70-695, 70-696

pizziecrust

Hello,

I know this is the wrong section but wasnt completely sure what section to post this in. Has anyone taken and passed 70-695(6) for MCSE in Enterprise Devices and Apps? I'm currently working on 695 and just wanted to hear some experiences and tips/study material is possible. There seems to be a lack of info/reviews/experiences regarding these exams.

Thanks!

pizziecrust

56 views and no one has done this MCSE? Incredible lol.

Smilymarco

I plan to take the 695 later this year (not booked yet)... Material: MVA, reading Technet (a LOT) and labbing even much more

Opalfruit

Just passed 70-695.

Used the official text book, Pluralsight (free Visual Studio Developer subscription) and MeasureUp Practise tests. 52 Questions, 5 or 6 scenarios, the rest all stand alone questions. Reading the scenarios and the various sections is a bit clunky and takes up time flicking between sections.

It was a mix of multiple choice, drag and drop in order, complete the command line. One question was almost Identical to a Windows 8.1 exam question.

Worth a watch: https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/mcpexamprep/70-695--70-696-for-MCSE-Enterprise-Devices-and-Apps-Part-1-of-2

The exam was wide spread of the objectives and technologies referenced. You do need hands on experience with the tools to get through the exam. The following is a list of what I think you need to know from my experience

Understand Deployment Points and how to configure
Understand Deployment Types and how to create and modify
WDS - Boot images, setup and troubleshooting.
MDT pre-requisites
MDT and CM Integration
MAP Toolkit, user accounts and requirements
Licensing: KMS, MAK and AD - Pros and cons, when to use. A lot of question on these.
Office 2013 and Click to run deployment and .xml files. A lot of questions.
User State Migration
VDI, RemoteApp vs App-v - Pros and cons, when to use.
ACT - deploying fixes

Know your command line tools, these were tested quite heavily, at least 2 questions each scenario. You also need a good understanding of DNS, DHCP and AD for the scenarios.

WDSUTIL
DISM
Powershell or CM, WDS, Image Management.

Hope this helps.

pizziecrust

That is quite a lot to study - how long did you take to prepare and how many tries did it take?

pizziecrust

Also, how similar is the exam compared to the Measureup practice exam? Thanks!

Opalfruit

I passed on the first attempt. It took me about 2 months to prepare. Built a virtual test lab and worked my way through each of deployment methods and read the 70-695 book through twice and reviewed the technet pages referenced (the slimming down of MS books by referring to the technet pages is disappointing). Ran through practice tests for the last month to steer me and review sections I was weak on. It also helps I have a lot of experience with MDT and work with SCCM.

It may seem daunting but the technologies are complementary. If you've got the Windows 8.1 or 10 MCSA you should be in a good place to start on this exam.

The MeasureUp exams are similar, they emulate the format very well and are a good guide to areas you need to study or may need to focus on more. I found it very useful, it's not a brain **** to be memorised. The exam requires you to read and quickly identify the key elements of the scenarios and you keep having to refer back to each section to each question - it's a pain that you can't have the scenarios and question on the same screen so you find yourself flicking back and forth a lot. I finished with 10 minutes to spare so I think practising the exam format helped a lot.

Opalfruit

Prepping for 70-696 within the next two weeks. Anyone got any guidance or advice? The Official text book is very dry and not very practical so about to do a lot of lab work.

justinderouin

I am also interested in these 2 exams 695,696 I recently got my MCSA for Windows 10 and currently finishing Security +. I intend to start studying for 695 in less then 2 months. I will return when finished taking exam.

Judgeman

I just passed the 695 this weekend. Now on to the 696. Pretty sure I'm gonna be done with Microsoft for awhile after this.

culpano

Congrats Opelfruit and Judgeman. I am currently studying for 70-695. The Pluralsight videos are excellent and the MS virtual labs work 100% with the training material. I've struggled several times trying to install SCCM so reverted to downloading the excellent set of VHDs. I also work with SCCM so that helps.

Opalfruit

Thanks. I keep getting distracted from 70-696 by other work commitments (and another compulsory exam I had to do for work), am just starting to knuckle down getting ready for the exam. I used Prajwal Desai's guides to set up my first SCCM Test lab and also has some useful how to pages for some of the exam objectives.

https://prajwaldesai.com/sccm-2012-r2-step-by-step-guide/

sks.geek

I've recently passed the 70-697 and 70-698 and according to the Microsoft website, all I need to take to get the MCSE- Mobility is one of the following 3 tests: 70-695, 696, or 398. I've been preparing for the 70-695 but am also having trouble getting any decent resources. Thanks for the replies above. These have been very helpful!

segil123

@Judgeman Congrats on your cert. May I ask a question? I'm also studying for the 70-695 exam and am also reading the exam ref guide for this exam. Now I read that since feb 2017 the exam has been updated with regards to Windows 10. How did you find out which topics to study as well? I have read the Exam 70-695 change document, but am not sure how different the new version of this exam is. Did you encounter a lot of questions about Windows 10 in regards to MDT, SCCM, WDS? And perhaps even SCCM 2016+? Thanks.

