What should I take next: 70-282 or 70-291

I am in the process of completing my MCSE. I just took and passed 70-290 this week. Prior to taking that I already completed MCDST (70-271 and 70-272), and MCTS: Vista (70-620)

My question is what's the next exam I should take? I know 70-291 is referred to as "the beast" here. I also eventually need to take 70-282 (Small Business Server 2003) as it is required for my job. Would taking 70-282 first help me better understand and prepare me for some of the concepts in 70-291?

Or should I just jump right in and do 70-291 first since it would allow me to immediately obtain MCSA..

Thoughts?

Thanks,
-macado

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doom969

Hi,
(Just my 2 cents)
I'd take 70-282 first as its a really easy exam. You should'nt need to study a lot to pass this one. There's not a lot that will be useful for other exams tho... Lots of marketting stuff, and basically its just knowing what wizard of sbs does what. However, doing this one automatically gives the company you are working for the sbs-specialist credential. Also, its an elective for MCSE 2003.

This is the book I used to prepare :
http://www.smbnation.com/SBSC%20Primer.htm

Its a small book, and a part of it is dedicated to help you pass the online marketting skills assessment, so ... -;)

macado

Thanks..

I heard 70-282 was easy so I guess I will probably take that next. How technical does 70-282 get? Does it involve DNS, routing, etc?

doom969

Seriously, this exam might be the less technical Ihave done to this date. It has a portion of marketting,Like what edition of sbs should the user choose, and when the client should buy a transition pack, etc.... Mostly, you have to know what wizard does what , but not HOW it does it....

There is no sims in this exam. Minimal subnetting, minimal DNS (mostly fowarders, and iterative vs recursive). The exchange stuff is also pretty simple. In SBS, you have wizards and different, more user-friendly interfaces for doing stuff, so you need to familiarize yourself with these (hands-on).

If you are a ms parter, there is some good bobcasts for 70-282 on the ms oem website.
http://oem.microsoft.com/
Also there is 4 online courses on the ms-readiness website that are really good.
http://www.msreadiness.com/

Keep in mind that this info is based on my memories of the exam, so you could get a totally different exam (Iguess), or an updated exam. You should review the objective list and be sure you understand them.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-282.mspx
The book I linked in my previous post does a good job of telling you whats important ant whats not.
Keep in mind that to get the sbs specialist credential for your company, you also need to pass the online skills assessment. Also, when I say tou shouldnt need to study much, it obviously depends on the amount of hands-on you have.

That being said, Good Luck !

lcstyle

macado wrote:

My question is what's the next exam I should take? I know 70-291 is referred to as "the beast" here.
Or should I just jump right in and do 70-291 first since it would allow me to immediately obtain MCSA..

Thoughts?

Thanks,
-macado

I just passed 70 291 today 10 / 25 / 2007.

70-291 was extremely hard, i usually score above 800 on MCSE Tests, i got a 700 on this test.
I am an NT 4 MCSE and passed the mcse tests in 2000 and am now re-certifying I have passed 70-290 and 70-291.

70 - 291 is extremely hard, most of the questions will make you feel like you prepared for the wrong test, or you mistakenly registered for the wrong exam.

My suggestion is, and this is no secret, that you delve deeply into DNS and into IPSEC, and make sure you can distinguish the difference between group policies and ipsec security policies.

I have read elsewhere that 70-293 was comparatively speaking easier than 291, i wish i was on this forum before taking 291 immediately after 290. I should have / would have taken 293 first.

Good luck and cheers!

Ron

doom969

lcstyle wrote:

I have read elsewhere that 70-293 was comparatively speaking easier than 291, i wish i was on this forum before taking 291 immediately after 290. I should have / would have taken 293 first.

I'm sorry to disgress, but 70-293 is not an easy exam, not by far. Most people put in on par with 291 or, think its easier but its only because they did 291 first. 293 relies heavily on material from 291 (dns, Wins, dhcp, subnetting, supernetting, etc..) but adds in pki, Clusters, NLB, etc.. In addition, many topics such as ipsec are covered in a more detailed fashio in 293. So if you already did 291, than you just need to study the more advanced functions, if you didnt do 291, you'd have to study the bit thats part of 291 AND the bit thats part of 293.

Those exams have a kind of hierarchy, what i mean by that is that 293 builds on stuff from 291 and goes deeper, than 298 builds on those 2 exams and show you the design side. By the time you get to 298, its the 3rd exam focusing on those topics, so its getting easier

I hope that was clear, english is not my first language and I sometimes have a hard time explaining my thoughts clearly.

Have a nice day,

lcstyle

doom969 wrote:

lcstyle wrote:

I have read elsewhere that 70-293 was comparatively speaking easier than 291, i wish i was on this forum before taking 291 immediately after 290. I should have / would have taken 293 first.

I'm sorry to disgress, but 70-293 is not an easy exam, not by far. Most people put in on par with 291 or, think its easier but its only because they did 291 first. 293 relies heavily on material from 291 (dns, Wins, dhcp, subnetting, supernetting, etc..) but adds in pki, Clusters, NLB, etc.. In addition, many topics such as ipsec are covered in a more detailed fashio in 293. So if you already did 291, than you just need to study the more advanced functions, if you didnt do 291, you'd have to study the bit thats part of 291 AND the bit thats part of 293.

Those exams have a kind of hierarchy, what i mean by that is that 293 builds on stuff from 291 and goes deeper, than 298 builds on those 2 exams and show you the design side. By the time you get to 298, its the 3rd exam focusing on those topics, so its getting easier

I hope that was clear, english is not my first language and I sometimes have a hard time explaining my thoughts clearly.

Have a nice day,

Hey i understand exactly what your saying, thank you for posting up this information as i dont want to be under any false pretenses when im just beginning to prepare for this examination.

Thanks