Struggling for 70-532/3/4 study materials

I wondered what study materials people here have used recently for the Azure cloud exams from Microsoft, namely 70-532/533/534.

I have the official Microsoft book for the exams (70-532 and 533) but I'm finding they are almost useless as the information is very out of date in spite of being less than a year old. I tried to buy the 70-534 book this week but it has been discontinued and I cannot even buy it as an ebook from Amazon, with physical copies at crazy money (over £200 for some of the 2015 versions although the 2016 version is a tenth of that).

The issue seems to be that the course material had a major revision a few months ago to catch up with the constantly evolving Azure environment but Microsoft don't even stock the books themselves so it is hard to find a good place to start.

I have the CBT Nuggets courses for these and the Microsoft official training course material (courtesy of a trainer) so between the blueprint and these I hope to get through.

For those who completed this recently, what have you used to get through the exam?

Thanks.

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tbgree00

I have a trial to Linux Academy and used those videos. They were a good overview. I also learned a little powershell and paid a lot of attention to those parts of LA. Knowing the Azure PowerShell syntax is critical.

EagerDinosaur

I'm preparing for 70-532, and not impressed with the official MS 70-532 book I've just bought - very out of date. At least it was cheap.

I'm currently working through this free e-book, which seems relevant:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/microsoft_press/2016/09/01/free-ebook-microsoft-azure-essentials-fundamentals-of-azure-second-edition/

UncleB

So far I have been able to track down a few resources that sort the issues for me in relation to the 533 and 534 exams:

70-533
Gareth Jones has a great article which links the blueprint with the current Azure documentation and related articles - I used this to bring my studies up to the current level and passed the exam based on it.
FREE Azure Exam 70-533 – Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions – Exam Prep–ARM Refresh Edition November 2016 (Updated 22/11/2016) – Gareth's Blog

70-534
Gareth did the same as for the 533 exam and it looks like it is on target.
FREE Azure Exam 70-534 – Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions – Exam Prep – Gareth's Blog

I also found a lab book from this year that has a lot of related labs with detailed instructions using the new portal and current exam objectives. I have put the exam off as several others are being pushed up the priority but I'll report back on this when I sit the exam.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1544160623/

If anyone finds 70-532 material of this nature I would be very interested.

Again for anyone reading this - forget the Microsoft study guides as they are so far out of date as to be a risk to passing the exam by teaching obsolete technologies and naming conventions - burn, compost or turn them into building material, just don't waste time reading them.

UncleB

I came across a reasonable guide to the 70-532 exam here:
https://www.slideshare.net/Vijaymohire/study-guide-70532-new-syllabus

The same sort of layout using the blueprint and links to Azure documentation. Note that it does assume a degree of developer experience so if you are not familiar with coding, some parts of this course will be hard going (it was for me).

Hopefully this thread gives a list of links that will be more than enough for people to study with on the current syllabus and have a decent chance of passing.

nascar_paul

Great resources! Thanks for the research that you've done! Please keep us up to date on your progress.

EagerDinosaur

I've just passed 70-532, using the outdated first edition of Microsoft's 70-532 book, and more up-to-date resources such as https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/microsoft_press/2016/09/01/free-ebook-microsoft-azure-essentials-fundamentals-of-azure-second-edition/. I also spent a fair amount of hands-on time in the Azure Portal. I think the coding exercises in the 70-532 book are still mostly relevant.

I reckon about 20% of the questions were on topics that the first edition of the 70-532 book doesn't cover at all, and I was convinced throughout the exam that I would be lucky to score 500. Then I passed with a score of 844, I'm not sure how that happened. I did give a pretzel to a hungry seagull just before entering the test centre, so maybe I gained some kind of karma from that.

The second edition of Microsoft's 70-532 book is due to be published in September, if I had failed the exam I would probably have waited for that before attempting a re-take.

someperson49

Is it possible to do all 3 exams in 6 months starting from zero?

Anyone been able to do this?

The offer expires at the end of the month so its now or never really.

EagerDinosaur

someperson49 wrote: »

Is it possible to do all 3 exams in 6 months starting from zero?

I've only done 532, but if the other 2 are similar, then I would say yes. It would depend on what zero means, 532 would be tricky without pre-existing programming experience for example. I estimate I spent between 50 and 100 hours studying for 532, and probably about $150 worth of Azure services (which I got for free via my employer's MSDN subscription).

I did 461, 462 and 463 within 4 months with little help from my employer, once some "studying momentum" has been built up it gets easier.

Rosco2382

What did you use to study? I have some experience with Azure, but mainly deploying virtual machines and deploying networks. I was debating on starting the studies for 532 but wasn't sure what material to use. I have a IUR Azure and CBT, was thinking about buying the book.

UncleB

someperson49 wrote: »

Is it possible to do all 3 exams in 6 months starting from zero?

It really depends on how much other IT experience you have. If it is not a lot then you will really struggle and you would be better off doing them one at a time at your own pace rather than trying to save a few $ and failing.

There is a lot of overlap between the exams (I've done 532 and 533) - about 30% I would say, but without understanding a lot of the concepts underpinning how it is used I think it will be too big an ask unless you are doing only this pretty much full time.

someperson49

I meant I had done zero work in Azure, I have BSc in computer science and have worked in IT a few years so not completely clueless.

I have decided to give this a go though. The 6 months deadline should help focus the mind.

Did you have to learn much coding for the 70-532?

UncleB

someperson49 wrote: »

Did you have to learn much coding for the 70-532?

No, but you need to be able to read coding and understand how it interacts with the rest of the environment. Have a look through the blueprint to get a taste for it then have a look at CBT Nuggets or similar to get more of an idea what is asked for - you shouldn't have any issue with your background.

someperson49

Over the last 3 months I have been studying quite hard on Azure and have passed the 70-533 and 70-534.

Mainly used Pluralsight (Azure Iaas, Architect, Admin and 70-354 paths) and Linuxacademy. These are free with a visual studio dev essential account.

Also read the Azure Essential guide mentioned above, did all the free labs, the measureup tests and used the one month free trial.

One thing I would suggest is to watch the training videos and do the free labs before signing up for the trial to get the most out of the free month. Also I was not able to use the free 12 months $300 dev essentials credit on the same account as the free trial.

I only attempted them because I had the free re-takes and found both quite hard. Both times I thought I had failed but both times I nearly got 800. The funny thing even looking at the score sheet I cant see how they added up to a pass.

Anyway onto the next exam...

someperson49

Looks like Microsoft will be releasing three new Azure related exams in 2018.

https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/b/weblog/posts/announcing-three-new-azure-exams

someperson49

More updates on the Azure exams, looks like exam 534 will be replaced with a new exam 535 within a few weeks.

https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/b/weblog/posts/exam-retirement-update-for-october-2017

534: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions (This exam is being replaced by 535, which will cover similar content, but the exam content domain is changing significantly enough that we want a clear differentiator for candidates who are preparing for this exam. The exam title is not changing. Keep your eye on Born to Learn for more details.)
535 – targeted to be available late November/early
December

nancyhenry89

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