Attending the course is mandatory if you are planning to get the VCP-DCV certification. As a beginning you can watch the training videos VMware Learning and sped some time on building the product. So when you attend the instructor training it will help you better and clear your doubts which you may have.
Products are available for evaluation so you build some lab based on workstation. Use this as a starting point for building lab
http://boerlowie.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/building-the-ultimate-vsphere-lab-part-1-the-story/