How hard are the 662 and 663?

Devilsbane

I've never worked with exchange, but I would like to learn. I know the company that I work for intends to migrate to exchange next year. If I have built some experience with exchange, maybe I can at least have an idea of what is going on.

How are the CBT Nuggets for these tests?

Claymoore

I don't plan on taking the 663 until next year, so I cannot comment on its difficulty, but the 662 was one of the easiest Exchange exams I have taken. However, I have taken all the Exchange exams from 2003 on and have 7 years of experience managing and migrating Exchange organizations.

I took the 662 before the MSTK was released, so I relied on the Administrator's Pocket Consultant as my main book. You may want to start there but pick up something like Mastering Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange Server 2010 Unleashed to give you a better overall understanding of Exchange. I have the Unleashed book but only read part of it because I was looking for an exam reference and that wasn't it. I am interested in picking up the Exchange 2010 Best Practices book and will probably use that as my primary reference for the 663 exam.

You will also need to pick up a reference on PowerShell if you are not familiar with it. (There are several good books available, just look at the reviews on Amazon or ask for more reccomendations here.) 662 is more of an Exchange exam and less of a PowerShell exam (unlike 236 in the 2007 track), but there are still PoSh questions on the exam. More importantly you will need to understand PoSh to admin Exchange.

I will warn you, though, that Exchange is a black hole. The more you learn, the more there is to learn and you can go deep down the rabbit hole if you want (or aren't careful).