Psoasman wrote: » I did mine in about 3 weeks, but I had done the MSCA before. How much experience do you have with XP? the 270/271 are remarkably similar in content, while the 272 covers more the area of IE and Office questions. I would hit MS and check out the exam objectives. Make sure you understand what and how to do them. You can pick up the books for the MCDST pretty cheap on Amazon.