83-640

Lee H

or 70-640, watever?

Hi

I plan to sit this puppy on 6th July, in exaxctly 4 weeks. Studying 3 hours a night Mon-Fri and 6 hours Sat-Sun

Is that enough time to learn everything and pass the exam, anyone who has passed it can you please compare it to 70-270 exam just so I can get an idea on how hard it is

Thanks

Lee H

Jordus

thats plenty of time to learn the material, probably twice as long as you need (unless you have zero understanding of anything AD right now)

I think the test is actually easier than 270 for the fact that you dont get left-fielded with questions you didnt expect.

MS tells you what % of the exam will be on what topics, so trust in that (they dont lie)

BradH

Make sure you have either VMWare or Virtual PC with some setup 2008 VM's and practice what you are learning. The great thing about this exam is that it is practical.

Stick to core items as listed in the Microsoft Prep Guide and ensure you know all components and you'll get through.

I don't know how this compares to 70-270 apart from a mate who took it, and failed first time. He said it was really hard. 83-640 was the first exam I had taken from Microsoft and I found it to be quite good and friendly which was a surprise considering some of the feedback I had about MS testing.

Lee H

Quote: Make sure you have either VMWare or Virtual PC with some setup 2008 VM's and practice what you are learning. The great thing about this exam is that it is practical.



I have installed server 2008 RC 2 to may main PC, I also have another PC with windows 7 RC 1 installed, as I have the E4500 cpu so 64bit virtualization wont work

Thanks for your input

BradH

You don't need 64 bit virtualisation.. use the 32 bit version of 2008. That's all I used

Download the 180 day trial from MS. Use that... it's free.

You need to have practice and doing the things that are required of you in the exam and of course in real life administration, otherwise don't bother taking the exam. The 83-640 make you demonstrate your knowledge not only from a multi-choice perspective but from a practical real-to-life administration perspective. You need to perform tasks as you would do in real world administration. It is not a sim, it is a real working VM of 2008 so you really need to know what you are doing and the VM's (mutiple) allow you to practice things as example :

1. Creating Trusts between domains/forests
2. Scavenging DNS records
3. Knowledge of Windows Backup
4. Creation of PSO
5. Group Policy and implementation of GP within your network

And the list goes on and on.. Follow the course guide and get knowledable with everything that is on it. Practice until you know it off by heart and then sit the exam.

If you feel the need that you have to study on the way to the exam .. ie a train ride or the night before, you shouldn't be sitting it.. that's the way I work and seems to have worked for this one anyway

Anyway, I am off to cram some more.. Tuesday next week is my 642 exam and boy did I cover IP4/IP6 today. Really never paid much attention to sub netting but got a crash course in it today and seem to be able to answer any question on them. Thats 24% apparently of the 642 exam as an example. I am following guideline of the exam. I highly recommend you do to as it will pay off.

Here are some FAQ on performance based exams from MS

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcpexams/simulations/FAQ/default.mspx

And this is what you should focus on

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=83-640&locale=en-us#tab2

Lee H

yer 32bit will work, dunno why I never ran with that one I think because I already downloaded 64bit one

Is there a need for an extra client?

Ordered my book should be with me in a few days so cannot see any of the example scenarios

I can have 4 monitors on my PC with a virtual on each if need be

Can anyone recomend the most ideal lab setup for this exam, focussing on time as an important factor to get it all studied

BradH

It's a combination of multiple 2008 hosts, core hosts - different domains and forests, and then you gotta go in there, break them and fix them. Think of questions after studying the material and then go and do it!

That's what you gotta do.

As for study technique everyone is different. I can't nor can anyone else tell you how to do that.

Just think about it, plan it and do it.

Lee H

Thanks for your input Brad

My question was not how do i study but what is the ideal LAB setup which aides the practice questions

How many server 2008 installs will I need to practise with

Would I need a client OS Vista/Windows7, if so how many

Thanks

BradH

Honestly I can tell you that as it is different for everyone.

Read your study material and work it out.. I am sure you will be able to.

Lee H

Oh ok then Brad thanks for your help

Am sure I will get through it regardless of how long it takes to study for it, only reason why I was asking is so I can get the LAB ready for when the book arrives, ordered a hard back from amazon, should have it soon

I have

PC 1 Windows RC 1
1 19" TFT

PC 2 Server 2008 R2
1 17" CRT
1 17" TFT
2 X 15" TFT

Surley this is enough to get my peeps on everything at same time

BradH

One PC here and one domain controller.

Never used my DC for any of the virtualisation. One screen. This is the beauty of VM, you don't need any more hardware than you have.

Suggest you build a stable single 2008 32bit image and clone off that. Don't use your clone for testing with. Use that as a standard so that if you do need another box setup you just clone from the original, run a SID changer through it and go from there.

Also get one Vista or Windows7 clone as you will need a client. Suggest Vista as it is the client the exam will focus on.

Also get one Server Core clone running. That is the shell like version of Windows 2008. Suggest you read up on that one.

Once you have all three, wait for your material and use that. Clone off you standard, change the SID as you will need to otherwise they will all have the same SID.

That's enough hand holding from me. You have to get those cells up the top working now and plan how you can use them once you have them setup. No one in real world is going to give you all the answers, even if we think google can most of the time.

Lee H

Book arrives tommorow, treated myself to a hardback, woo hoo, lol

Usually buy the box sets on Amazon but now seeing as money is a bit tight am gonna buy each book seperate and only buy a hardback and only when I have passed it do I buy then next one


Thanks for your help Brad am gonna be very busy tonight sorting out my rig, thanks for holding my hand, if only you are there to tie my shoe laces and button up my coat too that would be cool

lol