Advice on Learning Track taught by Patrick

Do you have any previous certifications like A/Network/Server+? The MCSE is about 3 tiers in from beginner and without some previous experience or prior certification training it will be difficult to understand some of the terminology and information that doesn't go into too much detail because it expects that you have had some previous education on those foundations.

I have 20 years of hands on experience never got certs this is my first one to be truthful.

I used the Pluralsight course range when I certified
https://www.pluralsight.com/search?q=Server%202016%20MCSE

@Shaun can you tell me about this site? Is it free? Is it any different than the course they offer here.   I want to learn this accurately so I can take the test once.   How does the site work?  Are there slides and training videos?  Do I need to have an environment setup?  Again I appreciate the help and I am trying to get as much help as I can .

I am doing this cert alone no one at work wants to do it with me so I have no one to bounce questions or ideas off of.

@shaun what do you think of the course here taught by Patrick?

https://www.experts-exchange.com/courses/2026/Certification-MCSE-Microsoft-Certified-Systems-Engineer-Installation-Storage-and-Compute-with-Windows-Server-2016.html

Pluralsight is fee based and currently has a $100 off sale.
Personal Annual $199USD/Year
Personal Premium Annual $349USD/Year
https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2019/june-eoq

@David do you suggest the learning is better there than here?  Also what would I need just the annual personal?  Also what advantage do I have of going there?  Thanks as always.

First go through the training here and fill in with Pluralsight, or Udemy or other online learning site ... Too bad Microsoft Virtual Academy was shutting down as of Today. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/ is another site.. That and of course, Youtube.

Helps a great deal if you have your own lab to practice on.

Pluralsight is a pretty decent place for training. LinkedIn Learning is also well. The issue I had with Pluralsight when trying for MCSE is it had plenty of content to learn from, was a little hard to follow which module I wanted because they came from different people and not one had all of them, and I didn't see any practice testing or knowledge checks so I just had to absorb and hope for the best. It may be different for different solutions, but this one didn't fit my needs.

James and David I see there is a boot camp for 6k$.  Can you explain how that works?  And how you can become an MCSE in 1 week of training?  I am considering it.  But I need to know first what to expect from going.

The boot camp is a barrage of knowledge for long periods of time many days in a row. The BootCamps will typically offer direct information to the tests and some of them even include the exam process at the end while the information is fresh on your mind.

Problem with Bootcamps is they saturate you with knowledge enough to pass an exam but it cannot prepare you for a lot of the real world applications you will find. A degree should only be as good as the knowledge you can apply from it. It looks good on paper lol.

Also, most BootCamps for higher education Certs like this would normally be more than 1 week. I would be really cautious of those and do extra research to make sure you aren't getting a flash training that is worthless.

James for someone who hasn't done this before what would you suggest best for learning and able to work in the field specific to this discipline.

I would suggest that finding the official supported books, MCSE has one from the vendor Pearson, make sure its the current one https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/mcse-certification.aspx

Once you have found the track you want to follow, look up online PDF versions of the book to make sure if you read some that you can follow along and it speaks to you. If so, I would buy the book and self study for a month or so. Then, if you think this is something you can retain when hearing and seeing it, look toward a premium guided training like Boot Camps, Pluralsight etc.

I wouldn't want to throw money at something I wasn't absolutely certain I was going to like learning.

I did buy the MCSA Server 2016 from IC2 written by William Panek he even helped me by sending me all the practice tests for 70-740 741 and 742 but then I started to do the training here and it was totally different so now I am unsure.   And you are absolutely right nothing is speaking to me.  

Looking at this link I will start and then see what I can do.  

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/mcsa-windows-server-2016-certification.aspx

When you mention the PDF's for this track.   Also now I have EE, IC2 book and the option of Boot camps and Pluralsight.  Its already overwhelming.

Great assistance if I have any more questions I will post them.

I appreciate that, we will be here =)