My MCSA Course has stuffed up

[MorseLady]

I have been too stressed to get back to you all on my previous thread because of my continuing MCP fiasco. I apologise to all my friends on here. I have not yet done any exams and I have stuffed up but it's not all my fault but let's go back to the beginning.

Our Course Instructor is a fairly new MCT who ran his first course as such year 2003-2004 with just seven one day a week out of work retrainers etc
This year 2004-5 he is running two classes, one day a week for MCSE which I was invited to join but 9am start is too early with my disabled husband to help dress etc. the other course was one evening a week for MCSA as there will not be time to do the three electives and this is ther course I enrolled for. As an unwaged dependent who is an OAP anyway I am funded by the College for both fees and resources and exams.

It was obvious from the timetable that the course was badly arranged and very hurried and the Instructor told us we were doing twice the work recommended. Some of the modules were set as self study and some class modules were hurried and things skipped and we were even dragged away from doing labs because he said he had to move on. He used to be a good teacher but his style is now dull and rote fashion or maybe that is how Microsoft want it. I was told before the course started that I should not ask too many questions or expect as much support as I got on the W2K Server course because it was a class of 20 with many students being paid for by their firms and he had to get results and could not stop and talk to everyone who needed it.

I missed two classes because of migraine and I did email the Instructor but he said he never received them and thinking I had lost interest was about to throw me out. I persauded him to reinstate me but he insisted that I must attend the next class whatever. As it happened I had the beginnings of a cold that day but turned up scared of losing my place. The College is too warm and the network classroom is very dry and warm as you can imagine with 20 computers with big processors and 1GB of RAM plus the classroom servers and smart wall computer and the big cupboard at the back which is used for CISCO routing and all sorts of things, all are running all the time and the windows are always closed. I started to cough but I left the room when I thought I was going to have a coughing fit. He asked me to go home but I said I felt fine and wanted to carry on because I needed to catch up. I was sipping from the bottle of tap water I always take with me and I choked and he got angry and said I was disturbing the other students and I must go home. Fair enough but no one offered to call my husband, no one called a First Aider and I was left to see myself out and walk about quarter of a mile to the bus stop with that very heavy book.

It turned out to be flu or a very bad cold but it took me a couple of weeks to get over it and the Instructor said I was not to return until I was free from coughing but it was a cold which you have a cough for ages. I started to lose interest and confidence after that as I had missed more than half my classes and when I did go back I could not catch up and felt silly. The Inbstructor was making out that the exam was easy and we should all pass first time because he did and he was slagging down Wave Boot Camps! Mr.Superbrain has all the CISCO and Microsoft stuff and reckons he passed all his exams first time? I used to like him when I did my Server 2K course but since he became an MCT he has become hard and uncaring but he has had to ask for advice and help from the students when he is not sure of something, some of the class are already IT Managers who are upgrading their MCSE.

When I went for my interview last August he said he was very happy to enrol me for the class despite the fact that he already knew about my commitments with caring for my husband and also my migraines and so on and even that I get stressed easily.

We had a month long Christmas break because he decided to go on a course which was not work related and no one else was available to take us nor was the lab available for us to use for self study and not all of us have access to networks or Server 2003.

I found I had lost so much ground and even forgotten what I had learned before Christmas. I was convinced everyone one else was doing fine and would pass and I lost confidence. I declined the exam on 9th January which had been arranged for us to take whilst the Instructor was absent and without any class that week or any support and only nine candidates from his day and evening classes did the exam and only one passed! We had a chance last week but apparently only one person booked the exam and did not turn up! We are supposed to revise for 70-290 whilst studying for 70-291 and now the course is over and the XP core module starts on Monday and we all have our exams for Server 2003 to do and we have been offered 70-290 on 23rd February. I have been excluded from the rest of the course unless I pass at least one exam and he says only then will he will enrol me but I will have missed two classes by then and XP is only a four week course because it's two modules per evening for exam 70-270. After that is Comptia Security Plus to make up the four core exams for MCSA.

What am I supposed to do? I told him I did not want to start the XP class late and already behind but he won't budge, says it's his Manager's decision and so I suggested I buy some materials from Amazon but he says not to worry bout XP as I can catch up and just concentrate on my 70-290 exam. He said the reason he cannot enrol me for XP unless I pass my exam is because of my absence and he is worried about my stress.

Anyone reading this imagine you are my Instructor and knowing what I have just told you what would you say or do please? I have two ways of thinking about it either I can push myself to the absolute limit and cram just to show them I can pass and maybe crack up or I can say give it up now and forget the exams or trying to get back on the course and just forget the whole thing.

I have just found out that Microsoft deliberately trick and confuse you in the exams so they are so hard to pass they only get highly intelligent and motivated professionals, is that true? I find the style of questions very strange and makes every exam I have ever done look easy.

Will I ever be an MCP, I think not!