Certification and Retired!

[MorseLady]

I wonder if I am the oldest Certification candidate in the UK who is not working in IT and indeed I am long retired being a carer to my disabled husband. I am 63.

I am very lucky because my local College has become a Microsoft Academy and my old City and Guilds Networking level 3 tutor is now an MCT and running the class. I get full fee remission and an access fund pays for my materials. All I pay is thirty quid College Registration fee. My tutor is very supportive too. I have had problems settling into the course and suffered early burnout and went off the idea for a while but some honest emails between myself and the tutor and a quick chat with him today has restored my faith in my ability to succeed.

Furthermore, I emailed the tutor this evening with a question about installing the eval copy of Server 2003 in the resource kit which I need to do the labs and so on and he came right back within a minute or so - how's that for support and I have created the new NTFS primary partition and am ready to instal. I will then use the XP partition my other computer as a client for practice. The fun comes when I get my new computer and can run two clients!

Funny, I was really down yesterday but now I am really looking forward to the rest of the course and even the exams - is this normal for MCSE candidates?

[MobilePCPhysician]

Are you related to Noo Noo?

[confus-ed]

Are you related to Noo Noo?

Don't think so as Noo keeps asking her about how she originally got state funding to do an MCSE , usually you get to do a degree as so few FE places here offer the courses, M$ almost exclusively getting done in the private sector here.. (its how it panned out for me about 7 years ago - I scoured the length of GB to find a place that offered such a thing & Noo I know encountered the same result more recently).

So actually answering the question a little, I think its perfectly natural to 'come & go' with your determination & enthusiasm 'some' at any point with things, hapened to me lots when I did my MCSE (nearly as long ago as we have some members in age here !) & they hadn't come up with many crammers & practice tests then I can tell you

What I'd say here though if you are finding yourself a little under pressure, why not break it up & do a few MCPs to build your MCSE ? I think on the other topic that prompted this one, I commented about 'enjoyment' & I still think (even more so I guess considering your position & dare I say age !?! ) that this is whats key, no enjoyment=pack it in ? maybe go do something else instead ? ( be that other computer stuff or basket weaving !?! )

[MobilePCPhysician]

I was making a joke. I know they are not related. But there stories seem similar to me.


Relax

And before you flame me, I have the utmost respect for Noo and Morse. I think the schooling that they are taking is great...

[confus-ed]

No need for big writing dude, I was trying to explain that this topic is linked to others & then answer her & you at once .. a recuring theme in those has been 'how did you get funding ? I couldn't find any' ..

I think its fantastic too that morselady has the energy, I did my MCSE in my twenties & my degree in my thirties & now I'm nearly .. well older

[MorseLady]

Are you related to Noo Noo?

No, why do you ask?

[emr]

I have to say that I am a lazy bastard that started MCSE W2k and gave up after the second exam.

I found it quicker to learn by practice as opposed to theory. That is a personal choice on my part though and I have always been rubbish at taking exams etc.

I think the way you are approaching this is good though MorseLady. You have the courses and support from the tutor and you have a real live W2k3 Server to play with as well which will be of enormous help to get your head round the "theory" and put it into practice.

Good luck and you always know you can pop in here and ask questions / opinions on any "issues" you may have!

emr

[MorseLady]

I think its fantastic too that morselady has the energy, I did my MCSE in my twenties & my degree in my thirties & now I'm nearly .. well older

I have always enjoyed learning.

MobilePC, the course is not MCSE all at once but two or three MCPs per term and this term it is two core Server 2003 exams in February then at Easter we do two more core including XP and one elective get MCSA if we pass then we can go on to do the other exams for MCSE.

I actually enjoy doing tests and exams so that does not worry me but failing does. I would rather not sit than fail so although my exam fees are already covered I will only sit the exams if I can pass the assessments.

I have been up until 4am because I had a mishap whilst installing my evaluation copy of Server 2003 on this machine. I had created a new NTFS partition and installed Server 2003 successfully was using Windows own boot manager to dual boot with XP. I had also installed Powerquest Boot Magic and as soon as I enabled it as boot manager I lost NTLDR in both OS and could not boot even with rescue discs, just kept going back to POST.

I did a quick repair using over the top reinstal with my XP Home OEM disc but I ended up with an XP and .NET Server hybrid that just called itself Windows. I had to do a format and put XP Home on again using the OEM rescue - there are times when I am grateful for these discs which use a kind of mirror system. Luckily I had of course backed everything up to my Data partition and used the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard so that makes my work a bit easier but I still have to install Norton and Zonealarm and my Office and web design apps and SP1(I treat SP2 as beta and only have it on my backup computer). I have hours of Windows Update and Norton Virus Definitions to instal because I only have dial up so I am quite annoyed and then I have to put Server 2003 on again. I will put it down to experience and remember not to do major instals, upgrades and configurations when I am tired and the cat insists on sitting on my desk but I was glad of his company

