In the university environment where I worked, people who took vendor-specific classes and certification courses were looked down upon. You were expected to teach yourself or learn by example from more experienced people. I found the Braindump site quite interesting because it has the latest information on a particular test.
People attempt to recreate the entire test from memory immediately after taking it.
I had to constantly restrict my thinking to the features offered by Microsoft products, even if the question was presented as a generic networking question. The MCSE certification means something to clients and employers. Getting an MCSE establishes a kind of baseline, or metric, of knowledge that people can point to. By Eric Pearce I have been doing various forms of UNIX system and network administration for 14 years. When I first became aware of the MCSE program, I ignored it.