SkillsTrain Reviews from Students

I personnaly believe adversity has overcome much this month, professionaly I decided to commit to my studies fulltime not because my marks were faltering but more that my commited time now is being devoted to achieving the future exams and the employment hopefully what comes with it - in enforcing the studies plan I have started to work temporarily and have went full circle in being a rather senior fellow to being back to the shop floor which by all accounts has been interesting. I rate the challenge of commiting to this future via this course inline with my biggest achievement that of serving in HMF and gaining promotion accordingly. This month by far was going to be the trend setter financially, mentally and personnaly - as mention adversity is the key word.
I also should mention, I moved house, my wife is hovering with 8 mths of pregnancy, and the current queen of the family, my two year old managed to throw my folder containing my tma results onto the fire, which was not amusing..

thanxs

jon

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I have achieved more than I thought I would have in the last month by doing studying in between work and other things. I have been really pleased by the marks that I have received from all my TMA and have found using my computer alot easier.

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I completed my first TMA via email. I am new to the world of computer hardware and software and was quite nervous about taking the course. I studied the TMA 01 as best as I could ,and it payed off. I got 100%, which has given me more confidence.

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Fixed friends computers for pleasure and extra study.. upgraded my achievements by far.

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I started thiS course in January 2006, I had no previous experience of I.T or Web design, I have only used the a computer to surf the Internet or play games on so when I came across this course I saw it as a rael challenge and an opportunity to improve my chances of a better career.
During this course I have gained the knowledge and experience to help me solve many a problem on my PC.

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During the last 8 weeks I have been able to continue to study under extreme pressure, with moving home, and my partner being pregnant with our first child, getting the baby room sorted out decorating etc, and not to mention constant shopping for new things for the house, and to add more a close relative (gran) passing away, and this not being the end of it my work has had me training 3 new employees in the last 6 weeks, so I have had to draw up a training schedule for each employee. With so little time I have had to myself, to fit in my course I have stayed up till early hours of the morning, and I'm now finaly sat my next assesment.

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I believe that I deserve student of the month as this has probably been the best month of studying since I took up my job back in August last year. I say this as once I started my job I didn't concentrate on studying as much as I did before getting the job. That's why this year I have set myself a target to study for at least a minimum of 7 hours a week as I was not pleased with my own attitude towards studying. Since I have started studying again it has been hard to get back on track, at the beginning of the month I submitted a TMA and it showed that I hadn't studied for a while and I got a disgraceful score of just 48%, I say disgraceful as previous to this TMA my average TMA mark was 89%. This score has made me even more determined to get back into studying to how I use to study as I want to get my score back up to my average, with this I re-studied the whole section in detail going over it all several times to make sure I understood everything and that it made sense, 7 days later and I have now received my new score of 82%, this is a big relief for my and it shows me that when I do really put in the hours to study I will get the results that I require and wish to achieve. I am currently studying very hard on the next section of the course as I wish to keep my scores up and to pass the TMA first time round.

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Mum of a 2 year old and pregnant again yet managing to study..haven't had much sleep but determined to finish the course.being a wife and a mum on top of learning to drive and being a student is hard to juggle but where there is a will there is a way

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I have acheived my goal of gaining 70% in my first course work, even though I have a family of four children under the age of sixteen. I am also doing a course in english, so it is very time consuming for me. I know that I have done my best and will continue to do so until I've completed my course.

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As a student of A+ (PC hardware and Maintenance) I have studied throughout and finished most of the assignments with nearly 100% marks. Even though I haven't taken the exams, I am still able to get a job as a CSO (Computer Support Officer). Where I solve problems on the computers and help out processing staff on IT applications. This is like dream come true. This would have been impossible without doing the course with the collage. Now I can imagine, passing the exams will boost my chance to gain a decent job in IT field. I intended to pass my exam by end of February but I had to rearrange it for some personal reason. Hopefully I will pass exams with good marks within next couple of months.

I know a few people, who have done this course with different organisations; they are still finding it difficult to understand the important part of the course. Also they had fewer assignments then what I have completed with the college. When I checked with them and their material, I found that they weren't given the course material with the necessary details. The lack of the information is costing them in terms of the knowledge they obtained for the A+ part.

