‘Til All Are One

I did say I’d try to be more diligent in writing journal entries last time, but I guess I failed. Well, no matter. It’s not as if my life is a rich tapestry or anything. Suffice to say that I’ve had a few things take up my time over the past week, the most significant being my studies. I’m still getting into the rhythm of things (I still syncopate too much), but I’m managing.

By the end of my first week, I had completed two modules and was 50 hours ahead. I have 25-hour weeks (5 hours per weekday), so that made me 2 weeks ahead. Mind you, it was easy stuff. PC Fundamentals is about learning about basic hardware and MS-DOS commands. PC Advanced is about slightly more advanced MS-DOS commands and Batch files. Nothing I haven’t done before. I’m just glad it wasn’t as brain-dead as Operate a Computer, which is about how to use Windows (yuck!) and basic GUI apps at a single-user level. Fortunately the Network Engineering course doesn’t sink that low (although there are other courses which do).

I was supposed to move onto the CompTIA A+ certification, but it appears that I was moving too quickly and they didn’t have any of the materials in stock. Instead, I ended up skipping ahead a few topics and doing Help Desk Problem Solving Techniques. It wasn’t difficult, but it was a lot of theory to memorise. Given that I was two weeks ahead, I thought I should slow down and learn that module properly. Even then, I finished (just yesterday) with plenty of time to spare.

Now I’m 75 hours ahead. That’s three weeks! I should be graduating well ahead of the date which was forecast at the beginning (12 December).

Finally, I’ve been able to start the A+ course. I was given the choice of doing either the A+ Hardware or A+ Operating System certifications first. I chose the latter, being more familiar with software. Having only begun today, I can’t say much about it.