Study Book For 70-284?

About to get some study materials for the 70-284 exam, I've heard the MS Press book isn't so hot on this subject, have used MS Press for the XP and Server 2003 exams and they seemed to do the trick, thinking of maybe going for something different this time due to the bad reports I've heard, anyone got any recommendations? or should I just stick with MS Press again?

Thanks,

Rich

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CChilderhose

I have the MS Press book but never did open it.

(Started using it last night actually)

Instead I used the Exam Cram series (used it for 270, 290, 291 so far) and now 284.

I found that the combination of Exam Cram and the MS Press books are pretty good. I also found that if you register the codes in the back of the MS Press books at MeasureUp.com you can use their database of 50 questions to prepare also. The time limit is not great (a week or so I think) but very good for testing just before the exam. This seems to give enough preparation for the exams.

Best of luck with whatever you choose.

Daniel333

I can't recommend you cheating like the guy above did, but if you want to pass the exam fairly....

Read the Sybex and Microsoft Press book and they both missed the mark. I would first start with Exchange 5.5 for dummies and maybe find some reading on Lotus Notes. From there really work on your DNS... really review the material from the 70-291 exam.

From there, invent some labs. Toughest Microsoft exam I have taken so far.

HeroPsycho

CChilderhose wrote: »

I have the MS Press book but never did open it.

Instead I used the Exam Cram series (used it for 270, 290, 291 so far) and also the study guide from ******** as well as their Q&A.

I found that the combination of Exam Cram and the Study guide from ******** have done a great job. I am getting high 90s on the Q&A from ******** and sit this exam on Saturday.

Best of luck with whatever you choose.

Nothing like getting a cert you didn't earn...

macdude

Why Exchange 5.5 for dummies? This is 2k3 exam, I would start with a 2k3 book.

meadIT

macdude wrote: »

Why Exchange 5.5 for dummies? This is 2k3 exam, I would start with a 2k3 book.

I haven't taken the exam, or even studied for it, but I believe a lot of the 2k3 material is based on upgrading/migrating from 5.5. It helps to have a decent background with 5.5 to help with this material.

Daniel333

macdude wrote: »

Why Exchange 5.5 for dummies? This is 2k3 exam, I would start with a 2k3 book.

A rather large chuck of the exam talks about interoperability with other mail servers. They tend to use Exchagne 5.5 and Lotus for their examples.

You don't need to be a master of Exchange 5.5 but you do need to know the basics.

CChilderhose

Daniel333 wrote: »

I can't recommend you cheating like the guy above did, but if you want to pass the exam fairly....

Read the Sybex and Microsoft Press book and they both missed the mark. I would first start with Exchange 5.5 for dummies and maybe find some reading on Lotus Notes. From there really work on your DNS... really review the material from the 70-291 exam.

From there, invent some labs. Toughest Microsoft exam I have taken so far.

One thing I don't like being called is a cheater and had I known the site I used was a braindump I would not have gone on it.

I did not realize that it was such a site and have discontinued using their materials and will go with a reputable company like MeasureUp.com or Transcender.

You don't know me from Adam so don't assume one is a cheater as I have many years experience and well as allot of hands-on experience as well which I used mostly for learning for my certs as well as the MS Press books and Exam Cram books too!!

HeroPsycho

Dude, no one called you a cheater. Daniel333 said you cheated on the exam, which you did, knowingly or not. I said you didn't earn your cert you got for passing this exam because you cheated.

Both are true. Neither one of us said you did it intentionally nor habitually. Stop the indignant nonsense that somehow we misjudged you as a person, because both of us judged your preparation for this exam for what it was whether you knew it was or not - unethical.

With that said, thx for being a standup guy and ceasing using that material. Far too many people would continue using it anyway.

CChilderhose

HeroPsycho wrote: »

Dude, no one called you a cheater. Daniel333 said you cheated on the exam, which you did, knowingly or not. I said you didn't earn your cert you got for passing this exam because you cheated.

Both are true. Neither one of us said you did it intentionally nor habitually. Stop the indignant nonsense that somehow we misjudged you as a person, because both of us judged your preparation for this exam for what it was whether you knew it was or not - unethical.

With that said, thx for being a standup guy and ceasing using that material. Far too many people would continue using it anyway.

I want to apologize for thinking you misjudged me. I did not know like you said that it was a braindump and have since ceased using the materials.

I have checked CertGuard to find good known sites and will be using those.

I know most would continue using them but I myself will not because I want to earn my certs fairly using my knowledge, etc.

