MCDST newbie

I'm just about to book to do my MCDST Exam as i am going to be self taught,
I am interesting in knowing where to get more free resources on the exam
online, i check the microsoft site and all, but any other site for more free
resource with be helpful suggestion welcome

 

If you not willing to spend money on your education, you must spend
time. This means not relying on books or "free" resources to negotiate
this, or any other exam. Experience is highly recommended. It proves
that you know in fact how to do the job the certification implies.
Microsoft states, "The MCDST credential is for IT professionals who are
working in the typically complex computing environment of small, medium,
or large organizations. An MCDST candidate should have 6-12 months of
experience supporting end-users of a desktop operating system." If you
do not fit this description, I recommend putting your plans for this
particular certification on hold until you achieve the recommended
requirements.

 

Caroline, Don’t listen to Michale, he said something similar to me, first of
all Michael this seems to be all you say to people who are trying to make
things easier for themselves were not all rich IT guys sometimes it's hard to
pay for thins especially for the silly cost for things to do with these
exams. Second I been in IT for over 3 and a half years now, still rather a
beginner only working on helpdesk and such. one person's jobs DON'T cover
the whole exam. I never install Windows on PC's so how can you tell people
that you got to have real world experience when the job don’t cover
everything.

regards

Chris

regards

Chris

 

This just made my day. Let's see, where should I start? First, please
use spell checker and proper punctuation. Your last was very hard to
follow. But I digress. I had planned on responding to your post in a
manner less becoming of me, however I will take the high road. When
choosing a certification, any certification, you should really ask
yourself 1.) does this certification fit my experience, and 2.) why do I
want this certification to begin with. You said, " one person's jobs
DON'T cover the whole exam." This may be the case, however it doesn't
mean that you have to rely on your current job position to get hands-on
experience. Notice how Microsoft recommends this experience, not
requires it.

Secondly, you don't have to be rich to be smart, or educated for that
matter. The only cost that is guaranteed in pursuing certifications is
the cost of the exam. In the end, it all comes down to this: You get
what you pay for. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing ($1 to Billy
Preston). If one cannot financially afford the pursuit of education
material, then you have to additional time in utilizing free resources
that may not be readily available. Otherwise, you get out of it what you
put into it. Garbage in, garbage out. It's all common sense and ... wait
for it... learning by experience.

In the end, I am still correct: Experience is highly recommended. It
proves that you know in fact how to do the job the certification
implies. Never installed Windows XP before but hold the MCDST
certification? You're a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Specialist.
Any you have the nerve to tell a client, customer, or your boss that you
don't have experience in performing this task? I would buy a paper
shredder and drop my certification right into it because at that point
none of those individuals are going to respect your skills, much less
that piece of paper that implies you have the skills.

 

You made my day as well. I wonder why your even biting? Does it really
matter what I say. Though your good advertisement I must check out your
company see what you do. PS I was at work earlier and did not have time to
spell check, which is a fault on my part, but I felt you treated Caroline
rather badly. (Must spell check this)

 

<snipped>

I bit because I was bored and out of Guinness. Considering your
philosophy of I.T. certifications, no, I do not think what you say
matters. Also being at work is not a valid excuse for butchering the
English language. Furthermore, I said absolutely nothing to Caroline
that was demeaning or unconstructive.

Have a wonderful day.

 

Actually I do have some good books, cd rom from the likes of sybex, MSpress
etc and I have working experience
of working as a Network/Desktop support staff for ISP company, but as you
can not been too prepare or perhaps my apprehensions about the exam.
I just would like more resources or tip bits from any experience individual
and thanks to all those who have been understanding chris, micheal thanks

 

Caroline, http://www.microsoft.com/technet is a great free resource.
Tons of reading, whitepapers and such

 

caroline,

There isn't really a "cookie cutter" answer for this question. People learn
differently and have different natural abilities and intelligence that may
aid in their acquisition of certification. That is why there are so many
options out there for training resources.

There is no good substitute for experience, and the testing is geared
towards someone who understands the operating system and is comfortable and
familiar with working within that environment.

The best Free Resources for these materials is your Public Library. Many
libraries will maintain a section of books on Computer Resources and Training
Materials. There are porgrams at many libraries to obtain these books or to
check them out from other libraries. There are practice and test exams all
over the web. But again, those are only testing specific bits of knowledge
that may or may not be covered on your exam.

I personally grab up the Microsoft Books on Amazon.com as I can find used
and new books. You may have your own ideas for find the materials for
preparing for your exams. Even if they don't help me with the exam, I have
an excellent resource should I need to find something specific.

Finally, I use Google for more specific questions or for more details on
items that may interest me.

 

This is my second post, so hi all, my named is Adam btw.

I was made redundant after working 3 years in IT technical sales, so
went to my careers office. I always wanted to be more involved with
the technical side, so they got me £3000 of training called blended
learning. This gave me vouchers for the official microsoft courses,
plus a full day of training for each exam on the MCSA and MCDST tracks
and covered the cost of the exams. I agree with Michael that there is
no substiture for "hands-on" so I have tinkered with PCs for 10 years.
I just wanted the formal qualifications as I had none. The offical
courses are quite good, but I found not enough substance in them to
pass the exams. My tinkering was based on helping family and friends
with their PCs, running W98 and XP. So I had no experience of volume
licensing, VPNs, unattended installs etc.
I then worked for 6 months as a helpdesk technician for a web hosting
company, so most of my experience was with SMEs with email problems. I
also dabbled in MailDaemon, Linux BIND, remote desktop, Plesk, VNC,
and Server 2003. I was made redundant as the company had financial
problems, and then did 6 months in web development.

Although I don't consider this to be a lot of experience, it is quite
diverse and what I knew covered about 70% of the course material. I
still didn't have enough knowledge to regularly score 90% + in the
practice exams, so I bought a book for each course - off an online
auction site - you know the one. These fill most of the rest. One
problem I found was that you have to memorise the exact route to get
somewhere so you can explain to your end user over the phone. I can
easily do it myself when at the pc, but when you can't see what they
see, that is where the hands-on comes in, how to interpret their
information, and how to explain to them easily how to get to a
particular command.

 

Soooooooooo..... after reading your cat and dog fight.. i noticed that
nobody gave an answer to what´s important about this conversation... Is there
any kind of free resource with helpful suggestions for people who whant to
spend money on teaching themselves that can´t afford a course... neider a
book, and probably the only thing that they could have is some experience on
Microsoft´s OS`s, and whant to invest on Microsoft´s MCDST, exam or any
other available...????????

(English ain´t my natural language, and i don´t use spellchecker ...sry.)
Thanks for everything.

 

You don't need a course, a book, a practice test for certifications...
You need EXPERIENCE. How you get that experience is up to you.
Certifications are not designed for newbies. They are created for
experienced IT folk who wish to justify their experience with a sheet of
paper. Nothing wrong with that, but that's certifications in a
nutshell...

--
Michael D. Alligood, MCITP, MCTS, MCSA, MCDST
The I.T. Classroom - http://www.theitclassroom.com/
CertGuard, Inc. - http://www.certguard.com/
Microsoft's Six Steps to Certifications -
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/sixsteps.mspx