In which I update you on my educational progress.

As you know, I went back to school full-time this fall. I’m taking 4 courses: Windows Client, Linux +, Cisco Certified Network Associate (all online-only, via TestOut LabSim), and CCNA Exploration (also online, but with a classroom/lab component). The term is over next Thursday.

I’ve finished all the coursework for the Windows class and taken all the tests. I have one chapter and the tests left for the Linux + course; I expect to finish that tonight. I’ve done all the coursework for CCNA Exploration, and have a final next Thursday that I need to STUDY MY ASS OFF FOR. I have SEVEN CHAPTERS AND ALL THE TESTS remaining in the Cisco course. Gah.

So, yeah, I’m a tad bit behind, but if I do very little else besides study I should be fine will probably make it, barely. I have an entire week, and no gigs this weekend to keep me away.

Intellectually, I feel like it’s a bit harder to learn than it used to be, but I’m not sure if that’s really my experience or if I just think that because I read it somewhere. I get frustrated when I take a chapter quiz and don’t recognize the answer (sometimes I swear the test questions are on information not covered in the chapter). Overall, though, I have a bunch more information in my brain than I did in September, so that’s something. How much of it will stick – like which of the six versions of Vista support BitLocker, for instance – is another matter. I suspect it isn’t really important.

When I was having issues with subnetting, I went to see my instructor and he couldn’t really explain how to do it. I ended up spending about six hours reading subnetting information online before I finally found a paragraph written in such a way that I was able to understand it… my trouble is finding network IPs.

In the tests, you’ll be given an IP and a mask, and you’re supposed to be able to tell what the network and broadcast IP addresses are. I can’t find a shortcut; the only way I can do it is to convert into binary and back. That not only takes me FOREVER (I suck at math), but it seems stupid to me.

Here’s an example:

You’re given 160.156.67.148/26, and you’re supposed to be able to determine the network IP. To do that, since this isn’t a Class C subnet, is to convert to binary:

10100000.10011100.01000011.10010100

Count over 26 bits:

10100000.10011100.01000011.10010100

Change the remaining bits to 0:

10100000 10011100 01000011 10000000

And convert back. This process gives you your network IP:

160.156.67.128

Your subnet mask, which you just have to freakin’ memorize, is:

255.255.255.192

There has GOT to be a better way. Oh, right: there is! IT’S CALLED A FUCKING SUBNETTING CALCULATOR!

I spent ten years working at ISPs and never once needed to know how to do this manually. Apparently, if you really know your shit, you can afford to skip a subnetting question or three and still pass your certifications (which I’m no longer so certain I want to sit for) but that isn’t exactly how one wants to be, is it? I’d rather know how to do it, without it taking me 27 minutes.

In the LabSims, one can take chapter and final tests over and over until they’ve been passed. It usually takes me two times, sometimes three, to pass a test or final. I have no idea how that will affect my final grades in those courses. In the Exploration class, my chapter final grades range from 72% to 98%; I’m all over the place.

Some of this stuff I already know, some of it I think I know but, when I take the tests, I find out don’t, and some of it is new. If I hadn’t been in the field for so long I think I would have dropped out about two weeks ago because much of the information seems utterly inscrutable and the only thing that saves me is perspective due to prior exposure. (I feel sorry for kids taking this shit out of high school. It’s all taught from an “in the old days” standpoint, and one has to learn all kinds of obsolete information in terms of how things used to work and superseded protocols. The belief seems to be that it’s needed to build a framework upon. I’m not sure I agree.)

Long story short, I’m behind and freakin’ out a little, but I’ll probably pass all my courses, even if not with the grades I’d prefer to have.

In other words, I need to quit messing around with my blog and finish that Linux + course so I can buckle down on the CCNA cramming!

Update: I’m taking one of the six practice tests in my Linux + course. There are a SHITLOAD of questions that were simply not covered in the course material. I’m on question 80 of 150 and I’ve long ago flunked the holy hell out of the thing. I watched every single video in the course, did every single lab, and read every single PDF, and this is really pissing me off. Obviously I need to brush up on my switches and syntax, okay, that’s fine, I can live with that because it was COVERED, but the rest of these questions are crazy-making! (And yes, I can prove the stuff wasn’t covered because I saved all the PDFs into a directory and when I search for keywords from the questions, nothing comes up! Ergo, NOT COVERED!) ARRRRGH!