Firebrand bootcamp

[plexer]

This week I shall mostly be spending at least 12 hours in a class room with 15 other guys and our instructor shadow doing the mcitp server administrator.

 

Ben

[plexer]

Day 1 done and dusted, started at 09:00 finished at 22:00

 

Covered basics such as installing server 2008, dcpromo, accounts - users & comnputer those sorts of things and finished up with group policy pretty steady pace through the day.

 

Our instructor is a guy called Shad Farrell from Rhode Island and he's awesome.

 

Ben

[jamesb]

Enjoy the food, and drink lots of water (advice given me by one of their instructors when I went on a course there - better than coffee). I don't think I've ever met Shad, but I've yet to see a bad instructor at Firebrand.

 

And good luck with the rest of the course.

[nicholab]

How did you keep going that long 9:00-22:00?

[jamesb]

Lots of water, a bit of coffee, good food, regular breaks, and a good night's sleep each night - it's the advantage of a residential course as generally you've got only a five minute walk at most before you get 'home'. Plus there's an end in sight throughout.

[iMash]

I thought firebrand were excellent. I have now done both my MCSE and my MCITP-EA there. I think the trainer you are talking about must be newish and maybe replaced the guy that taught me, who has now left and gone back to industry.

 

Although as jamesb said I have never come across a bad trainer at firebrand. And the course material is set very well.

 

The way I worked that got me through it was to ensure I got good nights sleep. Have a good breakfast with slow release carbs. And bananas are very good before going into an exam (I also made sure I wasn't one of the last to enter the exam room so that I didn't end up distracted or worried at people getting up and leaving before I had finished).

 

If they are still using them then don't let the prometric self tests dishearten you. I found that they weren't exactly an accurate representation of the "Real" exams. Although they are useful at making you remember specific points and details.

[plexer]

Sorry haven't been able to update this earlier got out of class at about quarter past 10 tonight.

 

Yeah as has been said we get 10-15min breaks every hour or hour and half or so.

 

I'm having coffee when I need a bit of a pick me up with tea in the afternoon and then water as well in the class room.

 

Shad is doing a great job of high lighting the things we will need to know as well as giving us other good info.

 

They supply you with a 30 day measureup login for practice tests and from what we've been taught and demo type questions shown by Shad I think the measureups are quite different to microsofts phrasing etc...

 

Ben