83-680 is on the way !

jay754

The 70-680 is going the way of the 640 AD exam with labs being added in the near future. Input is being sought for tasks that the labs on the exam should contain.

See the announcement on the Born to Learn blog :

Upcoming Virtual Lab Exam! Help us define our lab tasks for exam 83-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring | born to learn

GagHalfrunt

Is this a good or a bad thing?

I've kind of got used to the current ways of working but it bothers me that people might pass these things using evils such as braindumps. I'm guessing it's harder to **** an exam which actually wants you to do practical stuff.

I did all the Win2008 EA exams via the 70-* track as I don't think the UK have any of these 83-* exams yet.

tbgree00

Do you think they will have a beta for this? I'm studying for the 70-680 but would put the test off if they will have a beta for the lab exam. It sounds pretty interesting.

RobertKaucher

Of course I do not know for sure, but there were betas for the Server 2008 lab based exams, if my memory serves me...

shon541

I haven't taken the 83-640 test yet, but I think this is good news. Taking a bunch of multiple choice questions doesn't really reflect what you know.

Hopefully MS has ironed out all the bugs with these types of tests.

Hyper-Me

tbgree00 wrote: »

Do you think they will have a beta for this? I'm studying for the 70-680 but would put the test off if they will have a beta for the lab exam. It sounds pretty interesting.

Doubtful, if you remember the beta for 83-640 was solely to test the lab based format and not the actual content of the exam.

Considering 83-640 has been out for some time and works in *most* areas im sure they have all the data they need on how the virtual labs work.

gocubs

dumb question then, if they kill the 70-680 would you then be required to take the 83 instead for the win 7 desktop cert? is this is a new path where the tests will all be lab in the future? or am i reading too much into this

jay754

gocubs wrote: »

dumb question then, if they kill the 70-680 would you then be required to take the 83 instead for the win 7 desktop cert? is this is a new path where the tests will all be lab in the future? or am i reading too much into this

Yes, as with the 70-640 being slowly replaced by the 83-640, it's likely the same will happen with 680 and others.
At the moment they are only looking for input on what the labs on the exam should be so it could be 3-6 months or more before the 83-680 is mainstream option as it will likely have to go through a (short/limited) beta period.

Pedroagd

I did the 83-640 and the truth is that the labs are quite difficult, they ask many goals in each, by contrast, the benefit is that you get half an hour each and you can keep trying if you're not clear where to go.
My score was 833

Piers

I found the 83-640 labs not so difficult, although on a few I needed to check a couple places before I found the right spot, but heck, I do that in Control Panel all the time lol.. And best part, if you're REALLY stuck, you can open up Help and type in a question lol. very real life, and saved me once in each sim