MCSE 2003 or 2008?

I know they're not using the "MCSE" title anymore. But it's still the same.

I've already taken my 70-270 and I'm trying to decide whether to go with 2003 or 2008?

I just received an e-mail from Microsoft about the new release of Exchange 2010. I'm excited for this, but it sucks because I'm currently working on my messaging on 2007.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

seanw87

This thread might give you some insight:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcsa-mcse-windows-2003-general/45996-mcsa-mcse-mcitp-sa-ea.html

Hyper-Me

2007 wont be irrelevent. One of the good things about MS tech is that once you get base knowledge of a certain product (say exchange 2007), its easier to learn the next generation because you already have a good understanding of the concepts. You basically just have to learn whats new and how it works.

MAC_Addy

Excellent.

Thanks for the link! That helped me out a lot.

I think I'm going to go this route....

70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Windows 2003 Server.
70-291: Implementing, managing and maintaining Windows 2003 server.

I'm then going to take the 70-620 after those 2 exams. That will give me MCSA + MCTS: Windows Vista (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) (for the people that don't know what that means, I apologize if I insult your intelligence).

After I'm done with 70-620 I will go on to;

70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network
70-294: Planning and implementing....

70-297: Designing active directory for Windows Server 2003.

That will give me MCSE

Annnnd, then onto the following below.

MCITP: Enterprise Administrator
70-640: 2008 Active Directory.
70-642: 2008 Network Infrastructure, configuring.
70-643: 2008 Applications infrastructure, configuring.
70-620: Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client.
70-647: Windows Server 2008.

That's the fair stretched plan for my studying. It's going to take a while. But well worth it.

win2k8

Can you take the Exchange 2007 exams instead of the 2003 to get MCSA/E:Messaging?

win2k8

Hyper-Me

Just an FYI, if you get the MCSE you will only need to take 70-649 (upgrading your MCSE to MCTS) and then the 70-647, to gain the MCITP: Enterprise Admin

win2k8

I found out from Microsoft site:
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/learning/mcp/mcsa/messaging/windowsserver2003.mspx

Quote: 4 Exams 70-236, 70-237, and 70-238 on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 cannot be used as credit toward this messaging credential.

So you cannot be MCSA/E:Messaging with Exchange 2007 certs.

win2k8

MAC_Addy

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Just an FYI, if you get the MCSE you will only need to take 70-649 (upgrading your MCSE to MCTS) and then the 70-647, to gain the MCITP: Enterprise Admin

Sweet, you're right.

I just downloaded the pdf file on their website. So I shouldn't need to take as many as I think!

MAC_Addy

So now I'm looking at taking;

70-290
70-291
70-620

MCSA Certified.

70-293
70-294
70-297

MCSE Certified.

70-649
70-647

MCITP: Enterprise Administrator

70-646

MCITP: Server Administrator.

Looks like a long shot. But I'm hoping to have most of these completed by mid-2010.

Also, I get paid an extra $3,500 per year for MSCA, $3,500 for MSCE. I'm not sure about the others. I love jobs that are willing to pay for your certs and extra when you complete them

it2b

jamie.english wrote: »

Also, I get paid an extra $3,500 per year for MSCA, $3,500 for MSCE. I'm not sure about the others. I love jobs that are willing to pay for your certs and extra when you complete them

Where can I find one of those?

I upgrade my MCSA and we got pay a freeze for 12 months.

MAC_Addy

I work for a school district, they want us to stay "educated" and pay for any further education. They just pay for my books... that's all.

Schools/colleges/medical are the best places to work

JDMurray

Hyper-Me wrote: »

I work for a school district and am getting ***** on my pay, bad.

I realize that this is a common expression in some parts of the USA (meaning "to bargain for a lower price"), but it is still offensive to many people of the Jewish religion. Please don't use it here at TE.

Hyper-Me

I work for a school district and am getting screwed on my pay, bad.

theking

go step by step ok.......

jamesp1983

Hyper-Me wrote: »

2007 wont be irrelevent. One of the good things about MS tech is that once you get base knowledge of a certain product (say exchange 2007), its easier to learn the next generation because you already have a good understanding of the concepts. You basically just have to learn whats new and how it works.

x2, this is what i always tell my students.

