You are correct, the 3 day CCSA course it $3250 and the CCSE course is $3250. I apologize for being pedantic. My point was that as a person who wants to certify, with a lot of red tape and hurdles at his company to get official training, I simply cannot afford on my own to pay for the official courses.
For Palo Alto, I was referring to their study guides, the PCNSE is over 200 pages specifically for the cert, available for anyone to download for free. And Palo Alto certainly does offer free courses, although your company needs to be a partner. Through Beacon, many courses are available, with a whole track for PCNSE.
I've been trying for 8 months to use our company credits, so far to no avail. So I am just trying to do it on my own. The ekits mentioned above look very promising, and I have requested that. If I cannot get it through my company, then I will likely purchase it on my own.
I apologize if I sound argumentative, I am just frustrated at my company, where I support many customers with Check Point devices, and our partner status is tied to having certified professionals, but getting the required training to get certified is becoming very frustrating. Coupled with the fact that you cannot just buy a CCSE book, like you can for everything Cisco, I just feel that Check Point could do a little better in trying to further their certified user base.
I for one prefer to study and learn on my own. I have a great home lab, and use it extensively for learning and testing. I would just like something to guide my studies.
