Passed 70-620

Claymoore

After spending the summer studying things work-related but not necessarily certification focused, I thought the fall would be a good time to get back into some more Microsoft certs. I may even complete the MCITP:EA by the end of the year, but first I needed to pass 620. I have been using Vista Ultimate for about 18 months on my work laptop, but I just converted my work desktop to Vista Business (the Exchange 2003 System Manager was only released for Vista back in August). I just built our first 2008 DC here at work and I am actually excitied about using all the new group policy settings and GP preferences to address some issues here at the office. Too bad this test doesn't cover any of that.

In case you didn't know, the 620 exam is very 'consumer' focused. The questions may still say that 'you are the network administrator for your company', but they don't say that it's a very small company without a domain. I found myself struggling a couple of times trying to remember which control panel applet to use to configure a particular feature because I am so used to using group policy. Does anyone really believe an Enterprise Administrator will use parental controls on each workstation to block websites rather than ISA or websense? Doubtful, but at least the technotes here will help you learn how to configure them. I would rather have seen something more enterprise-related as a requirement for the EA.

I really like the new exam format. I must have had one of the long form exams because I had over 60 questions and several simulations, but I still finished in less than an hour. No more reading three paragraphs of background info to figure out that they want to know the airspeed velocity of a sparrow. Now if they would only bring back the adaptive exams from the NT days so I could answer 25 questions and be done...

Score: 838

Study Materials Used:
MS Press Training Kit (a few chapters to cover weak areas)
Sybex Study Guide (I read about half of it)
TE Technotes (a good last-minute review before the exam)

Time Spent:
3 weeks

I was going to take the test a week earlier, but something more important came up and I rescheduled. I took the practice test from the MS Press book and then focused my studying on my 4 weakest areas. On the actual exam I scored perfect in 3 of those areas and only missed a couple of questions in the 4th area.

Slowhand

Very cool. Congratulations on the pass, and that's a great overview of your test and study experience. What's up next for you?

dynamik

It's been awhile, Claymoore! Congrats

Only two more until MCITP:EA, eh?

I had the same complaints. I'm not sure why they let you use 620 instead of 622 on the EA track...