Any advice is welcome.

davidspirovalentine

Hey guys,

Today I start studying for the 70-290. I have already sat and passed the 70-270. I was wondering about which material I should purchase in order to study for the exam. I already have the Self-Study material which cost me an arm and a leg from Amazon. I was wondering if you guys could tell me what else I could buy.

My study plan is as follows, Read the book for three hours every night for the next three months, practice with virtual machines, buy some practice exams (most likely the transcender stuff) and then sit the exam. I plan to do all this in 3 months, is that enough time?

Thanks guys and I look forward to lurking around the 70-290 forums for a while...

Big Jizay

Sounds like you have it pretty much figured out. You could buy CBT Nuggets also to study, but it is VERY expensive and I don't recommend buying it unless your employer is paying for it. The Virtual Machines you mentioned will help you out a lot. Play around with those a lot. IMO, I don't think that the 290 will take you 3 months to study. The 270 and 290 have a lot of overlap, so if you know the material for the 270, you already know a lot of the material for the 290. I studied for the 290 in half the time that I studied for the 270.

davidspirovalentine

Thanks. I guess there is quite a lot of overlap, however I only got 778 on the 70-270 so got a whole lot of revision to do... I see your studying for the mcse... I wish yo well!!! How long did the whole mcsa take you overall?

David

pml1

Hey David,

I'm in the same place as you. I haven't purchased the 70-290 materials yet (still hoping to get some assistance from the employer ), but I hope to this week. My goal is to pass the test by the end of July.

Thanks for the study ideas. It sounds like you have a thorough plan. Good luck with your studies!

someeh

pml1 wrote: »

Hey David,

I'm in the same place as you. I haven't purchased the 70-290 materials yet (still hoping to get some assistance from the employer ), but I hope to this week. My goal is to pass the test by the end of July.

Thanks for the study ideas. It sounds like you have a thorough plan. Good luck with your studies!

I've used the sybex edition and now am reading the MS press book. I just need to get some testing material to see where I'm at. I hope to take the test by mid June.

qnet

Good luck, I started studying about a month ago. I haven't took a certification exam since 03 so it may take me a little longer. I have been studying 2-3 hours a day but I think i may step it up to a solid 3 hours when I have time.

davidspirovalentine

Hey guys,

There is quite alot of overlap, just looking at the exam objectives. I'd say, if you know your disk management and NTFS file permissions you are already 20% of the way there. I think we should all just submit a diagram or description of our lab setups (virtual or physical) to help ourselves and others. Mine is as follows:

1. LabServer1 (Domain Controller)
2. LabServer2 (Member Server)
3. Client1 (Windows XP)
4. Client2 (Windows XP)

All these computers run virtually using the copy of vmware workstation i got for my birthday (thanks dad). The PC I use has a Core2Duo proc with 4Gb ram and XP SP3 as the host OS. I use Multiple monitors so I can switch between the clients and the servers by dragging my mouse to the other screens, also the multiple monitors come in handy when I am reading because I read on one and practice on the other...

Hope this helps, looking forward to any suggestions...

David

qnet

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

Hey guys,

There is quite alot of overlap, just looking at the exam objectives. I'd say, if you know your disk management and NTFS file permissions you are already 20% of the way there. I think we should all just submit a diagram or description of our lab setups (virtual or physical) to help ourselves and others. Mine is as follows:

1. LabServer1 (Domain Controller)
2. LabServer2 (Member Server)
3. Client1 (Windows XP)
4. Client2 (Windows XP)

All these computers run virtually using the copy of vmware workstation i got for my birthday (thanks dad). The PC I use has a Core2Duo proc with 4Gb ram and XP SP3 as the host OS. I use Multiple monitors so I can switch between the clients and the servers by dragging my mouse to the other screens, also the multiple monitors come in handy when I am reading because I read on one and practice on the other...

Hope this helps, looking forward to any suggestions...

David

Your setup is similar to mine except I don't have the VMware. I have 3 pc's connected to a KVM switch. One pc has vista on it that I use to read the ebook, and go online to research things if I need to. The other two have Windows server 03 R2 on them, one the domain controller, and the other the member server. I used the 180 day evaluation copy on one and a full version I receive through my Microsoft action pack subscription on another.

davidspirovalentine

Coolio...And then you use the Vista Machine as the client?

qnet

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

Coolio...And then you use the Vista Machine as the client?

I haven't set it up yet but I will.