Need help choosing remaining MCSE2003 exams

nazzeem

Hi. I have about 9 years ICT expierience and started doing my MCSE2003 last year. I just cant get it finished. I passed 70-270 Oct 2007 & 70-290 Feb 2008. Was studying for 70-291 for ages. It got more difficult and after hearing everyone complain about the beast I got more and more sidetracked. Even when I went for an interview, the Technical manager who was part of the interview suggested that I skip 70-291 for now because it is difficult and finish the rest of the exams to obtain my MCSE2003.

I need to obtain my MCSE2003 ASAP. My problem is that I find it hard to study in between work, marraige etc etc. But it is mostly lazyness.

My question is which exams would be the easiest to complete in order to obtain my MCSE2003. I need to do 5 more as I passed 270 and 290 allready? And then I have to upgrade to the 2008 stuff.

blargoe

Depends on what you've been exposed to in your 9 years on the server end and server applications? Otherwise there really isn't any one of them that I would have you tackle without some solid self-study including getting eval CD's and installing and using the products being tested.

I think I heard the Vista exams count as an elective for MCSE2003 (someone please correct me), so that might be a way to get to the "numbers" quicker for MCSE. Personally, if I were you I would just shoot for the MCSA right now instead. Either way, you wiill need 291.

jnwdmb

I will not deny that the 291 was difficult, but I can honestly say from experience that doing them in sequence was a huge benefit in the long run. For instance, a lot of material on exam 293 was carryover from knowledge obtained while studying 291. 294 is about 45% - 55% of Active Directory tidbits/information that you picked up along the way to that exam also. Every Microsoft exam has a little bit of AD, a little bit of security, ect. You only have 2 choices for your design exam (AD or Security) and all the previous tests give you knowledge in these areas which you wont have if you skip over them, thus making these exams harder. I felt like all the exams were significantly easier after the 291, which is why everyone refers to it as the "beast", but without the knowledge in DNS and other areas you obtain while getting through it, the other exams might be just as difficult. Just my 2 cents.

bwcarty

I'd say stick it out with 291. I'm in a similar work, wife, kid scenario, and when I'm preparing for an exam, I usually end up spending 2 hours each weeknight and several hours on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon studying until I've hit all the topics. After that, I take 2 days to a week's worth of vacation time to study alone all day until I'm ready for the test.

You need to know your DNS for future exams, and that's the bulk of 70-291. If you follow along with CBT Nuggets using a home lab, you should get most of the information you need. MS Press and Transcender can fill in the gaps and reenforce everything else.

nazzeem

I work for a company where I manage 3 Windows 2003 domains on my own. 2 of them is running SBS2003 servers. I work a lot with AD, Exchange 2003and are familiar with most of Windows 2003 components. This is basically what I do every day. When I get stuck, I Google.

This was my original plan:
70-270 (Passed), 70-290 (Passed), 70-291, 70-284, 70-293, 70-294, 70-298

I have tons of study material including Chris Bryant`s subnetting tutorials. Is the above a good plan and should I stick with it?

blargoe

That seems reasonable. I'd stick with 291 like the others said too.

nazzeem

Ok Im going to start by Working through MS Press 70-291 Second edition.

GAngel

The others will be much harder without the 291 knowledge.

Its a hard exam but very focused and i'd say close to half the questions relate to knowing dns and dhcp very well.