Somewhere to take exams

Hi all,

I'm an experienced IT person, fifteen years MS knowledge, Netware, and
hardware. I've decided I want to gain an MCSE qualification, to try and make
my CV stand out from the crowd and also to bring myself 'up to scratch' with
the things that I don't do every day.

I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials no
problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams? I'm in the
North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to sit the exams. Or
maybe they can be done online?

In an ideal world, I'd probably go the boot-camp route. But I can't afford
the time out, nor the money.

Thanks for any advice.

[D@n]

[D@n] wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm an experienced IT person, fifteen years MS knowledge, Netware, and
> hardware. I've decided I want to gain an MCSE qualification, to try and make
> my CV stand out from the crowd and also to bring myself 'up to scratch' with
> the things that I don't do every day.
>
> I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials no
> problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams? I'm in the
> North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to sit the exams. Or
> maybe they can be done online?
>
> In an ideal world, I'd probably go the boot-camp route. But I can't afford
> the time out, nor the money.
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>
I think if you look on the MS Website they list exam providers for each
country and area (?), so that you should be able to do the exam
reasonably locally, and the cost will just be the cost of taking the exam.

Paul Robson

"Paul Robson" <> wrote in
message news:dgkbu4$d1v$...
> [D@n] wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm an experienced IT person, fifteen years MS knowledge, Netware, and
>> hardware. I've decided I want to gain an MCSE qualification, to try and
>> make my CV stand out from the crowd and also to bring myself 'up to
>> scratch' with the things that I don't do every day.
>>
>> I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials no
>> problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams? I'm in
>> the North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to sit the
>> exams. Or maybe they can be done online?
>>
>> In an ideal world, I'd probably go the boot-camp route. But I can't
>> afford the time out, nor the money.
>>
>> Thanks for any advice.
> I think if you look on the MS Website they list exam providers for each
> country and area (?), so that you should be able to do the exam reasonably
> locally, and the cost will just be the cost of taking the exam.

Thanks for your reply Paul.

I'm on http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tr...indcourse.mspx , and
when I click the 'Microsoft Resource Directory' link, I get a 404!

Luckily, I found
http://directory.microsoft.com/MPRD/...Drop Down=173 .
So, I enter my Postal Code, and get 'Search returned no results'. Great.

I'll keep looking!

Thanks again

[D@n]

"[D@n]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Paul Robson" <> wrote in
> message news:dgkbu4$d1v$...
>> [D@n] wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm an experienced IT person, fifteen years MS knowledge, Netware, and
>>> hardware. I've decided I want to gain an MCSE qualification, to try and
>>> make my CV stand out from the crowd and also to bring myself 'up to
>>> scratch' with the things that I don't do every day.
>>>
>>> I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials no
>>> problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams? I'm in
>>> the North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to sit the
>>> exams. Or maybe they can be done online?
>>>
>>> In an ideal world, I'd probably go the boot-camp route. But I can't
>>> afford the time out, nor the money.
>>>
>>> Thanks for any advice.
>> I think if you look on the MS Website they list exam providers for each
>> country and area (?), so that you should be able to do the exam
>> reasonably locally, and the cost will just be the cost of taking the
>> exam.
>
> Thanks for your reply Paul.
>
> I'm on http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tr...indcourse.mspx ,
> and when I click the 'Microsoft Resource Directory' link, I get a 404!
>
> Luckily, I found
> http://directory.microsoft.com/MPRD/...Drop Down=173 .
> So, I enter my Postal Code, and get 'Search returned no results'. Great.
>
> I'll keep looking!
>
> Thanks again
>

Excellent, I've found one not far from me: http://www.xpertise.co.uk/

Many thanks!

[D@n]

<snip>
> I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials no
> problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams? I'm in
> the North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to sit the
> exams. Or maybe they can be done online?
<snip>
There's a shed-load of exam centres in the North West. Have a ganders at
http://www.vue.com and http://www.prometric.com/ Prometric are cheaper as
they don't charge vat. Buying vouchers from
http://www.getcertify4less.com/microsoftint.asp means you can use VUE
centres more cheaply than if you bought directly from VUE. It all depends
where you are and which testing centre is most convenient for you.
Good luck.
Dave.

