Advice with studying 70-290

Hello everyone, before I start I must say this is one of the most useful MCSE related forum I've found on web. I've been going through the forum for past few days and have picked up lots of useful information.
Currenlty I'm studying for my first MCSE exam 70-290 and I'm going through MS Press Book. I've got my own home-lab setup, running 2 Win2003 server and 2 XP machines. Would I setup a Vista machine too or that would be irrelevant for this exam? Also what other tips you could give me with regards to studying and preparing myself for the exam? Many Thanks

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Comments

Mishra

Vista is not needed for the 70-290.

It sounds like you are going the right way. If you do not have experience with 2003 then you need to setup a lab and try out everything that you learn. Come back to the forums and ask a question if you ever get stuck in your labs.

Good luck!

resources

No Vista is not necessary. I will suggest studying from many sources not only MS books
Good luck with your Studies.
Give Attention to BACKUPS,SYSTEM MONITOR.

Gundamtdk

I find the 70-290 MS Press Book to be useless. There are very little material for the exam.

My main advice is to practice a lot for your labs.

resources

Ms books are not useless. They teach you the info you need to know. The problem is microsoft asks you the way they want how to solve a problem.

Gundamtdk

resources wrote:

Ms books are not useless. They teach you the info you need to know. The problem is microsoft asks you the way they want how to solve a problem.

The MS Exam books are aimed at people who are familiar with the Windows Server.

The books are not aimed at beginners.

I find that the books skip out a lot of the basic steps on how to perform procedures.

For example, the book may say on chapter 1, "Connect with remote connection to manage your Active Directory"

If you don't know how to use remote connection you will be puzzled.

blueagle78

Guys thanks for your replies so far. I'm not beginner so I'm finding MS Book quite handy and to the point rather than teaching me very basic things which I already know. I've got 4 years experience in NT domain, Citrix admin, Exchange admin so its all handy. I'm reading Mastering Windows Server 2003 for detailed explaination of technologies which I'm not familiar with and practicing all the practices provided in MS book in my lab.