Scheduled 70-662 & 70-663 for Nov 15th, 2010

genXrcist

Went through the Exchange 2010 MS Course, reading the 70-662 Training Kit & watching the CBTNugget Exchange 2010 videos. So far I'm cruising having done a lot of labs and specifically worked on the Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration at my former employers. Figured I'd load up the brain and just go for the :EMA on the same day.

Federation Trusts....ech. I can understand why they're there but man I doubt if I'll ever actually be in a position to set one up. Oh and RBACs, can Microsoft get any more convoluted? It's really not all that complicated but boy is the Training Kit long-winded on this!

za3bour

Wow two exams in one day, I've never done it do you think it's easy to do so ? EMA is my first goal for 2011 so keep us posted and good luck

earweed

Good luck man!
Hopefully you'll get 2 wins in one day. 2 tests in one day has to be hard but if you're prepared you should be OK. Claymoore does it quite often so it's not impossible.

genXrcist

za3bour wrote: »

Wow two exams in one day, I've never done it do you think it's easy to do so ? EMA is my first goal for 2011 so keep us posted and good luck

No, not easy but given the subject matter is the same it's definitely doable. It just means I've got to really buckle down and pound 'em out.

earweed wrote: »

Good luck man!
Hopefully you'll get 2 wins in one day. 2 tests in one day has to be hard but if you're prepared you should be OK. Claymoore does it quite often so it's not impossible.

Thanks bro! It would really be slick to be able to walk out of there as an EMA!

CChilderhose

So how did the tests go? Did you pass both?

Let us know as these 2 are on my list after 643 & 647.

genXrcist

Hey there! Thanks for the inquiry but I had to re-schedule them mid-December because of the VDI job I got. Basically, I needed to brush up on VMware so Exchange was put on hold. I still plan on taking them both at the same time but need to get some other things settled on the home front first. Stay tuned!

Claymoore

Good luck on both exams! The 663 is next on my list (January or February) after my SCCM retake in December.

aaronchristenson

I am taking 662 in 2 weeks. I sat through the class at New Horizons. The class was not too bad. I do not have any practice exams to take at this time. I should do fine, but I have a voucher for second shot in case.

genXrcist

Well, looks like all the testing centers are filled up with the CompTIA exam takers so I was unable to schedule both exams for the same day.

I did schedul 70-7662 for Dec. 28th and 70-663 a week later on January 4th though. I'll post the results!

CChilderhose

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I sit the 70-643 on the 28th and then 70-647 probably end of January to get my EA. Then on to Exchange 2010.

jibbajabba

Good luck - I have to get 662 and 663 until end of March latest but also been through both, CBT Nuggets and Trainsignal and run now Exchange for all my private mail ... Hope you'll make it ;-£

genXrcist

C'est la vie, I didn't pass. Scored a 567 in fact. Very disappointing because of all the training I went through. Granted, the class sucked so that didn't really help. In the end, the questions on the exam were of a different nature than what I saw in the CBTNuggets video and the MSPress book. None of the categories on the results page were less than the 60% mark but only one bar was over 80%.

In all I feel good about Exchange 2010 and having actually performed a live 2003 to 2010 production upgrade I can honestly say I'm ready to move on. However, I would like to get a pass so I've licked my wounds and prepared myself for one more push.

I'm going to be reading the areas I scored low in at Technet, as well as the subjects that pertained to questions I had no clue about. I'm even considering just purchasing a Transcender for the exam to really shore up my knowledge.

In the end my advice to people is to really know the ECP, IRM & Federated Services.

Tentative Retake Date: 1/11/11

pham0329

genXrcist wrote: »

In the end my advice to people is to really know the ECP, IRM & Federated Services.

I was hoping that I could get by without knowing IRM & Federated Services too well as long as I know the rest....damnit!

I feel like I should take the exam just to see what it focuses on so that I have a better feel of what to study for. Ayhow, good luck next time.

genXrcist

pham0329 wrote: »

I was hoping that I could get by without knowing IRM & Federated Services too well as long as I know the rest....damnit!

