Here goes nothing!!

muchw0w

Hey y'all!

So after spending the last few days weeding through the vast amount of certs available, I've decided the next one I am going to slay is the 70-680. Those of you who have taken this exam; are there any areas that caught you off guard that I might need to pay special attention? Secondly, I am paying for these exams out of my own pocket. So far I've spent about 450 on the two exams and book required for the A+. These Microsoft exams cost about 150 each. I've seen several threads talking about writing the cost off on your taxes, but has anyone here ACTUALLY done that? Was it worth it? I mean realistically one could easily spend a thousand or more just on certs in a year if they worked hard enough on knocking them out. As always, thanks for the input and help!!

culpano

I am doing the 70-680 exam in December after passing 70-687. I bought second hand versions of the Official MS MOAC course book and lab books. These books are really superb and ten times better than struggling through the green exam ref book that I did for 70-687. I also subscribe to CBT Nuggets and Pluralsight but if you look on Youtube, Professer Messer does complete course of free videos for 70-680 and it's very hands-on.

I also have a lab setup using VirtualBox with a Windows Server 2008 R2 and several Windows 7 clients.

Make you you do a lot of hands on stuff. I spent two weeks alone trying to fathom out all the different automated deployment options (using WDS, MDT, Lite Touch, PXE boot, using IMAGEX etc).

Not sure what the exam content will be like but if it is similar to the Windows 8.1 exam I'm fairly confident. I bought one of the test exam packs and I found a lot of the questions to be ridiculous and impossible but felt the real MS exam to be fair and just tested me on stuff that I would only learn by doing it hands on and not stupid obscure questions on stuff that would hardly ever be used in real situations.

Good luck.

muchw0w

Thanks for the suggestions I will check out CBT Nuggets and Pluralsight. I found Professor Messer while I was studying for my A+. I really like how he covers the material. I just bought a second hand copy of Win 7 Config Study Guide by Sybex to read through - they did a pretty decent job with the A+ Study Guide. My biggest weakness right now is that I lack a Lab to have hands on experience with. Although soon Im going to build a budget PC that I can use Virtual Box on so that I can actually apply some of this knowledge. Any ways, best of luck on the exam, let me know how it goes!!

mikes88

Good Luck! It is very doable! I completed this certification a few years ago using CBT nuggets, VCE exam practice tests, and Professor Messer. Remember to LAB EVERYTHING with Professor Messer, I found his videos the most helpful in passing this test(s) makes sure to follow along!

JasminLandry

I did that exam 2 years ago and nothing really caught me off guard. There is just a huge amount of material (wasn't expecting a 900 page book). For me it was worth it taking that exam since I learned a whole bunch and it helped me get a job. And it's funny you're talking about prices, yesterday evening I calculated how much money I spent on exams in my 3 year IT career and it's just over 4 100$! But my salary has doubled in 3 years, so definitely worth it. I live in Canada but I was able to put it on my taxes

gespenstern

I'd say that it was harder than I expected though I passed it in 1st attempt after reading a thick book and practicing for ~2 months. Lots of questions on rarely used stuff, such as verifier.exe, dism.exe, driver prestaging, MDT/WDS/deployment stuff, compatibility options/shims, etc. Be prepared, it's not as easy as it may sound.

Pseudonym

mikes88 wrote: »

Good Luck! It is very doable! I completed this certification a few years ago using CBT nuggets, VCE exam practice tests, and Professor Messer. Remember to LAB EVERYTHING with Professor Messer, I found his videos the most helpful in passing this test(s) makes sure to follow along!

VCEs are usually brain ****.. so if that is the case it's no wonder you passed..

gespenstern

Pseudonym wrote: »

VCEs are usually brain ****.. so if that is the case it's no wonder you passed..

No worries. If so he's gonna fail his interview. I'm a pretty cruel person on this and tend to thoroughly review candidates' resumes and ask them questions on what they claim to be proficient at and almost all my colleagues do the same. Never lie on your interview.