{"id":365,"date":"2008-03-03T08:33:15","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T17:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/not-a-good-way-to-prepare-for-a-test"},"modified":"2008-03-03T08:33:15","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T17:33:15","slug":"not-a-good-way-to-prepare-for-a-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/not-a-good-way-to-prepare-for-a-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Not a good way to prepare for a test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not a good way to prepare for a test<\/p>\n<p>I have been an Apple Nut since 1984 when I first used a Mac in school. I am a bit obsessed with the company and the goings on of all things Apple. Hell, for my 40th birthday I slept out in front of the San Francisco Apple store for two nights just so I could be first in line at the Grand Opening.<\/p>\n<p>I have never thought of Apple as central to any of my businesses. While I have been making money as an Apple consultant since 1990, it has always been a side business of mine. I formalized the relationship with Apple a few years ago by becoming an Apple Authorized Business Agent (AABA). When that program ended January 1 this year, I joined the Apple Consultants Network (ACN). I mostly did this for two reasons:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1) YVOD clients enjoy knowing we have an official relationship with Apple.<\/strong> When my staff and I give advise on Apple solutions they have confidence in knowing we have at least heard the official &#8220;Party Line&#8221;. [Just yesterday I ended up selling an Apple TV to a client because I highlighted a marketing point that was not widely advertised by Apple yet spoke to a core problem of the client.]<\/p>\n<p><strong> 2) I am increasing being asked to advise educational bodies on Apple solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A good friend of mine and fellow ACN, <a href=\"http:\/\/stomp.com\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Morenz<\/a>, suggested we partner and offer completed solutions to our clients. We both signed up to take the <a href=\"http:\/\/training.apple.com\/itpro\/leopard201\" target=\"_blank\">OS X Server Essentials<\/a> in Washington DC, February 21-24.<\/p>\n<p>Apple recently changed the way the certification courses are run and I writing to say the new way is not working. The course was taught very well and I felt like I got my monies worth. The instructor was patient, covered all the material in the workbook and generally had a good demeanor. He performed a good overview of OS X Server. <\/p>\n<p>What he did <strong>NOT<\/strong> do was prepare us to take the test. He never once said; &#8220;Make sure you know this because it will be on the test.&#8221; He did not perform any sort of review, neither a daily review nor a complete course review. He never asked example questions. In short, he taught a course but did not help us prepare for a test.<\/p>\n<p>I spent the over $500 a day on the course specifically because I wanted to prepare for the certification test. 12 people took the course. More than 6, including myself, failed the test.<\/p>\n<p>I will take the test again in a week or so. However, I will not take the course again. I will study on my own and I am sure I will pass the test. It is a shame that Apple has created a situation where it is better to study on your own rather than take training classes. It is in Apple&#8217;s best interest to revamp their training courses to give greater value to the students&#8230; or more students will follow me in deciding not to take the courses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not a good way to prepare for a test I have been an Apple Nut since 1984 when I first used a Mac in school. I am a bit obsessed with the company and the goings on of all things Apple. Hell, for my 40th birthday I slept out in front of the San Francisco &#8230; <a title=\"Not a good way to prepare for a test\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/not-a-good-way-to-prepare-for-a-test\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Not a good way to prepare for a test\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yvod.com\/ulan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}