Smarter to go for the MCSA 2012 or 2016?

quickman007

Curious what everyone's opinion is about this. With the recent changes going on in my life, I've been considering going for the MCSA, just not sure which one is the better option. I feel like there wont be very good study material for the MCSA 2016 just yet and don't care to be a guinea pig on the material that's out there. Any thoughts?

I suppose while I'm here I'll ask another question. What's a realistic timeframe to study/pass the MCSA 2012? I've heard things like one month per exam all the way to a year for all three. I figured allotting six months for all three exams would be enough. Aside from a college course back in 2014, I have little experience with Windows Servers.

Thanks

djrabes

quickman007 wrote: »

Curious what everyone's opinion is about this. With the recent changes going on in my life, I've been considering going for the MCSA, just not sure which one is the better option. I feel like there wont be very good study material for the MCSA 2016 just yet and don't care to be a guinea pig on the material that's out there. Any thoughts?

I suppose while I'm here I'll ask another question. What's a realistic timeframe to study/pass the MCSA 2012? I've heard things like one month per exam all the way to a year for all three. I figured allotting six months for all three exams would be enough. Aside from a college course back in 2014, I have little experience with Windows Servers.

Thanks

Hey. You're probably better off going for the Server 2012 MCSA and upgrade to Server 2016 when you feel its appropriate. I did my 2012 MCSA in about 8-9 months. 6 months is 100% possible if you stick with it, mine was only delayed due to Personal issues which led to a lack of will power as a result.

Create virtual machines and mess about, however its hard to allocate time for labs when you are trying to learn the actual academic side of Server, it's a balancing act in finding what works for you in terms of hands on to revising.

djrabes

Probably better to go with Server 2012 and then do the upgrade to Server 2016, one more exam and two MCSAs

6 months should be plenty, 2 months an exam is a nice period - You don't want to leave it go for too long between exam otherwise it's not all fresh. I did mine in 9 months but could of done it in a lot less time.

ryoukosan

I agree with djrabes, go with 2012 first. The 2008 exam is set to retire this month and 2012 is going to continue to be relevant for a couple more years yet. Plus, industry migration to 2016 has been very slow.

I'm currently in a 19-week cohort working on Server 2016. We're the first, so we're kind of the guinea pigs for the new material. That being said, there is quite a bit of info out there for 70-740 & 70-741. They're still a little behind on material for 70-742. Operationally, there doesn't seem to be much difference between 2012 R2 and 2016. However, the exams for 2016 are All PowerShell All the Time, since Microsoft is really pushing server administration through PowerShell. Any studying for the 2016 exams is going to require you to become very intimate with PowerShell.

While it's not required, if you don't have any experience with taking a Microsoft Certification exam, you might go ahead and sit the MTA: IT Infrastructure exam as the exams are an experience unto themselves. Looking at your profile, you seem to have a solid background in networking, so I'd take the same MTA exam that I did, 98-366 (Networking Fundamentals).

Good luck on your exams, whichever you choose!