where to start

nel

hey,

i am about to start the 290 exam. i was just wondering what your recommendations would be for study material and labs?

i already have cbt nuggets and the managing and maintaining book from the official MS course, but i like to have a few reference points.

any ideas?

jescab

I used
CBT Nuggets
Exam Cram
Sybex
Home Lab
Tons of practice exams on the net
transcender
and of course this forum

!30

I use :

*Self-Study Guide for MCSA/MCSE for 70-290 (Managing and Maitaining ..)
*Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 ( 1 server 2003 + 1 virtual computer + 1 real computer .. on my own network ).
*plenty of test on the net , you'll find them
*some video's
*www.wikipedia.com ( if you don't know something ).
*this forum for asking question you don't know.

I think if you want you can take it , fast !

geekie

i already have CBT Nuggets and the managing and maintaining book from the official MS course, but i like to have a few reference points.

IMO James Conrad is a quality trainer. I've heard some people say he's very quick and fast paced but then they're videos so you can always watch them again. I think he covers the relevant topics very thoroughly and has a sort of upbeat attitude abut his training which helps me get in the mood anyhow

I do feel a good book and home lab also helps with the preparation. I tend to watch a few nuggets and then read a few chapters and then practice on the home and office labs.

Good luck for 290!

nel

thanks lads....

so in regards to the labs what is better to use, just virtual pc? or virtual server 2005?
i mean i have been on the official ms course - but that was over a yr ago when i had no real intentionof doing 290 so ive kinda forgot everything on the course so what is the course material like would you's say?
@!30 - by what you said do you mean i should go for it quickly? how long does it take most people anyway? i have very brief experiances on this topic as i do not work on it day in day out because i'm simply a helpdesk monkey lol

geekie

Here's a White Paper explaining the differences.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/techinfo/vsvsvpc.mspx

I'd go Virtual Server as from what I'm aware Virtual PC is desinged for the desktop environment. Never used it though so I maybe wrong.

nel

so stonedcnut - as you have bothe 290 and 291 what would you personally go for first? i have niether great in depth experiance with either so it doesnt really matter. but would it not be best to know how to setup stuff like dns and dhcp rather than doing managing user groups etc first? because technically if i have to build server 2003 from scratch anyway for a home lab would it not be best to do 291 while doing that? or would it be best to build server 2003 anyway (to gain some understanding regarding 291) and then follow 290 because i've heard its abit like a bigger version of xp?

or does anyone else have any comments on this?

cheers

geekie

Personally I'd go for 290. 291 is a relatively tough exam and the topics covered in 290 will give you a good grounding and experience to progress to 291.