My journey to MCITP (70-686 stage)
Hey guys.
Some of you may have seen me about on the Windows 7 section of the TE forums. I may have helped you or given advice for your 70-680 exams, or poked my head in to a random chat now and again (yes I can be annoying like that!), but with the new year started I am starting to knuckle down and get this 686 exam over with.
This forum is just going to be my journey towards the MCITP certification, and I will be updating it now and again right up to my exam date (which isn't even booked yet, but plan to have this done by the end of Feb). If any of you are planning on doing your 686 (or even 685), then I hope this can be of some help to you all. Feel free to comment or ask questions, and I will be sharing all of my tips and advice from my own experience.
I've been preparing some notes and resources over the past month or two, but I'm trying to get serious with this now. I used a lot of good resources for my 680, but unfortunately not a lot are available like Professor Messer
so I'm going solo on this. Also seeing some of the old posts on this forum, this exam isn't going to be easy, but hey ho, let's give it a go
.
These are the resources I will be using:
- CBT Nuggets 70-686 Video Course (consists of 20 videos).
- Darril Gibson's Desktop Support and Administration Book for 685 and 686.
- 70-686 Study Notes (kindly supplied by srabiee on these forums).
Time to start studying!
Some of you may have seen me about on the Windows 7 section of the TE forums. I may have helped you or given advice for your 70-680 exams, or poked my head in to a random chat now and again (yes I can be annoying like that!), but with the new year started I am starting to knuckle down and get this 686 exam over with.
This forum is just going to be my journey towards the MCITP certification, and I will be updating it now and again right up to my exam date (which isn't even booked yet, but plan to have this done by the end of Feb). If any of you are planning on doing your 686 (or even 685), then I hope this can be of some help to you all. Feel free to comment or ask questions, and I will be sharing all of my tips and advice from my own experience.
I've been preparing some notes and resources over the past month or two, but I'm trying to get serious with this now. I used a lot of good resources for my 680, but unfortunately not a lot are available like Professor Messer


These are the resources I will be using:
- CBT Nuggets 70-686 Video Course (consists of 20 videos).
- Darril Gibson's Desktop Support and Administration Book for 685 and 686.
- 70-686 Study Notes (kindly supplied by srabiee on these forums).
Time to start studying!
Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to. - Richard Branson
Comments
I passed the exam using the same resources you used, and TechNet.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-70-686.aspx
If you look at the 'Skills Measured', you will see links to TechNet articles, I highly suggest you read those. Make sure you understand the tools and syntax's (DISM for example).
That was my hesitation during the time I studied for the 70-680 exam and nearly lost motivation to see it through. But the reason why I continued was because Windows 7 is used in my current workplace and still quite popular.
We've got about 3 years to gain newer Microsoft certs until MS stops support for Windows 7.
Good luck Sky.
Gotcha Nisseki,
To the OP, good luck, its a lot easier than 680, that's for damn sure.
Plus I'll be taking the upgrade path to MCSA Windows Server 2012 (or 2016 if it's available by then?) and I already have the 680, might as well go all the way
Did you find the 686 easier? I would like to think so as the 680 had already covered a lot of ground with the content, but many people are saying it's harder? So far I am finding most of the study notes I got at a basic level, going over IE, Bitlocker and Group Policy. I guess I'll have to keep reading, only at section 7 so far.
You can't upgrade to 2016 from MCITP Win 7, or atleast it's not an option (yet, though I doubt it as Win Srv 2016 is a huge upgrade from 2012, with their azure cloud and new features). But you can for 70-417 (Srv 2012)
Yeah, 680 covers a good portion of it, 686 is more in depth on the tools and process.
I can see that the 686 focuses more on administrative technologies from the 680, such as Bitlocker, Image capturing and deployment, Applocker etc, but expands it in more detail. So instead of just knowing how to capture and deploy an image, you need to understand the full process and 'life cycle' of a system, from start to finish. It also focuses a lot on new material, such as licensing and activation (MAK vs KMS) and who will be receiving the image (Thick vs Thin clients).
I'm going to be using the videos from CBT to clarify this information and fill in any gaps I'm missing. Srabiee's notes really saved me some time preparing for this exam. I've included a link below to his notes on my dropbox folder if anyone wants to view them. They're basically written up notes directly from the CBT nugget video course.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tycyyf5gumb7kex/70-686%20Study%20Notes.pdf?dl=0
Once I've gone through the videos I'll be reviewing information from the Darril Gibson book. Note sure how much I will go through as it's a pretty big book but I will probably just go over anything I'm still unsure about. The book also came with a CD which has a 50 question exam for the 686. Looks like it's only one exam so I will use it closer to my exam date (which I still haven't booked) and see how I do. Any further study will be through MeasureUps at the end as a final prep.
Working on - RHCE
If you're planning on doing this cert just be aware that they are retiring July next year.
http://www.techexams.net/forums/windows-7-exams/124766-update-windows-7-exam-retirement-dates.html
Cheers for the info, saw the retirement dates last week. I'm hoping I can get the pair of them done by summer.
Working on - RHCE
I like to book exams for a Monday as it gives me the whole weekend for a final push on the study, and I thought the 27th March might be a little early, so played it safe.
Practice exams will most likely start around mid March. Going to push a little more with Labs and then test my knowledge on MeasureUps. I've also got a Darril Gibson practice test CD that came with teh book I've got, so might try that first.
Congrats again.
Working on - RHCE
The exam itself had a few difficult points and I may have spent too much time on some of the questions, but a pass is a pass and I came out with a 720. For those trying it without having the 680 you will most likely struggle. It's not impossible, but the MCTS did help me along. Good luck to anyone attempting it. But for me I'm going to enjoy a long break before starting my 70-417
Completed: LYT2, TFT2, JIT2, MCT2, LZT2, SJT2 (17 CU's)
Required: FXT2, MAT2, MBT2, C391, C392 (13 CU's)
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology Network Design & Management (WGU - Completed August 2014)
Your notes were definitely a life saver! It helped to make clear understanding of the CBT videos. Thanks again!
Working on - RHCE
Download links for MDT 2010 Update 1....
Working on - RHCE
Working on - RHCE