of disk space. Alternatively, you can run the software from the CD-ROM with relatively little performance degradation (although you might notice a slight delay when moving from screen to screen), because the software does not include sound or video effects.
Installing the software onto your hard disk is effortless. The setup.exe installation program creates a list of installable courses from the CD-ROM. After you highlight the courses you want to install, you click Next, then wait as the software installs. If you opt to run the software from the CD-ROM, a small set of executable programs installs on your system.
MCSE Courseware is easy to use and makes the learning experience enjoyable. You launch each course from the Start menu (the installation program creates a series of shortcuts that let you launch courses effortlessly). After you provide a student number, which helps the software keep track of more than one user, the software's main menu appears. From this menu you can take an examination to see whether you already understand the concepts presented in the course, or you can launch the course.
Overall, I found the MCSE Courseware training sessions complete and interesting. As someone who hates reading documentation on CD-ROM, I was afraid this software would be nothing more than a book printed on screen. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the course lessons employ a combination of text and graphics to illustrate key points you need to learn to pass the Microsoft certification examinations. Screen 1 shows a typical MCSE Courseware lesson screen. The lesson screen in Screen 1 is from the Performance Tuning and Optimization lesson in the Internetworking with Microsoft TCP/IP on Windows NT 4.0 course (an MCSE elective examination).
Each lesson in an MCSE Courseware course can take many hours to work through properly. You therefore need to carefully plan your study time. The software includes a bookmark feature that, in theory, lets you stop studying at any point in a course and easily find your stopping point later. However, when I used this feature, the bookmarks I placed always put me back at the beginning of the course.
The cost for individual MCSE Courseware courses varies, depending on the number of lessons in the course and the number of courses you purchase to customize your study plan. The complete MCSE Courseware program that bundles the entire set of MCSE courses--everything you need to pass your MCSE examinations--represents a major investment. If you can afford it, the MCSE Courseware program is one of the best CBT self-study solutions available.