Sorry about being pissy about it.

roolee

Ummmm, yeah, so I'm still none the wiser on which is the best study guide for Exchange Server 2003. Might just go with the MS Press one.

CChilderhose

roolee wrote: »

Ummmm, yeah, so I'm still none the wiser on which is the best study guide for Exchange Server 2003. Might just go with the MS Press one.

Use that one and if you are willing to purchase another book or study guide then get either Exam Cram (book) or Transcender offers a Study Guide in PDF format. At least 2 or all of these should help.

I think if you buy the exam questions from Transcender they are throwing in the Study Guide (PDF) for free right now.

HeroPsycho

I used Exam Cram, but I also supported Exchange 2003 for Microsoft Product Support, so I didn't need a meaty book, just a quick review. I wouldn't determine your decision based on my experiences.

Unfortunately, I didn't read any others, so I don't have a good recommendation for you. The Transcenders however were excellent for that exam if memory serves me right.

Also, checkout net fresco dot com for some legit study notes. They're excellent.

Edit: Really want to know why that site is censored here. They're completely legit.

Claymoore

I used the Sybex book last year, but it wasn't as in depth as I would have liked. I rushed through studying so that I could take 284 and 285 before the second shot expired and I failed 284. However I passed it easily a few weeks later after I used the Exchange Resource Kit to fill in my weak areas.

I recommend using Sybex or MSPress (I read bad reviews on it as well, but maybe it's time we got an updated take on it) as a general overview and the the Exchange Resource Kit to fill in the gaps.

dynamik

Glad to see some love for the resource kit; it's currently en route from an Amazon reseller ($11). I took a cue from your other recent resource kit support and decided to give that a shot for these instead of using the exam-centric books. I'm thinking about going back and getting my "M" since a lot of our clients are still on 2003. Hopefully that and Transcender will be sufficient. Does the RK cover the 285 material well?

Claymoore

Unfortunately there is no book specifically for the 285 exam, however the Resource Kit will cover all the technical information you will need. Most of what you use to study for the 284 will roll over to the 285.

I supplemented my 285 studies with the official e-learning course from Microsoft:
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=26819&tab=overview

Last year MS was offering a free e-learning course, and since there was no book for the 285 I decided to use the offer on this course. It helped me apply the technical information to the design decisions MS expects and I passed the test on the first try.* MS is offering a course for $35 with the Second Shot promotion so you might want to try this one if you haven't already cashed in on the offer.

*Barely, with a 700. I find MS design exams to be deeply flawed and I answered all but a couple of the questions without reading any of the case studies. IMO, you shouldn't be able to do that on a design exam.

f3z81

roolee wrote: »

Ummmm, yeah, so I'm still none the wiser on which is the best study guide for Exchange Server 2003. Might just go with the MS Press one.

I just sat the exam for the 284 yesterday and failed (622); I don't feel too bad as I have a free second shot.

I used the Sybex and the Microsoft official course book 2400c (As well as doing the 284 class based training).

I would say that it is the hardest Microsoft exam I have done yet, due to the amount of knowledge it requires from other areas, I am glad that I have not long sat the 70-290/291 as it helped with the active directory and DNS questions.

My advice would be don’t focus one particular book for this exam as I found the Microsoft course and the Sybex book just didn’t give enough detail for the exam. Then again I did not have any prior experience of exchange administration prior to sitting the class based course.

I will hopefully pass next time round, I bought some test questions form transcender which will hopefully help, I previously only used the free Sybex questions that came with the book, which were much more basic by comparison. (Strange for Sybex, as I found their questions/exams in their other books harder than the questions in the other exams).

I would also recommend setting up a Lab with test machines. I used Virtual PC 2007 with a number of servers and clients, and would practice setting up routing groups, connectors ect. I was also lucky enough to have done the class based labs of upgrading exchange 5.5 to 2003, as that’s something I could not replicate in my own lab, due to not being able to obtain a copy of exchange 5.5 or win server 2000 (without going down the dodgy route) despite having my MSDN Subscription (Thanks Dell).

mikedisd2

Hi Roolee, don't go with the MSPress book. I'm trying to work through it and find really awful. The information is quite ambiguous and confusing, not to mention tedious. It expects you to already know things like clustering and like yourself, I haven't done 70-293 yet (may be why my cluster doesn't work).
Also best if you do AD first as well.

Didn't really answer your question, guess I'm sharing your frustration. Just don't bother with MS Press.