Questions about "IT Certifications" - I Need Guidence

I'm looking forward to gain several IT certifications. I had the plan already, but i need advise and suggestions.

I'm after the following certifications:

- Oracle Application Developer
- .NET Application Development
- Unix/Linux Administration

These ones are presented in the local institution, they give several courses for the specialization i choose. For example .NET Application Development has intensive courses, e.g. one of the courses goes from 10 am to 6 pm every Sat & Sun, its for one month. The last course is about building a project based on the skills they teach us. At the end, they give certificate "Recognition of Achievement". However, these courses does not prepare you to the publicly known exams such as   Microsoft .NET Certifications, etc. The price is about $600 for the course or less (depends on the hours given to the course).

I know many books and video resources that teaches .NET, Oracle, and Unix/Linux. Some online services gives you access to their network so you can implement what you learn and experience it. The cost is much cheaper as well as i will learn at my own pace. Unlike, the course that runs from 10 am to 6 pm which i feel its going to be rush, and can not get learn everything since the instructor will be talking alot and might not give well notes, as you know by the end of the day i will might not have documented whats been taught, then it is a "lose" situation because the knowledge won't exist for long in my mind all the time! there must be something to get back to in the future for a reference.

In my opinion why should i pay $600 for a knowledge that i can get much cheaper online. I might not get "Recognition of Achievement" certificate from the institute, but the crucial thing is to get the publicly known certificates. Thus, the only thing is to find the right resource or website that teaches thoroughly as well as finding a remote lab to practice on. At the end, i will build a real-world program based on all the skills i got, just to proof to myself i'm ready to go to take exam and go to the next level. Certificate without experience can't do anything, but certificate is a proof that you can do it.

QUESTIONS:

*Based on what i said. Do you think it is a good decision? What do you suggest? ...

*Please provide me good resources for beginners/intermediate  that has trainings and tutorials for IT fields which can help me getting certifications, such as A+, and so on.