All the admin staffs and tutors are always helpful to me. I have noticed on many occasions that the tutors are always willing to go the extra mile to help me out on any problem with my study and in any practical work I carry out on my home pc, even though some time my work is not completely related to the course.

I must say that by joining the “Skills Train” I have taken a big step forward for a bright future.

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In a short time of starting this course I have achieved something I never dreamt about good results in my assignments. Being a one parent family I have to put the effort I have into this to achieve the best for my family and to do this and look after my family on my own is an achievement on its own. My family are proud and they are right behind me in everything I do. They wish me luck.

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Re-building my PC after a catastrophic failure.

At first, I thought it was just another day at the office, but after all was said and done, and I closed the front door, glad to be home, I wondered

There was a distinct smell of “Burning”, you know that electrical arcing smell, I went on the hunt, determined to find the source. It didn't take long, to find the source, my P.C. screen was blank, and the hard drive seek light was flashing like a strobe. I found it strange that the DVD Rom light was also flashing at an alarming rate, and as I neared the offending article, I could hear rapid “Clicking”.

O.K. don't panic, keep calm and approach it logically. First switch the machine off, and then see what's going on. When I switched on the screen, there was nothing, so I tried a forced shutdown, strange, nothing there either, no response. O.K. main power switch to off, everything went quiet. Well let's see if those hours of studying have taught you anything!

I cleared a working space, armed myself with an anti-static band, three screwdrivers, pliers, (long nosed of course), a notebook, pen, multi meter, and torch. Disconnecting the machine from the mains, I started to disassemble the side casing, and then attached my earth strap. I carried out a visual inspection of the motherboard, and although I couldn't see any obvious signs of burning, I did notice that one of the chips seemed to be a funny shape, with the top of it being curved, or bubbled. I worked methodically through the Power supply, checking voltages +5v only reading +2.1v, +3V reading +1.1v. So the power supply and the motherboard were both showing signs of damage/failure. I did some internet research, only to find that a common problem with my particular brand and model of P.C. were prone to a triple failure of the PSU, motherboard, and Processor.

I made notes as I went through, and after some research, decided that as my machine was almost 3 years old, I could replace the Motherboard, Processor, and PSU with a current model/standard, almost as cheaply as I could replace them with the old standard. I decided that as I use the machine for 3D CAD applications, a 64 bit processor, or dual core processor would be a minimum standard to apply. A trip to the local Maplin store produced an almost unbeatable offer on an AMD 64 bit motherboard and processor bundle, and the PSU was also on special offer. A few checks to ensure that memory etc was compatible, and I was soon parted from my hard earned cash.

Armed with new found confidence, a new motherboard etc, I set about the re-build. Having just completed the section on building your own, or upgrading your PC, I was confident, although apprehensive. I stripped the old unit down, and carefully checking and marking the cables to the motherboard, I was soon in a position to remove the old Board. I checked the spacers, and ensured that they lined up properly, ensured that the fan was cleaned, I started the re-build. I was able to fit the new board by sliding the DVD drive forward, but without removing it completely, and replacing the PSU first was good, with plenty of room for manoeuvre. All in all it took me just over 2 hours start to finish, for the actual re-build, but I had spend hours planning and preparing. The whole experience was slightly scary, and at times a little unnerving, but really fulfilling, and has given my confidence a great boost. I know that I wouldn't have had the guts to do this 5 months ago, but now I know I could quite happily tackle it again.

Thanks for giving me the skills I needed.

Bill Ross

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Ive been studying the course for a month and a half now and im acheiving around 80% in each assignment, which is a real supprise to me. what I have learnt so far has helped me to sort out problems with my home pc and friends with regards to motherboard faliures. Being able to diagnose a problem, a replace the required hardware and configure it to run again.

