MCSA Where do I start?

y2kedar

I did some reading and it seems Exam 70-290 is the first exam to take. Am I Correct?

What book should I purchase, an amazon link would be helpful

Thanks in advance

doom969

Hi,
I would suggest you start with 70-270, as its the easiest exam and its gonna give you a feel of the MS exams. They take a bit to get used to because of the very long questions. Also, this one doesnt have sims.

Next, the logical odrer would be : 70-290, 70-291, and your elective.

Doom969

y2kedar

thx, what book would your recommend for 70-270

doom969

I used the mspress and it seemed prettty complete.
Add to that practice exams and the technotes from techexams.net, and of course google, and you should do ok.

Doom969

sthomas

y2kedar wrote:

I did some reading and it seems Exam 70-290 is the first exam to take. Am I Correct?

What book should I purchase, an amazon link would be helpful

Thanks in advance

You could take 290 first if you wanted. Some prefer to do that first but most take 270 first like doom969 mentioned. Good luck!

y2kedar

thx again

mspress or sybex?

Ive heard sybex is a little easier to understand. Being that this is my first exam would sybex be the way to go?

Slowhand

Personally, I've been recommending people to bypass the 70-270 at this stage, and go for the Vista exam, 70-620, instead. I don't have anything against the XP exam, but the Vista exam not only covers the client operating system requirement for both MCSA and MCSE, but it also gives you two other benefits.

One is that the Vista exam will be a required course for the MCITP: Enterprise Architect certification, which is the highest-level new-generation certification Microsoft will offer (on server and network administration), outside the MCA. While Microsoft doesn't like the comparison, the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator certification will be, for the most part, the "replacement" for MCSE, while the MCITP: Server Administrator will be closer to MCSA.

The other benefit of taking the 70-620 exam is that it will also give you a whole new cert, the MCTS: Configuring Windows Vista, which is a stand-alone certification that is meant to be the next-generation version of MCP. (It's just like MCP, except it gives you a title related specifically to the technology you tested on, not just a generic 'Professional' label.)

royal

I agree 100% with Slowhand. Definitely skip the 70-270 now and go for 70-620 for the reasons he provided.

doom969

Slowhand wrote:

One is that the Vista exam will be a required course for the MCITP: Enterprise Architect certification, which is the highest-level new-generation certification Microsoft will offer (on server and network administration), outside the MCA.

Do you have more info on MCITP: Enterprise Architect ?
Couldnt find anything yet....

Thx
Doom969

royal

doom969 wrote:

Slowhand wrote:

One is that the Vista exam will be a required course for the MCITP: Enterprise Architect certification, which is the highest-level new-generation certification Microsoft will offer (on server and network administration), outside the MCA.

Do you have more info on MCITP: Enterprise Architect ?
Couldnt find anything yet....

Thx
Doom969

http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24388

doom969

Thank you for the info, but there is no MCITP: Enterprise Architect certification. There is enterprise admin and server admin.
Can I just asume this was a typo ?

Thx

Doom969

royal

Yep, just a typo.

y2kedar

recommend a book for the vista exam?

Ye Gum Noki

Don't take the vista exam just to take it. If you don't use it and won't for awhile... it's just a cert. If you're still using XP (like most sane folks) and you want to learn something useful, take 270. Going forward, it won't hurt to have both.

Good luck,

royal

Ye Gum Noki brings up a good point. A lot of us sometimes get carried away with certifications. Now the whole point of certifications is to help us improve our skills and prove that we have those skills. If you are currently not working with the Vista product, then there is no real reason to obtain that certification. Now let's say you work for a company who is using Windows XP. Then it does make more sense to actually obtain 70-270 to improve our skills to be better at what you actually use. You can then apply your newly obtained knowledge and skillto business needs to improve employee performance and increase productivity.

Slowhand

Well, there's nothing that says you can't learn about XP as well, but studying for a cert generally takes a lot more effort than simply learning "what you really need to know". If you're going to go into the detail and do the encompassing work of learning something well enough to pass a cert, you may as well do the test that will help you, moving forward. To learn XP, especially if you're using it regularly, picking up a general "how to" book, instead of a certification guide, will be the better way to go.