MCSE Upgrade

Graham_84

Ok im MCSE, only been MCSE for 2 days! But obviously whilst things are fresh i would like to move onto MCITP:Enterprise. Am i right in thinking i need 70-620 70-647 70-649 and thats it? I know i get the choice with the Vista exams and could choose 70-624. But otherwise am i correct?

Also which would be the best path to take. Im feeling 70-620 as need something a little lighter than the ones i have just done. Nice to get back to client os for once!

dynamik

That's correct. You can do the Vista exam at any time; it really doesn't matter.

Graham_84

How also if anyone else reads this post is the Enterprise admin exam hard? and the mcse upgrade one hard? I know my mates who upgraded from 2000 to 2003 said 70-292 was solid! as covered so much

Daniel333

it's my understanding the ugrade exams are harder for two reasons
1) They include the content of mutliple exam on one test
2) they include more legacy issues

HeroPsycho

Daniel333 wrote: »

it's my understanding the ugrade exams are harder for two reasons
1) They include the content of mutliple exam on one test
2) they include more legacy issues

I just took 70-649 and passed it. It's harder because to pass it you must get a passing score on all three mini-exams in it, each graded separately. Since the entire exam is like 45 questions, those are split between three mini-exams, not evenly I might add. Without violating any NDA's, let's just say you can't afford to miss many questions on some of the mini-exams before you fail the whole freaking thing. If you happen to get a difficult draw of questions, you might end up failing even if you do know your stuff.

Claymoore

Graham_84 wrote: »

How also if anyone else reads this post is the Enterprise admin exam hard? and the mcse upgrade one hard? I know my mates who upgraded from 2000 to 2003 said 70-292 was solid! as covered so much

Opinions on the difficulty of any exam vary, but I think the new tests are easier overall due to change in question format regardless of whether the exams still require the same level of knowledge to pass. The real challenge for the 649 upgrade exam is finding suitable study material. Undomiel, HeroPsycho and I all recently passed this test and I think each one of us used different material to do it (you can check our posts to see what we used). The official MS Press Training Kit for 649 won't be out until later this spring, so you must piece together your own study material.

All the studying you did for your 2003 MCSE will probably help you more with the 647 EA exam than the 649 upgrade exam. The 649 assumes you know all that information already and focuses on the new features and differences instead. Since it is an entire test about the changes, you can expect that it will be very nit-picky about them, so be prepared.

undomiel

I would definitely knuckle down to the upgrade right after getting your MCSE since everything should still be fresh. You won't have to relearn as much. For study materials since the 649 is just a combination of the 640, 642 & 643 you could just jump in and go through those books. Definitely make sure you jump into doing labs though to learn the new technologies. Set up a few RODCs and configure some fine-grained password policies. Jumping straight into that should trip you up on some of the gotchas about those that you may overlook by just reading about it. At least for me I know I learn best by being hands-on. Let me break it, fix it, and break-fix again and I'll know that technology. I do agree with Claymoore though that the new format of the exam makes it easier over the MCSE exams since it is less of a test of your reading comprehension and more of a knowledge test.

aaronchristenson

I agree with Claymoore and Undomiel, while I only needed to take 70-648 for my upgrade, I chose to get the two books for 640 and 642 then read the chapters that were part of the combined exam. I ran all the practice examples and the practice tests that came with each book. The hardest part I found taking the upgrade exam was that you have to focus your answer on the 2008 material and ignore the answers that make you think this would work as a 2003 solution also.