Opalfruit

Didn't notice the expiry of this Certification. That's annoying.

Note This certification retired on March 31, 2017. Find out about the replacement certification, MCSE: Mobility.

MCSE: Enterprise Devices and Apps Solutions Expert

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/mcse-devices-apps-certification.aspx

Opalfruit

passed 70-696. It was a very interesting exam. The official book is a bit out of date with the content of the exam, it's a good guide to get you started and studying, but you really need to practise and use the command line\powershell tools. I

I was fortunate enough to do the official course and I work with SCCM a lot. Which is why I wanted to pasd this exam to validate my skills, it's annoying the MCSE went end of life though.

sks.geek

@Opalfruit, when you took the 70-695 exam, did you have questions that involved Windows 10 or just Windows 8.1? In the updated objectives list, it doesn't say that Windows 10 is on the exam but I would think that it would be. Thanks for the help!

Opalfruit

Hi sks.geek,

I passed 70-695 last year and it was very much geared towards Windows 8.1, the exam was updated this year, see the link to the changes PDF below:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/C/E/7CE0E3AE-5CEC-4837-A3C7-88631460061B/70-695_OD_Changes.pdf

They've added "use Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer" so I would expect the exam to be updated to reference Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 which are still supported OSs. Which were all referenced in 70-696, which I took after the update.

metaloader

I got the 70-695 tomorrow, Will let you guys know how it went.

metaloader

metaloader wrote: »

I got the 70-695 tomorrow, Will let you guys know how it went.

So I just failed with 575 points.
I haven't had much experience with System Center Configuration Manager and I could clearly see that on the results.

I had 5 case studies which every case studies contains 8 questions.

In total I had 52 questions. Alot of DISM/PowerShell

malachi1612

metaloader wrote: »

So I just failed with 575 points.
I haven't had much experience with System Center Configuration Manager and I could clearly see that on the results.

I had 5 case studies which every case studies contains 8 questions.

In total I had 52 questions. Alot of DISM/PowerShell

Dame, it does look tough. You going for a retake?

sks.geek

I took it in July and failed with a 550 or so. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it was, but I think the format of it was the worst part. The 70-695 that is. I'm retaking it later this month though.

metaloader

malachi1612 wrote: »

Dame, it does look tough. You going for a retake?

I might do a retake because I have a free retake.
This time I'll be installing SCCM on a Hyper-V VM to test alot of stuff with images + MDT + WDS + SCCM

Opalfruit

Sorry to hear you didn't pass Metaloader. You definitely need to know your command line tools and the switches for both exams, and even though I've worked with SCCM, WDS and MDT I really had to drill into tools and command lines I never used in work before I even felt confident enough to even take the exam. There's hell of a lot to take in.


The Pluralsight videos were excellent (and free via the Dev susbcription), seriously worth reviewing.

Phalanx

OK, so I've started work on the 70-695. I've found a few resources so far:

- Pluralsight videos
- Microsoft Exam Ref book
- Microsoft Virtual Academy
- Microsoft Channel 9 on MSDN

Anything else you guys think is useful for 70-695?

Opalfruit

Hi Phalanx,

The resources listed are okay, but can get very tedious, I broke it up with some complimentary lab work - I used the following to build a virtual test instance:https://prajwaldesai.com/sccm-2012-r2-step-by-step-guide/ and also had a trial of MS Intune (which has changed beyond recognition, learn the concepts and tools).

Look at the Technet pages referenced in the Exam Ref book of the areas for more depth - the book is just a basic guide to studying for the exam, it misses out on a lot of detail and practical skills required to pass the exam.

I found 70-695 easier than 70-696, it felt like a natural progression from Windows 8.1 study.

Learn both how to achieve objectives in the GUI, the command lines and powershell cmdlets

Phalanx wrote: »

OK, so I've started work on the 70-695. I've found a few resources so far:

- Pluralsight videos
- Microsoft Exam Ref book
- Microsoft Virtual Academy
- Microsoft Channel 9 on MSDN

Anything else you guys think is useful for 70-695?

Phalanx

Thank you for the advice.