At last I finished my N+ course, and as I said earlier, I'm posting my feedbacks after completing it fully. I must say, my personal opinion is not a rosy one. Of course, you might not agree with me, but still, try going on and let me have your comments...
I thought N+ was going to be fun, learning the theory at first and applying what I've learnt afterwards. Considering the huge amount of theory N+ contains, regarding all sorts of protocols, systems and their implementation, devices and software settings, I thought we'd be getting quite a lot of practical. Alas, there was almost no practicals. In the end, I learnt tons and tons of things about networks, but never got the opportunity to put what I learnt into practice.
I can tell you that I haven't even done something as simple as crimping a network cable, or even set up a small LAN. The router configuration is out of question. I know nothing (in practical) about the implementation of a domain and a directory like Active Directory, although I know much about their functions, advantages and disadvantages now. The thing is, the amount of theory I learnt is pretty useless if I don't know how to put it into practice.
The only practicals I had was trying out some tools like Netstat and Ping on the Windows Command Prompt a.k.a Software TOOLS, not even the real things like a NOS... Nothing about hardware implementation too. As I told you, I don't even know how to make a cable at the end of my course.
Now I come to what my friend Sun said and he was totally right. He told me prior to N+ that I'd be having lots of theory and no practical. I thought that the course might have changed now since the syllabus has changed. Nope. Still no practicals. Now, I believe the course was kind of...boring?
Another point to consider here is the speed at which the course was completed. The total time of the course was 30hrs. 3hrs per day, 3 times a week, making a total of 10 sessions. Frankly, this was WAY WAY too short to cover the amount of work there is to do in N+, even with no practicals. While reading the book I got with the course, the Sybex's N+ Guide, I now know how much we missed in class. Ok, I know I'm supposed to self-study but this amount of miss-out is very impressive...
Considering the cost of the course, and the exams, I expected to get a better treatment and more out of this course. Personally, the lack of practicals really grossed me out. What's the point of doing a Network Technician or Administrator (that's how the book calls the reader) course and not knowing how to crimp a simple UTP cable and a RJ-45 connector? I'm deceived... CompTIA needs to seriously review their course, and HMTI the way they run the course...
Now, I started S+. I think this course, according to my Instructor's speech, has quite a lot of practical stuff and is quite long (6th June - 3rd August). So let's hope I find something more interesting here. After the first day, I can say that I did nothing practical but learnt tons of theory. My Instructor reassured me while telling me that the practicals come after the theory. Let's hope it's not the same kind of "practical" as in N+... More on the S+ later as I go through the course. So much for now...
I thought N+ was going to be fun, learning the theory at first and applying what I've learnt afterwards. Considering the huge amount of theory N+ contains, regarding all sorts of protocols, systems and their implementation, devices and software settings, I thought we'd be getting quite a lot of practical. Alas, there was almost no practicals. In the end, I learnt tons and tons of things about networks, but never got the opportunity to put what I learnt into practice.
I can tell you that I haven't even done something as simple as crimping a network cable, or even set up a small LAN. The router configuration is out of question. I know nothing (in practical) about the implementation of a domain and a directory like Active Directory, although I know much about their functions, advantages and disadvantages now. The thing is, the amount of theory I learnt is pretty useless if I don't know how to put it into practice.
The only practicals I had was trying out some tools like Netstat and Ping on the Windows Command Prompt a.k.a Software TOOLS, not even the real things like a NOS... Nothing about hardware implementation too. As I told you, I don't even know how to make a cable at the end of my course.
Now I come to what my friend Sun said and he was totally right. He told me prior to N+ that I'd be having lots of theory and no practical. I thought that the course might have changed now since the syllabus has changed. Nope. Still no practicals. Now, I believe the course was kind of...boring?
Another point to consider here is the speed at which the course was completed. The total time of the course was 30hrs. 3hrs per day, 3 times a week, making a total of 10 sessions. Frankly, this was WAY WAY too short to cover the amount of work there is to do in N+, even with no practicals. While reading the book I got with the course, the Sybex's N+ Guide, I now know how much we missed in class. Ok, I know I'm supposed to self-study but this amount of miss-out is very impressive...
Considering the cost of the course, and the exams, I expected to get a better treatment and more out of this course. Personally, the lack of practicals really grossed me out. What's the point of doing a Network Technician or Administrator (that's how the book calls the reader) course and not knowing how to crimp a simple UTP cable and a RJ-45 connector? I'm deceived... CompTIA needs to seriously review their course, and HMTI the way they run the course...
Now, I started S+. I think this course, according to my Instructor's speech, has quite a lot of practical stuff and is quite long (6th June - 3rd August). So let's hope I find something more interesting here. After the first day, I can say that I did nothing practical but learnt tons of theory. My Instructor reassured me while telling me that the practicals come after the theory. Let's hope it's not the same kind of "practical" as in N+... More on the S+ later as I go through the course. So much for now...
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