GAngel

jimmypizzle83 wrote: »

x2, this is what i always tell my students.

My last company just switched over there last boxes to 07 6 mths ago and they always bought the best. They're not going to be switching again for a good 6-7 years and that scenario is probably played out at 10,000 other companies in your city.

Most places we did business with that were on exchange were still on 03/5.5.

ipconfig.all

Not much companies use server 2008 yet, many companies still use the server 2003. You always can do MCSE and then upgrade when the time is right.

Hyper-Me

carolsmith62 wrote: »

hey guys , just passed final exam of mcse 2003 and Iam now MCSE 2003 Certified . went through months of studies , used ********.com exams , MOC books . ********.com questions were right on money . Even though they do not provide real exam questions , their questions are harder then real exams , so it makes it easy to understand concepts . now am looking forward to moving to cisco track

The websites you posted are blocked out here, which means they are **** sites.

congratulations on cheating and devaluing the certification for everyone else that has it.

I hope potential employers figure you out for the fraud that you are.

stephens316

carolsmith62 wrote: »

hey guys , just passed final exam of mcse 2003 and Iam now MCSE 2003 Certified . went through months of studies , used ********.com exams , MOC books . ********.com questions were right on money . Even though they do not provide real exam questions , their questions are harder then real exams , so it makes it easy to understand concepts . now am looking forward to moving to cisco track

It's to bad you really didn't learn the material for the title. Hopefully you won't use the tests for cisco.

thomas130

I don't understand what the point is in cheating when I try to pass my exams over the next year I want to be happy knowing I earn that qualification. It;s people like who made hard earn qualifications like MCSE worth nothing.

Daniel333

Just been thinking about cheaters lately. I started taking a BSCI class and the instructor mentioned he used "cheats" to pass. I dropped and complained, he's still teaching I imagine.

Had a buddy take MCSA bootcamp, on their CD they passed out again, PDF's of a well known cheats.

The shared drive at work is packed full of said PDFs as well. My former boss (who picked up his CCNP/CCSP/RHCE from cheats and now making $100k elsewhere) would press people to use them.

I dont know if they will ever get a handle on the cheaters. I mean, just google MCSE. The first few hits are **** sites. But I would say to Cisco/Microsoft/etc stop wasting time on a goose chase trying to stop it.

Just increase the testing question pools. A pool of say, 1000+ questions would be kinda pointless to memorize a **** at that point.

Also switch to ALL virtual exam/sim questions. I see if quite often, the people scared of the Sims are the people who are not prepared (and often the cheaters). No more multiple choice. Personally I do better with Sims anyway.

Finally, I think these cheater and (honestly, I sympathize here) feel driven to these cheats when the training material doesn't cover what is on the exam. Personally, I failed the CCNA twice, and my Exchange Exam. I researched the questions and checked my training material post-test and the majority of what I failed wasn't even in the texts. It's frustrating to read a 600+page book twice for months and find it didn't have what you needed.

Sum it up, make the exams more real world and ensure training material actually does the job.

Thoughts?

dynamik

Daniel333 wrote: »

Finally, I think these cheater and (honestly, I sympathize here) feel driven to these cheats when the training material doesn't cover what is on the exam. Personally, I failed the CCNA twice, and my Exchange Exam. I researched the questions and checked my training material post-test and the majority of what I failed wasn't even in the texts. It's frustrating to read a 600+page book twice for months and find it didn't have what you needed.

I am feeling this pain immensely with my CWSP. There is hardly any study material out there for it, so I put an insane amount of effort into the official book. I usually give up on note-taking, but I did this entire book. I think I'm at about 50+ pages of just notes. I reviewed those meticulously. Now I'm trying their official practice exams, and I'm doing, um, not as well as I'd like (to put it nicely). The book did not cover so much of this stuff. Maybe I should reserve judgment until the actual exam, but I would have failed (albeit barely - 66% instead of 70%) on my first practice. I'm on the second of four now

TheShadow

aww you mean old guys scared poor puddin off. He or she might not post again.

umm Good Job!!! There is too much of this going on, nothings changed in the two years that I have been gone. The dumper pools are so ripe that they would gag a maggot. Glad to see TechExams is still fighting the good fight.