UPDATE
I see what happened. My OEM rescue installed in the partition which was active at the time the machine became unbootable which was the one I had installed Server 2003 on. That is why I got the hybrid OS because my new install of XP was going over the top of Server 2003 but I have no control over the OEM reinstal disc routine and you do not see the usual Windows instal interface! I deciuded to instal Partition Magic which enabled me to see more than Windows disc management was showing me and I saw that my original XP partition was hidden but was marked as system partition so I set it active, rebooted and got the Windows boot manager from which I selected the old XP system. It is all here and nothing has been corrupted. All I have to do now is reformat the partition on which I installed Server 2003 and start again, this time being careful not to use Powerquest Boot Manager. If it happens again then it's a different problem. Whew but I feel good having sorted and worked it out for myself

[GreenGrime]

Kudos on taking this on. There is no age limit in IT, and I hope you do well in a field you obviously enjoy.

Tip: Consider getting VirtualPC or VMWare installed on a powerful PC if you don't have the room or money to get a real lab set up. You can then configure a virtual LAN on a single machine and be able to work out your problems and test scenarios all from one machine. Just make sure it has as much RAM as ou can afford.

[MorseLady]

Kudos on taking this on. There is no age limit in IT, and I hope you do well in a field you obviously enjoy.

Tip: Consider getting VirtualPC or VMWare installed on a powerful PC if you don't have the room or money to get a real lab set up. You can then configure a virtual LAN on a single machine and be able to work out your problems and test scenarios all from one machine. Just make sure it has as much RAM as ou can afford.

Thanks GreenGrime. I have two machines at the moment and have just reinstalled Server 2003 on this one and I now have it dual booting happily with XP. I will stick with the Windows Boot Manager and not go upsetting it with Powerquest again. Now I can do some work and I have a smaller machine with ME and XP on which I can use as client. When I buy my new machine with 3GHZ or better processor and 1GB RAM and a big hard drive or maybe two I will put Server 2003 on it and this one will become another client.

Now to get down to some serious study to try and catch up with the group

[theonetruely]

Thanks GreenGrime. I have two machines at the moment and have just reinstalled Server 2003 on this one and I now have it dual booting happily with XP. I will stick with the Windows Boot Manager and not go upsetting it with Powerquest again. Now I can do some work and I have a smaller machine with ME and XP on which I can use as client. When I buy my new machine with 3GHZ or better processor and 1GB RAM and a big hard drive or maybe two I will put Server 2003 on it and this one will become another client.

Now to get down to some serious study to try and catch up with the group

MorseLady you go girl ! enjoy yourself remember we only live once and good luck

[NooNoo]

Are you related to Noo Noo?

I wish! I would be proud to have MorseLady in my family.

MorseLady, I have fallen into cisco by accident. The college are short a couple of tutors - I am pretty good with hardware so I am useful in lab lessons. But to teach I have to pass all these exams, the college are pushing me through what the kids are doing, plus the teachers stuff. This may all come to a grinding halt at Christmas, but I hope not.

What I find amazing is the minutiae that the IT essentials exams call for... for instance, having to remember the i/o addresses for parallel and com ports - it's not like you can't look up this kind of stuff in the bios!! Also socket names for 286 upwards....fortunately they stop at 478s!

Any whooo if you get any sort of enjoyment out of it (yes even the masochistic enjoyment after going 10 rounds with windows) then keep going. But for goodness sake, the damn thing is only a gadget and it's supposed to be fun!

[confus-ed]

..What I find amazing is the minutiae that the IT essentials exams call for... for instance, having to remember the i/o addresses for parallel and com ports - it's not like you can't look up this kind of stuff in the bios!! Also socket names for 286 upwards....yes even the masochistic enjoyment after going 10 rounds with windows..

Hijacking MorseLadies thread slightly ... which one are you doing wants this info ? (I think I had to know that for A+ about 10 years ago !) - this is one of the 'violent objections' I have to standard exams, knowing useless things, because once upon a time they were important .. (not that you ever needed to know this off the top of your head unless buying them imho) - I think whats important in IT is problem solving & ability to apply knowledge however aquired, but stubborn goes a long way especially if you are 'partial' to a little of it .

[gazzak]

I think whats important in IT is problem solving & ability to apply knowledge however aquired, but stubborn goes a long way especially if you are 'partial' to a little of it .

Agreed. I wish they could test this in some way, maybe with a test suite of servers/workstations etc. Trouble is exam costs would quadruple!

[confus-ed]

I honestly think you should test open book as well as practically, so that means internet access, but that means anyone who can find a decent help site can get whatever exam - if you could factor in just using google somehow (& just that - so no helpers) I think that'd be pretty fair, but then again blagging it out of some internet nerds like us is I guess equally valid as long as it gets the job done, so what value any certification whatsoever ?, its only a pointer to what a reasonably bright person should be able to solve, but sometimes you need a better thinker than 'knower' - its 'the appliance of science' & all that, I think though that makes a good tech, as things change so quickly anyway, most places, you are constantly in flux & not everyone can know everything, you have to learn as you go ..