Needing your advise.

aaronj

I currently work for a large company in their hardware department. I just was promoted to Senior PC Technician making pretty good money but this is not the field I'm wanting to be in. My interests are into networking and I would like to get into one of three different departments. NOC, LAN Systems, or IOS. I found out that Linux, Noval, and Windows 2003 certifications go really well with these departments, especually for LAN systems since they deal with all the servers in the company.

Anyways that is the background, I have decided to wait on the CCNA until later on in the year and pursue the Windows 2003 server certifications. I already have my A+ and Network+ passed which will take care of my elective for the MCSA.

Is it a mistake to go straight for the 70-290 as my first microsoft exam before I finish out the rest or should I go ahead and do the xp or vista client exam first?

bojo387

It would probably depend on what you are most comfortable with. I have a fair amount of experience with 2003 Server but have had more years working with XP that is why I took 270 first. I used it as a morale booster and to finally get the MCP title. Now I am on to 290 which dose have a lot of overlap from 270 as I've learned in this forum and reading. Good luck on your decision.

JayrodEF

Yeah, it really depends on what you've worked with. I took XP first just to get a feel for MS exams and just to get myself in the mindset for going for the MCSA. It was a fairly easy exam, but it really helped with the 290 I feel. However, if you know your server stuff already, it probably wouldn't be hard for you to jump right into the 290. Just my 2 cents.

Claymoore

The best advice I can give is to take the exams in numeric order. 270 then 290 then 291 - they all build off each other. I took 270 first and am really glad I did. I thought that after working with it as long as I had that I could just breeze through the exam - I studied for about 2 hours and went through an Exam Cram practice test and thought I was ready to ace XP. It had been almost 9 years since I last took an MS exam and the updated format really threw me. I passed, but it was my second-lowest score (797) out of the 6 exams I needed to update my MCSE. I didn't underestimate the exams after that, so I studied harder and scored higher.