A friend of mine and I both recently took the nitrox class.
He took the PADI course and I took the SSI course.
I know both of the instructors and they are more than qualified.
That being said our classes were very different.
I bought my study kit 3 weeks prior to the class because I had some out of town stuff scheduled and wanted the read.
In my class there was only one other guy and he also had the books for a few weeks so we knew the material.
We breezed through the chapters and then filled and tested some bottles that the shop needed filling. I really appreciated that part. After that we took our test and were done.
The class took about 4 hours and the instructor told us not to trip on the time because he would spend as much time as we needed to learn this even if it took a few days.
The class cost about $95. and I think another $50 if we wanted to do water work.
My friend Cameron's PADI class took 2 full evenings,2 half days diving and cost $150.
His class had 6 students in it.
He wasn't offered the chance to fill bottles but he did do testing/labeling.
Cameron is a good friend and after we critiqued our classes he thought I got the better education due to me being able to have the material earlier,class size and mainly because I got to do some (different) fills.
I don't think the agency is as important as the instructor.
mech