Course Differences

[FLAnatic]

I have been programming with LabVIEW for several years and I'm at the point where I would like to eventually become a CLA. I would like to take the Intermediate I+II and Advanced architecture courses to firm up what is necessary to pass the certification exams and just improve my programming style and knowledge in general. There are a few options for the training including instructor led, self paced and online courses, based on the course material covered, are there any differences that might make me choose one or the other or are they identical in that respect?

[Chris Leyen]

I have attended the Basics I & II and the Intermediate I & II Courses. This spring I received the Advanced I Book. I chose not to go to the Advanced course. My intent is to take the CLA exam next year. I thought the Intermediate Courses were great. They are fast-paced. You should not expect to retain all the material immediately. But by being exposed to so much, you can gain from those experiences later while coding LV. Whether to go to the course probably depends on your experience level. The Intermediate does have some complex exercises for someone who has just passed the CLAD. If this is you, then I would go to the instructor led course because of the hands on help to get you through any bumps. Have you passed the CLD Exam yet? If you have comfortably passed the CLD, then I would consider just getting the books. However, it is nice to get away from work for a week and just focus on learning.

I thought I could gain just as much from the Advanced book alone, because the CLA seems to be more conceptual knowledge and overall project management. There aren't as many examples to work out and I have enough LabVIEW programmers around me to bounce ideas off.

I would recommend looking through NI's site because they do have a fair amount of info on these courses if you haven't already.

Good Luck!

[Götz Becker]

QUOTE (c.LEyen @ Nov 5 2008, 08:14 PM)

I thought I could gain just as much from the Advanced book alone, because the CLA seems to be more conceptual knowledge and overall project management. There aren't as many examples to work out and I have enough LabVIEW programmers around me to bounce ideas off.

I would recommend looking through NI's site because they do have a fair amount of info on these courses if you haven't already.

A good overview over the exam topics can be found at "http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5892' target="_blank">How Can I Prepare for the Certified LabVIEW Architect (CLA) Exam?".

The examples in the LV Adv I Manuals are good to quickly get the concepts you can use in the exam.

One thing I would miss when only reading the book is the discussions about various advanced topics of LV programming which usually happen during the 3 days of the course.