Dave

Dave wrote:
> <snip>
>> I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials
>> no problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams?
>> I'm in the North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to
>> sit the exams. Or maybe they can be done online?
> <snip>
> There's a shed-load of exam centres in the North West. Have a
> ganders at http://www.vue.com and http://www.prometric.com/ Prometric are
> cheaper as they don't charge vat. Buying vouchers from
> http://www.getcertify4less.com/microsoftint.asp means you can use VUE
> centres more cheaply than if you bought directly from VUE. It all
> depends where you are and which testing centre is most convenient for
> you. Good luck.
> Dave.

Great stuff Dave, thanks for all that. I was going to have a look at
ProMetric today, but I like the idea of VUE and the vouchers!

Many thanks

Dan

-=D@n=-

Looks like they deliver both Prometric and VUE exams. If you have a choice,
I would recommend Prometric, as they don't charge VAT, VUE do. i.e. £88 with
Prometric, and £103.40 with VUE per exam.

R.

"[D@n]" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "[D@n]" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > "Paul Robson" <> wrote in
> > message news:dgkbu4$d1v$...
> >> [D@n] wrote:
> >>> Hi all,
> >>>
> >>> I'm an experienced IT person, fifteen years MS knowledge, Netware, and
> >>> hardware. I've decided I want to gain an MCSE qualification, to try
and
> >>> make my CV stand out from the crowd and also to bring myself 'up to
> >>> scratch' with the things that I don't do every day.
> >>>
> >>> I'd like to study in my own time, and I can get the study materials no
> >>> problem. Can anybody recommend the best way of taking the exams? I'm
in
> >>> the North West of England, but I would be happy to travel to sit the
> >>> exams. Or maybe they can be done online?
> >>>
> >>> In an ideal world, I'd probably go the boot-camp route. But I can't
> >>> afford the time out, nor the money.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks for any advice.
> >> I think if you look on the MS Website they list exam providers for each
> >> country and area (?), so that you should be able to do the exam
> >> reasonably locally, and the cost will just be the cost of taking the
> >> exam.
> >
> > Thanks for your reply Paul.
> >
> > I'm on http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tr...indcourse.mspx ,
> > and when I click the 'Microsoft Resource Directory' link, I get a 404!
> >
> > Luckily, I found
> >
http://directory.microsoft.com/MPRD/...Drop Down=173 .
> > So, I enter my Postal Code, and get 'Search returned no results'. Great.
> >
> > I'll keep looking!
> >
> > Thanks again
> >
>
> Excellent, I've found one not far from me: http://www.xpertise.co.uk/
>
> Many thanks!
>
>

R

R wrote:
> Looks like they deliver both Prometric and VUE exams. If you have a
> choice,
> I would recommend Prometric, as they don't charge VAT, VUE do. i.e.
> £88 with
> Prometric, and £103.40 with VUE per exam.
>

Interesting. How do Prometric get away with not charging VAT? Surely they
turn over more than £60,000 (the threshold IIRC).

-=D@n=-

"-=D@n=-" <> wrote in message
news:...
>R wrote:
>> Looks like they deliver both Prometric and VUE exams. If you have a
>> choice,
>> I would recommend Prometric, as they don't charge VAT, VUE do. i.e.
>> £88 with
>> Prometric, and £103.40 with VUE per exam.
>>
>
> Interesting. How do Prometric get away with not charging VAT? Surely they
> turn over more than £60,000 (the threshold IIRC).
USA based/registered company. VUE are EU.

Dave

Dave wrote:
> "-=D@n=-" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> R wrote:
>>> Looks like they deliver both Prometric and VUE exams. If you have a
>>> choice,
>>> I would recommend Prometric, as they don't charge VAT, VUE do. i.e.
>>> £88 with
>>> Prometric, and £103.40 with VUE per exam.
>>>
>>
>> Interesting. How do Prometric get away with not charging VAT? Surely
>> they turn over more than £60,000 (the threshold IIRC).
> USA based/registered company. VUE are EU.

Ahhhh, now he sees. Thanks.

-=D@n=-