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If you’d like to find an MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) training program, pay attention to the fact that training varies from company to company; and you’ll relate to some more than others. You will find a variety of courses, both if you’re new to network support, or a professional hoping to gain acknowledged certifications.

Each level requires a different type of course, so pay attention to check you’re being offered the best one when investing your cash. Find a company that has the courtesy to get to know what you’d like to do, and can help you work out what you want to do, before they advise on a course.

Make sure that all your accreditations are current and also valid commercially – don’t bother with programmes which lead to some in-house certificate (which is as useless as if you’d printed it yourself).

From an employer’s perspective, only the major heavyweights like Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe or CompTIA (as an example) give enough bang for your buck. Nothing else will cut the mustard.

Authorised simulation materials and exam preparation packages are a must – and absolutely ought to be obtained from your course provider.

Some students can get confused by practicing questions for their exams that aren’t from the authorised examining boards. Sometimes, the question formats and phraseology can be completely unlike un-authorised versions and you should be prepared for this.

‘Mock’ or practice exams will prove very useful as a tool for logging knowledge into your brain – so that when you come to take the real thing, you won’t be worried.

It’s quite a normal occurrence for students not to check on something that can make a profound difference to their results – the way the company breaks up the training materials, and into what particular chunks.

Most companies will sell you a program typically taking 1-3 years, and drop-ship the materials to you piecemeal as you get to the end of each exam. On the surface this seems reasonable – until you consider the following:

Maybe the order of study offered by the provider doesn’t suit. And what if you don’t finish all the sections within their timetable?

For maximum flexibility and safety, it’s not unusual for students to make sure that every element of their training is delivered immediately, and not in stages. You can then decide at what speed and in which order you want to finish things.

Most trainers typically provide a big box of books. This isn’t very interesting and not a very good way of studying effectively.

We see a huge improvement in memory retention when we use multiple senses – this has been an accepted fact in expert circles for years now.

Courses are now available on CD and DVD discs, where everything is taught on your PC. Using video-streaming, you can watch instructors demonstrating how something is done, with some practice time to follow – in a virtual lab environment.

It makes sense to see examples of the courseware provided before you make your decision. You should expect instructor-led video demonstrations and interactive audio-visual sections with practice modules.

Some companies only have access to just online versions of their training packages; and while this is acceptable much of the time, consider how you’ll deal with it if you lose your internet access or you get slow speeds and down-time etc. It’s much safer to rely on actual CD or DVD ROMs that removes the issue entirely.

(C) 2009. Pop to LearningLolly.com for logical ideas on Microsoft MCSA and MCSA 2008.