MCSA/MCSE

wheely

I am currently going for my MCSA 2003 as soon as my books arrive which should be tomorrow. I am going to get my MCSA 2003 and also MCSA 2003:Security. I am going to take the 270, 290, and the 291 and use my security+ as my elective and then take 299 as my other elective. My question is, when i go for my MCSE the only exams i will have to take is 293, 294, 297 or 298 and because i would have already taken the 299 would that sufice as my elective for MCSE and which exam would everybody recommend to take, the 297 or 298?

dynamik

You have to take 298 if you want the security specialization.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcse/security/windowsserver2003.mspx

Slowhand

wheely wrote:

I am currently going for my MCSA 2003 as soon as my books arrive which should be tomorrow. I am going to get my MCSA 2003 and also MCSA 2003:Security. I am going to take the 270, 290, and the 291 and use my security+ as my elective and then take 299 as my other elective. My question is, when i go for my MCSE the only exams i will have to take is 293, 294, 297 or 298 and because i would have already taken the 299 would that sufice as my elective for MCSE and which exam would everybody recommend to take, the 297 or 298?

Your path is good, the 70-299 can be used as an elective towards MCSE. I'd recommend taking teh 70-298, since it's good towards the standard MCSE, MCSE: Security, and MCSE: Messaging, should you decide to do any specialities. (Security+ would be enough to get you MCSE: Security, once you finish up the MS exams.) One thing I can recommend, though, is that you don't do 70-270, but take 70-620 instead. The Vista exam not only counts towards your client OS exam on both MCSA and MCSE, it also counts towards MCITP: Enterprise Administrator, should you choose to upgrade down the line. This late in the game, it may not be worth your time and money to go for an exam that covers only the current cert, when the Vista exam covers both paths. (That's not to say that learning XP isn't a good idea, but it probably makes more sense to go for the newer exam.)