IT Certification Success Exam Cram

This book consists of 13 chapters, followed by an appendix on job prospecting and capped with a glossary. Chapter 1 covers certification programs in a bit more detail and gives an overview of the numerous specific organizations I cover in Chapters 2 through 11. Starting with Microsoft?s various and sundry certifications, the order of coverage proceeds to explore Novell?s programs; followed by Oracle?s, then Cisco?s, then CompTIA?s, and then Sun?s Java certification programs; the Chauncey Group?s certifications; ProsoftTraining.com?s programs; Linux certifications; and a grab bag of various certification programs that you might find interesting but that aren?t covered in detail elsewhere in this book. This takes you up through Chapter 11.

Chapter 12 provides a skills and experience assessment that you can use to figure out where you belong in the certification game, and Chapter 13 covers resources and techniques that have proven helpful for individuals preparing for one or more IT certifications. The glossary contains definitions of the terms you?ll find throughout this book. There?s also a companion Web site at www.examcram.com/studyresource/ where you can create your own personal study page, take practice exams using an extensive database of test questions and analyses, sign up for daily questions and answers, read exam alerts, or send your questions to a team of Exam Cram Mentors. Spend some time exploring this resource. I think you will find it to be extremely valuable.

Each chapter in this book follows a regular structure and offers graphical cues about especially important or useful material. In fact, it?s modeled on Certification Insider Press?s popular Exam Cram series, which helps individuals prepare for most, if not all, of the certification exams mentioned in this book. Here?s the structure?which I follow religiously?of a typical chapter:

• Opening hot lists?Each chapter begins with lists of the terms, tools, and techniques that you must learn and understand before you can be fully conversant with the chapter?s subject matter. I follow the hot lists with one or two introductory paragraphs to set the stage for the rest of the chapter. Here, you?ll find a brief description of the certification program you?re about to dive into to help you get oriented.
• Topical coverage?After the opening hot lists, each chapter covers the various certification programs and exams for that chapter?s focus. This includes an overview of the programs, including the number of tests, their costs, how much time you?re allotted to take them, and so on. Then it covers each program individually. This includes overviews of the topics that are likely to appear in the qualifying exams and comments on the format and contents of these exams.
• Visual elements?Within each chapter, I use visuals to highlight particularly important or useful information about certification programs and exams. For example, the Exam Alert icon flags items of information that are particularly germane to the test-taking experience:

• On the other hand, the Tip icon helps flag useful or helpful information that may or may not be test related but that certainly is worth noting because it can save you time, money, or effort:

• Even if material isn?t flagged as an Exam Alert or a Tip, all the contents of this book are associated, at least tangentially, to something certification related. This book is lean to focus only on the essential elements of these certification programs; you?ll find that what appears in the meat of each chapter is critical knowledge.
• Details and resources?Every chapter ends with a section titled "Need to Know More?" This section provides direct pointers to each vendor?s or organization?s certification program data, and also to third-party resources that offer further details on the certification program or programs covered in a chapter. Also, this section tries to rate the quality and thoroughness of a topic?s coverage by each resource. If you find a resource you like in this collection, use it, but don?t feel compelled to use them all. On the other hand, I recommend only resources I use regularly, so none of my recommendations should waste your time or money.

How to Use This Book

If you?re interested in certification in general but don?t have a specific area of technical expertise or experience, you might want to read this book from cover to cover. Some of the material that I present, to do proper justice to the certification programs I cover, gets pretty technical.

If you find yourself mystified by the terminology or concepts that I use to describe a certification program, chances are that you?ll find the technical material necessary to obtain that certification downright opaque. For that reason, feel free to skip any material that doesn?t make sense. However, if you really want to get to the bottom of anything, you can always visit the vendor?s or organization?s Web site to look for basic tutorials or to find information about introductory classes for a particular technology, product, or subject area. If you really want to learn any of this stuff, you can do it!

Given all the book?s elements and its specialized focus, I?ve tried to create a tool to help you review the various certification programs I cover and to perform meaningful comparisons between these programs (that?s one reason why I?ve tried to make each chapter as consistent with the others as possible). I hope that you can use it to help satisfy your curiosity about these programs and to guide your progress into one or more of these certification areas.

Still, I know that I can?t please everyone, nor can I represent all this information completely or perfectly in a single work. Therefore, please share your feedback on the book with me, especially if you have ideas about how I can improve it for future readers. I?ll consider everything you say carefully, and I?ll respond to all suggestions. You can reach me via email at ed.tittel@examcram.com. Remember to include the title of this book in your message; otherwise, I?ll be forced to guess which book you?re making a suggestion about. It?s also a good idea to list a page number that relates to your questions or comments. I don?t like to guess?I want to know what you?re thinking!