Will these e-learning options help me pass 70-687?

manc

Hi, I am hoping to become MCSA this year, so I was wondering if you guys could offer an opinion on whether the below is enough to pass 70-687 initially then moving onto 70-685 & 70-686.

My thoughts are to subscribe to Pluralsight and work my way through Tony Northrup - Windows 8 Configuring (70-687) Part 1,2,3 & 4 training, in addition to this I will also subscribe to GetCertified4Less for the Transender practice tests.

Am I on the right lines above or should I consider other methods of training?

Thanks.

unityman

and born to learn MS virtual labs. Windows 8 Training: Planning & Preparation-Microsoft Virtual Academy

manc

unityman wrote: »

and born to learn MS virtual labs. Windows 8 Training: Planning & Preparation-Microsoft Virtual Academy

Thanks so much for you assistance, I was about to add comment about not having a reply

I'm waiting for my Prince 2 Foundation results and soon after I will be studying for 70-687. There is a notice at the top of the video saying this training will be retired on the 30th Apr 2015 , will there be something to replace this course?

Maybe a little background and where I hope to be will invoke some assistance, I have worked in computer hardware for a number of years, far too many to admit but it paid the bills, its now time to take the next step up which is becoming MCSA certififed. I have a good background when it comes to Windows 7 and all the surrounding aspects relating to hardware. I have maintained a network infrastructure for a number of years and believe myself to have good knowledge but it is all knowledge I have learnt on the job, so now I would like to formalize this knowledge by achieving the appropriate MS certifications.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

XxNooniexX

manc wrote: »

Thanks so much for you assistance, I was about to add comment about not having a reply

I'm waiting for my Prince 2 Foundation results and soon after I will be studying for 70-687. There is a notice at the top of the video saying this training will be retired on the 30th Apr 2015 , will there be something to replace this course?

Maybe a little background and where I hope to be will invoke some assistance, I have worked in computer hardware for a number of years, far too many to admit but it paid the bills, its now time to take the next step up which is becoming MCSA certififed. I have a good background when it comes to Windows 7 and all the surrounding aspects relating to hardware. I have maintained a network infrastructure for a number of years and believe myself to have good knowledge but it is all knowledge I have learnt on the job, so now I would like to formalize this knowledge by achieving the appropriate MS certifications.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

Hey Manc,

I think your level of experience will be a great help to you here. You’ll know some of the basic principles just from that. However, there is a lot more depth to Windows 8.1 than meets the eye as there are multiple ways of carrying out certain tasks and probably a few things that Windows 8 that you didn’t know were available to do (taking into account that you said you work with Windows 7 at the moment) so I’d definitely be prepared to learn a fair bit before you take the exams.

I think that your method of using both Pluralsight and Transender is a great way to go. The videos by Tony Northrup are quite useful for an overview and if you don’t have a Windows 8 machine in front of you, it can be useful to get a feel for navigating around it. However there are two things I think needs to be said for the videos (considering I have used them myself for my studies). The first one being that although they’re very good for an overview, I don’t think that they (or in fact any single resource on its own) is enough to pass the course. I would definitely look into other resources as well to get the knowledge that you need. Secondly, the Pluralsight videos only cover the topics for regular Windows 8 and not Windows 8.1 which the exam has been updated to cover. There are a few extras included that aren’t covered on these videos and I highly recommend you brush up on those as they won’t be covered in the videos. From this link https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-687.aspx , go to the hyperlink that says “content covered in Windows 8.1” and you can get a .pdf file detailing what has been added into the exam.

The Transender exams will be a huge asset to you when you go to do your studying, especially if you haven’t actually taken a Microsoft exam before ( I know this from experience as this will be the first one that I will have taken). One thing I wold say though is don’t be disheartened if you get a low score on your first, second or even your third time. These exams are hard and you really don’t know what to expect until you’re faced with one.

One thing that really threw me when I took my first practice test was the large amount of command line and Powershell commands in the exam, despite the fact that the books and videos didn’t seem to cover them in much detail. Another thing that shocked me is exactly how much detail was involved in them, you really have got to know your stuff to pass it. To combat this, I highly recommend that you go to https://technet.microsoft.com/library/default.aspx and go through the information on there. It is much more in depth and covers just about everything you’ll need to know (with a bit of rummaging around for certain topics!). I also agree with what Unityman has said, you really want to consider having a play around with virtual labs to prepare. You can either find those from Born To Learn like he suggested, or you could download a trial of Windows 8 and put it on a virtual machine. Think experience and multiple resources is the key here.

Best of Luck!

XxNooniexX

manc

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my post, your feedback in invaluable and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

My progress so far:-

Based on your advise and what I already knew I have purchased the test exams from Transcender, boy oh boy are some of the questions thrown up with this test exam tough, I thought I was quite knowledgeable when it came to Windows but no, I'm only scratching the surface!

Pluralsight & Tony Northup Windows 8 videos are pretty awesome, they go into quite a bit of detail which I was not expecting, I often find myself pausing the video and replicating the subject I am on with a dummy machine I have, doing this does reinforce my learning and I hope it sticks!

CBTNuggets & Anthony Sequeira videos on 8.1 have also been helpful, although they dont go into the same level of detail as Tony's video they are still pretty good. Anthony is quite amusing and does often make me laugh.

I have now purchased the offical Microsoft Exam Ref 70-687: Configuring Windows 8.1 book, starting to work my way through this now, this is tough going and like alot of comments about this book it doesnt quite go into alot of detail which I was half expecting but still worthwhile going through.

I keep putting in a couple of hours everyday but holding down a fulltime job & 23mth old can make this hard to achieve, but I am not letting up and promised myself I must spend at least an hour a day on studying.

Again thanks so much for your assistance.