Hi Noo Noo,

We were warned that a two year course with only one year to do it would be hard but there is so much to remember, not least of all what tab to click or even where to find the management utility I need. Lots of parrot fashion as you say but have at least memorised IP classes! The class is about 50-50 whiteboard/discussion and practical hands on and we have crib sheets for the hands on but then I find when I try to do it without the crib I cannot remember. If I do decide to do the exams I certainly won't get crib sheets!

This is the first year that the two courses have been combined into one year, it used to be databases and systems management first year and networking second year but they could not get enough students to make the class viable for funding so they combined and even then there are only about 12 students and the class was nearly closed last term. Everyoner wants to do the A+ course and they have split that class into three classes of 20 each, and the Web Design and VB are also very popular but no one wants to do networking.

My A+ course is online and I can take as long as I like and take breaks but once I pass an assessment it is closed. So far my best assessment is 92 out of 130 and fail for the OS part of it and rather less for the hardware part.

I am also supposed to be doing advanced web design and FP2000 extensions etc with LearnDirect but I have let that drop as I know enough to run my websites and the advanced stuff does not really benefit me as a hobby webmaster. I have actually had to drop my fractal design and the big fractal website I had in the IFL because I could not cope and I have not had time to redesign my other two websites, I just keep them updated.

Something has to go, the websites can wait and the A+ can go completely and in any case I think evening classes would be better than self paced learning.

So, I will concentrate on the networking course and dependent on how I do I will either repeat it next year or do the College A+ course or CISCO, not both. My tutor favours ditching the A+ and doing the CISCO - he teaches the CISCO too and he is a very popular teacher at the College.

So I will take the good advice of your self and my tutor and focus on one thing at a time and thanks again.