Hyper-Me

Daniel333 wrote: »

My former boss (who picked up his CCNP/CCSP/RHCE from cheats and now making $100k elsewhere) would press people to use them.

Its stuff like that, that almost makes me want to ****. I would never do it because I hate this innate fear that I will not know something for work, that I need to know, and get in loads of doo-doo for it.

I can't stand to see people who have bullshitted their entire career and are earning top dollar for it. I work with a guy who doesnt quite make 6 figures, but lets just say that our money would be better spent paying him to stay home and not even come into work. Its disgusting the screw-jobs that some people are able to perpetrate.

RobertKaucher

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Its stuff like that, that almost makes me want to ****. I would never do it because I hate this innate fear that I will not know something for work, that I need to know, and get in loads of doo-doo for it.

I can't stand to see people who have bullshitted their entire career and are earning top dollar for it. I work with a guy who doesnt quite make 6 figures, but lets just say that our money would be better spent paying him to stay home and not even come into work. Its disgusting the screw-jobs that some people are able to perpetrate.

This is one of the things I like about taking betas. No body can ever say I dumped!

Claymoore

Daniel333 wrote: »

I dont know if they will ever get a handle on the cheaters. I mean, just google MCSE. The first few hits are **** sites. But I would say to Cisco/Microsoft/etc stop wasting time on a goose chase trying to stop it.

Microsoft sued Certification Trendz and settled out of court. Prometric and Microsoft now will only allow citizens of India, China and Pakistan to take exams in their respective countries (Pakistan even requires a passport for ID) to cut down on the cheating and proxy examiners.

Daniel333 wrote: »

Just increase the testing question pools. A pool of say, 1000+ questions would be kinda pointless to memorize a **** at that point.

One of the reasons MS dumped Pearson and only partners with Prometric was to have more control over the question pool. MS claims they can now both support a deeper question pool AND change the questions more frequently when they only have to work with one partner. I assume Cisco used the same reasoning when they decided to only partner with Pearson. I doubt it had much to do with the test centers themselves since many host both Pearson and Prometric.

Daniel333 wrote: »

Also switch to ALL virtual exam/sim questions. I see if quite often, the people scared of the Sims are the people who are not prepared (and often the cheaters). No more multiple choice. Personally I do better with Sims anyway.

The reality is some concepts are better tested using multiple choice - even the MS Master and CCIE have written components. The fairly restricted sims in the 2003 track were better than the scenario questions from the old NT4 track. I haven't tried any of the new 83-xxx MS exams with the live sims yet. The expert level certs such as the Microsoft Master and CCIE require actual labs and that is one of many reasons why they are so highly respected.

Daniel333 wrote: »

Finally, I think these cheater and (honestly, I sympathize here) feel driven to these cheats when the training material doesn't cover what is on the exam. Personally, I failed the CCNA twice, and my Exchange Exam. I researched the questions and checked my training material post-test and the majority of what I failed wasn't even in the texts. It's frustrating to read a 600+page book twice for months and find it didn't have what you needed.

I know what you mean. Sometimes it's as if the exam developers and authors were working off completely different objectives.

If you don't like the available material and the exam objectives are given to you, create your own training material. Just be sure to share it here on TE! I learned enough putting the Windows 7 beta exam notes together that I didn't really need to study for the exam. I originally found TE when I was looking for recommendations on legitimate study material for the 291 exam. When I recommend TE to my clients looking for training material I always mention that there is no cheating and no brain **** here, just honest people helping each other pursue IT training.

To me, cheating to achieve a certification is more than just something you did - it shows me something about who you really are as a person. If you'll **** at this, what else will you **** on or be dishonest about? Hopefully I can filter out the cheaters through a solid technical interview. If I'm going to have to work with you, I want to make sure you know what you are doing and that I can trust you.