MOAC 70-284

cashew

I have seen nothing, but terrible reviews for the MS-Press 70-284 and almost ordered the sybex. However on Amazon, they have a Microsoft Official Academic Course (or something like that), book. I was wondering if anyone had used it yet? It has a published date of Oct 2006 and it costs around $99.

geekie

Have you considered the EC2 book for 70-284? I found it a great read and was pleasantly surprised. £25 was the price tag and well worth every penny imo.

royal

I used both the Sybex and the EC2 for this exam. I found both to be very good when read together. The Sybex left out some detail that the EC2 surprisingly went into. As for the MOAC, I have never done any of those courses so I would be of no help answering your question regarding it.

cashew

Thanks for the info, I will try and get my company to pay for both, seeing it's about half the price of the MOAC book. They also will pay for one CBT course, I have used both trainsignal and cbt nuggets in the past. If you had to choose one, which would it be? Keep in mind, I have hardly any exchange experience other than editing smtp accounts in AD.

royal

While I have never used Trainsignal, I have used CBT Nuggets for every certification I have ever taken, minus Network+. Their video training has never let me down. Because of that, I will continue to use CBT Nuggets for every certification/training I will pursue in the future. Their 70-284 series instructor did a pretty good job of getting the information needed out to you. As I stated though, I have never used a Trainsignal product so my opinion is mostly subjective. Good luck with the studying and with the exam!

cashew

I just finished my 293 and used CBT nuggets and like the personality of the intructor ( James). He made things very simple to realize what's going on, though I did sample the 284 CBT nuggets online and unfortunately it's a different instructor. He seems pretty straight forward and blah, is this true?

royal

cashew wrote:

I just finished my 293 and used CBT Nuggets and like the personality of the intructor ( James). He made things very simple to realize what's going on, though I did sample the 284 CBT Nuggets online and unfortunately it's a different instructor. He seems pretty straight forward and blah, is this true?

I've watched many different CBT Nugget videos that contain many different isntructors. James Conrad is simply the best instructor out of them all, hands down. Shannon is the instructor for the 70-284 instructor. Although he's not as dynamic as James in voice and enthusiasm, he definitely puts an effort to try. Overall, I still think Shannon is a pretty good instructor, but definitely not as good as James is.

cashew

Maybe it's my limited experience with Exchange, but after purchasing the sybex book I'm having a hard time following it. To me this seems to be a pretty hard read, I did however order the CBTnuggets so maybe I should watch those and then read the book? Is the ExamCram2 series an easier read than the sybex?

royal

The CBT Nuggets will help get your feet wet with the material. If you are finding it difficult to follow the book, put it down for a bit and watch some nuggets. It'll be more relaxing to watch it being done and explained to you than it is to read. Then after you do some or all the nuggets, begin the book.

cashew

Thanks for all your help IC. I think I will watch a few of the nuggets to get me going, but would you say the EC2 book would be better or more reader friendly?

royal

cashew wrote:

Thanks for all your help IC. I think I will watch a few of the nuggets to get me going, but would you say the EC2 book would be better or more reader friendly?

No problem. I think you will find most of the books you will read involving computers will be dry. This includes the EC2 as well.

Treg

I used the Sybex 70-284 combined with CBT Nuggets.

You should be fine with just the Sybex, however you can see how things are actually done with the Nuggets.

Additionally, heres a good site at www.msexchange.org that contains alot of good articles and tutorials on setting up an Exchange Server.

Dont forget to load up a copy / Eval of Exchange 2003 to practice too

blargoe

My boss just bought the ms press book. Drat.