April 24, 2007
Microsoft Certifications
Several weeks ago I attended an MCSE boot camp, and at this point my review of the experience is overdue.
I attended a boot camp offered by Ambilogic which has locations in California, New Hampshire, and Cambridge (England). The boot camp I attended was in New Hampshire. The overall experience was quite good. Though there were a few snags there was nothing that really detracted from the primary goal of the boot camp (to get certified).
After registering online I was contacted the same day by an instructor from Ambilogic and received an overview of what to expect and was emailed an outline of materials to pre-study for the class.
About a week before the class I received my flight info. My flights were included in the cost of the boot camp and were booked by Ambilogic. This is really the only area I had concerns with. I did not receive any communications from Ambilogic between my initial contact and the flight confirmation a week before the class. This would not have been an issue except that there was no communication that my flights would not be booked until a week before travel… not a big deal, but still a small worry that could have been alleviated with an email containing an expected schedule or time frame for events related to the training.
After my flight to Boston I was met by a van, also arranged by Ambilogic, and was driven to the bed and breakfast in New Hampshire where the course was to take place.
The location and facilities for the course were above average in my opinion. The bed and breakfast environment was relaxing and having the training facilities on site and available 24 hours a day was a big plus.
The class size was also quite reasonable. With a limit of 10 students per class it was easy to get plenty of one on one time with the instructor. The small class size also made discussions easy since everyone was able to participate.
The actual exams were taken every day or every other day depending on the material needing to be covered for the particular exam. As a result of this aggressive schedule the course was only 12 days long. Actually I finished in 11 days since I passed all the exams on my first attempt (day 12 was reserved for retakes).
In the end the course did what it promised. I left the boot camp MCSE/MCSA certified. I will say that the course is definitely geared towards those who have experience with Active Directory and Windows Server 2003. There were a couple of students who had minimal experience with Active Directory and they struggled throughout the course.