Passed ACSA

[maxfurni]

Passed the 2nd exam for the Apple Certified Systems Administrator cert yesterday. So I’m now a ACSA!

I decided to go down the self taught route but it was real hard work. There are no books at all for these exams so its down to plain research to study for these exams. From this point of view I found the client exam harder because for the Server exam Apple has very good documentation for Mac OS X Server in the form of server manuals.
http://www.apple.com/server/documentation/
These manuals cover pretty much everything you need to know for the Server exam.

My basic study plan was to go through each of the Skills Assessment Guidies for each exam.
http://train.apple.com/certification/PDF/SAG_SAC_10_3.pdf
http://train.apple.com/certification/PDF/SAG_SAS_10_3.pdf

I went through each point in the study guide, did research into it and then wote some notes (so I could go back and revise them). The study plan worked really well but is very time consuming. I reckon it took about 30 hours study time for the Client exam and another 50 hours for the Server exam.

So in conclusion I think its quite a lot work. I’ve heard the courses for them are really good so I’d probably recommend doing them rather than self study (due to the lack of study material available).

Roll on the Tiger upgrade exam…

Max

[maxfurni]

Cheers Josh

Yep, I’d say the ACSA is quite hard. You really have to have a good understanding of UNIX and many of the commands with the switches. I found this has improved my skills a lot. I come from a MCSE background so I’d never been great at the command line or really understanding the UNIX way of working. All changed now though.

People do take the micky about me doing Apple certs. They say it gives you the skills to be able to recommend whether to get a pink or green iPod mini!!!

Max

[Detrius]

Welcome to the club! I did it the hard way too. I took both tests on the same day and passed them both the first time.

I did the same thing with the ACTC a few months prior to the ACSA.

[dom9inic]

Are you guys in the States? Is it easy to get certified in the UK on these courses?

Can anyone give a little more background on whether it is necessary to do the ludicrously expensive 5 day training programs and how useful people have found it for employment.

[Detrius]

The training is not necessary to pass the tests, as all of the information is available in the Server Admin Guides, man pages, and the Skill Assessment Guides. That was enough for me to pass the tests (though it takes much longer than a week to prep for the tests).

Also, having the ACSA is by no means a guarantee of a job. It will get you attention, as it puts you near the top of the list, but it’s up to you and your actual experience to get the job.

[Detrius]

Wow… this is an old thread to revive. To give anyone reading a little heads-up, I wound up getting a programming job instead of a sysadmin job. My certification expires next month, and I never really got much of a chance to use it. However, having the certification has helped a bit at my programming job, as I’ve become the IT guy for anything that does require heavy-duty Windows Server skills. AND, thanks to some of the new Leopard features (e.g. time machine and the iCal server), we’re planning on switching over to a Mac server sometime next year. 🙂 Of course, my certification expires next month, but I’ve proven I can handle it.

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