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To start with I really did not have any good formal qualifications, and often felt like I was not good enough for any good jobs, restricting myself to warehousing job which were not permanent.
I left college to move to leicester having family problems, I found myself really confused about what to do with my life, I couldn't go to college as I was working night shifts five nights a week.
I have found skillstrain course on a newspaper advert, applied online within a week they phoned my up arranged an interview and got enrolled on comptia A+/N+/ccNA.
I must say that enrolling on the course was one of the best thing that ever happened to me or could ever happen to me.I could study at my own pace,which meant I could study whenever I had the time, and it was stress free
because of the skillstrain course I knew I couldn't go wrong as I could see the reward coming out of this.
thank goodness for skillstrain team, getting words of encouragement from the tutors everything I have sumited TMA gave me the confidence and made me work hard.
Because of that and my determination I got 100% TMA score this month alone, and my TMA score averge 93%.

I would recomend anyone to enroll on any of the the skillstrain courses, with a little bit of hard work & the expert help of the tutors.. trust me you can't go wrong

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Managed to read the booklets at least once a week.I can now construct a computer on my own by buying parts from shops, I installed the operating system, upgraded the system BIOS and can now understand how to check for faults in a computer.

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I must confess I was not very hopeful in the beginning of the course as there are so many out there offering courses but not producing quality or results.
A few months on and boy was I wrong, my computer knowledge has gone from an unknowing person to someone who can talk with pc tech helplines over the phone. This happend recently with a network problem I had, I spoke to 3 different people and none could help me, thanks to this course though I managed to check a few things and presto, I sorted it myself.
All I can say is, it May seem that skills train are offering you the same as the other companies but I can asure you that what they offer is real. I have already learned so much.

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I THINK I HAVE REALLY ACHIEVED A GOOD RESULT AS I AM WORKING UNDER PRESSURE AND STILL GETTING GOOD RESULT WITH THE COURSE WORK.I DON'T HAVE TIME TO STUDY AT HOME AT ALL,I DO STUDY IN A BUS ON MY WAY TO WORK AND ALSO SOMETIMES MY BREAK TIMES.FOR ME IT HAS NOT BEEN EASY AT ALL AS YOU CAN IMAGINED THE DISTURBANCES AROUND ESPECIALLY IN A BUS.

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Knowing only the basics of computers, I feel that I have surpased my own expectations in obtaining the knowledge that I can suceed in obtaing a great career in i.t .

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I have change jobs since I started my course work, and the shift patterns are different. I do a early shift, a mid shift, a late shift and that why I can't visit Student World as regular as I would like. And also on my day's off I'm decorating the inlaws full house, whislt doing all this I'm still studying my course work and I'm still achieving a high pass rate in my TMA's . Just last week I built three computers for the local Salvation Army hall which runs a club every Wednesday for kids, ages from 5yrs to 13yrs.

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As a student of A+ (PC hardware and Maintenance) I have studied throughout and finished most of the assignments with nearly 100% marks. Even though I haven't taken the exams, I am still able to get a job as a CSO (Computer Support Officer). Where I solve problems on the computers and help out processing staff on IT applications. This is like dream come true. This would have been impossible without doing the course with the college. Now I can imagine, passing the exams will boost my chance to gain a decent job in IT field. I intended to pass my exam by end of February but I had to rearrange it for some personal reason. Hopefully I will pass exams with good marks within next couple of months.

I know a few people, who have done this course with different organisations; they are still finding it difficult to understand the important part of the course. Also they had fewer assignments then what I have completed with the collage. When I checked with them and their material, I found that they weren't given the course material with the necessary details. The lack of the information is costing them in terms of the knowledge they obtained for the A+ part.

All the admin staffs and tutors are always helpful to me. I have noticed on many occasions that the tutors are always willing to go the extra mile to help me out on any problem with my study and in any practical work I carry out on my home pc, even though some time my work is not completely related to the course.

I must say that by joining the “Skills Train” I have taken a big step forward for a bright future.

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Completed a £7 million project to network all Care Managers (Health Service) in Finland using a central Oracle database based in Reading. The project took 1 year to design, build and implement and the work load was shared equalled between 3 of us at WebReach Ltd. My main responsibilities included Network Infra-structure design and implementation. The system means that care managers in Finland will be able to monitor their patients progress (bad or good) on various projects like CVD or Diabetes. This information will then be used by the Finish Government to create a better health care system for patients with serious and usually terminal conditions.

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Since I started this course I have learn a lot about basics of PC and its intresting to learn. As I am working full time its very difficult for me to study but anyway I am trying to do my best to achieve my objective.

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