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70-624 Exam Review - Passed
Claymoore
Member Posts: 1,637
Passed this back on July 2nd with an 873. This was a fast test with short, direct questions that only required about 45 minutes to answer 53 questions.
Study Material Used:
Preplogic 70-624 MegaGuide - on sale for $5!
Mastering Windows Vista Business
Creating the Secure Managed Desktop
SelfTest practice exam?
Exam Review:
Working for a Microsoft partner in an environment where IT is a profit center rather than a cost center has some advantages. The company tends to be very supportive of training and certification, including paying for exams and training. It also has some disadvantages, such as being required to pass some strange exams - like this one. On my own, I would never have taken this test. I already passed the 620 exam so I don't need it as a client requirement for my already completed EA. However, Microsoft requires that consultants pass certain exams to achieve delivery competencies or to be allowed to perform MS-funded deployment planning services. Nobody in my unit had taken this exam, so I was asked to pass 624 so I could deliver Desktop Deployment Planning Services engagements.
A simple enough request, but the challenge was finding study material. There is no MS Training Kit for this exam, and their only online training is for Office deployment which is only one section of 624. Preplogic put their Mega-Guides on sale so I downloaded the 624 guide for $5. The Preplogic guide was all I used for the Office deployment section and it served as a morning-of review for the rest of the material.
I really like Moskowitz' Creating the Secure Manged Desktop (and its compaion Group Policy book), but it came up a little short here. The deployment section isn't as detailed as is required for this exam. If you already have access to the book, you can use it as a getting-started reveiw. If you don't have the book, you should get it for the rest of the material.
Buried on my shelf and almost forgotten was Minasi's Mastering Windows Vista Business. I picked this up 2 years ago when it came out, but I don't think I ever read a page of it. Hidden in the back of this large book were several chapters on WDS, Windows PE, MDT 2008 (formerly BDD) and a brief introduction to the OS deployment pack for SMS 2003. These chapters cover the material in the required depth for the exam with the exception of SMS, but I stumbled through those several questions at the beginning of the exam and came out fine. I saw several of these used copies on Amazon listed very cheap.
The practice test was a rebranded Self Test software exam, I think. It was available on our internal training site so I took it on Monday, scored a 77%, booked the exam for Thursday and passed. I spent about a week preparing for it.
Experience also helped here. A couple of years ago I switched from using Ghost to WDS when performing an XP rollout for a former employer. I even created a custom WinPE build with some scripts to automate the deployment. I have relied on that experience for the 620, 680, and now the 624 exams. If you have extensive deployment experience, this exam should be downright easy.
Study Material Used:
Preplogic 70-624 MegaGuide - on sale for $5!
Mastering Windows Vista Business
Creating the Secure Managed Desktop
SelfTest practice exam?
Exam Review:
Working for a Microsoft partner in an environment where IT is a profit center rather than a cost center has some advantages. The company tends to be very supportive of training and certification, including paying for exams and training. It also has some disadvantages, such as being required to pass some strange exams - like this one. On my own, I would never have taken this test. I already passed the 620 exam so I don't need it as a client requirement for my already completed EA. However, Microsoft requires that consultants pass certain exams to achieve delivery competencies or to be allowed to perform MS-funded deployment planning services. Nobody in my unit had taken this exam, so I was asked to pass 624 so I could deliver Desktop Deployment Planning Services engagements.
A simple enough request, but the challenge was finding study material. There is no MS Training Kit for this exam, and their only online training is for Office deployment which is only one section of 624. Preplogic put their Mega-Guides on sale so I downloaded the 624 guide for $5. The Preplogic guide was all I used for the Office deployment section and it served as a morning-of review for the rest of the material.
I really like Moskowitz' Creating the Secure Manged Desktop (and its compaion Group Policy book), but it came up a little short here. The deployment section isn't as detailed as is required for this exam. If you already have access to the book, you can use it as a getting-started reveiw. If you don't have the book, you should get it for the rest of the material.
Buried on my shelf and almost forgotten was Minasi's Mastering Windows Vista Business. I picked this up 2 years ago when it came out, but I don't think I ever read a page of it. Hidden in the back of this large book were several chapters on WDS, Windows PE, MDT 2008 (formerly BDD) and a brief introduction to the OS deployment pack for SMS 2003. These chapters cover the material in the required depth for the exam with the exception of SMS, but I stumbled through those several questions at the beginning of the exam and came out fine. I saw several of these used copies on Amazon listed very cheap.
The practice test was a rebranded Self Test software exam, I think. It was available on our internal training site so I took it on Monday, scored a 77%, booked the exam for Thursday and passed. I spent about a week preparing for it.
Experience also helped here. A couple of years ago I switched from using Ghost to WDS when performing an XP rollout for a former employer. I even created a custom WinPE build with some scripts to automate the deployment. I have relied on that experience for the 620, 680, and now the 624 exams. If you have extensive deployment experience, this exam should be downright easy.
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bertieb
Member Posts: 1,031 ■■■■■■□□□□
Congrats Claymoore
The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they are genuine - Abraham Lincoln -
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rfult001
Member Posts: 407
Congrats! I had a pain in the butt time trying to find study material for this exam too, other than the MOC I had taken 2 months previous. Gotta love those PrepLogic study guides though!