I feel like I should take the exam just to see what it focuses on so that I have a better feel of what to study for. Ayhow, good luck next time.

Thanks bro! Sorry, wish I could tell you otherwise. Oh, and be sure to have a good handle of what can be done in PowerShell vs. the console.

Has anyone purchased the Transcender on this one?

genXrcist

Well, purchased the Transcender online simulation for this exam and will be going through that for the next couple of weeks. So far I've answered 35 questions and can say that this has the same feel as the real exam so I should have no problem passing on my next attempt.

genXrcist

Taking this again on Friday @ 1400 CST. Transcender has helped a lot!

Asif Dasl

Good Luck!

CChilderhose

So what were the results of the retake? Did Transcender help this time?

genXrcist

I'll find out tomorrow morning at 9am! My last Preset Exam was an 87% so I think I'm ready now. Actually doing some last minute prep right now!

genXrcist

Ugh. Failed again with a 586. Not even a 20 point bump from my first attempt. Very disappointing.

Of the 53 questions I marked 16 for review because I just wasn't sure about them. After I finished I went through all 16 again and made a few changes which made me feel pretty good...like I was gonna pass. I was honestly surprised when I didn't.

I'm giving this one more try in a week after I research the ones I marked but if I fail again then I'm gonna wait until my work environment has migrated from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 and I've worked with it a while.

It's not a matter of understanding the material, I'm good on that and in fact I'm comfortable migrating today if I had to. What I'm weak on is knowing all the different command-lets & syntax/options in the EMS. I've never administered 2007 so I really don't have that built-up knowledge that comes from administering as opposed to just memorizing commands. I'm also weak on whether or not something can be done in the EMC vs. the EMS only.

So that's the plan. One more crack in approx. a week and then again in a year or so once we've been running 2010 for a while.

Transcender helped me understand new Exchange 2010 features but honestly I think I had like 2 questions on the real exam that were asking about material that the Transcender explained.

Hope this helps someone.

Asif Dasl

Hard luck genXrcist, better luck next time.

jibbajabba

Ugh ... Taking mine Feb.22 - although I am running my own Exchange and private emails from it for a while now, I thought Transcender is the way to go ... Guess not then

Chivalry1

Sorry better luck next time. I recommended beefing up that home lab.

genXrcist

Thanks guys. Btw, my Exchange lab consists of (2) Exchange servers, a DC, a Witness share running on a member server and a couple of additional PCs.

Any suggestions on beefing this up?

Chivalry1

genXrcist wrote: »

Thanks guys. Btw, my Exchange lab consists of (2) Exchange servers, a DC, a Witness share running on a member server and a couple of additional PCs.

Any suggestions on beefing this up?

Wow sounds like a good lab! If I had to make any additional suggestion would be to setup a separate domain and exchange server. Get use to setting up federated trust. This also helps into understand email flow and configuration.

genXrcist

Good tip and sounds like fun to boot! Does it cost anything to setup a Federated trust through Microsoft?

peakbagger66

Did you do any of the practice tests that came with the MSPress book? Wondering how close to the exam they are.

thanks!

genXrcist wrote: »

C'est la vie, I didn't pass. Scored a 567 in fact. Very disappointing because of all the training I went through. Granted, the class sucked so that didn't really help. In the end, the questions on the exam were of a different nature than what I saw in the CBTNuggets video and the MSPress book. None of the categories on the results page were less than the 60% mark but only one bar was over 80%.

In all I feel good about Exchange 2010 and having actually performed a live 2003 to 2010 production upgrade I can honestly say I'm ready to move on. However, I would like to get a pass so I've licked my wounds and prepared myself for one more push.

I'm going to be reading the areas I scored low in at Technet, as well as the subjects that pertained to questions I had no clue about. I'm even considering just purchasing a Transcender for the exam to really shore up my knowledge.

In the end my advice to people is to really know the ECP, IRM & Federated Services.

Tentative Retake Date: 1/11/11

jibbajabba

genXrcist wrote: »

Good tip and sounds like fun to boot! Does it cost anything to setup a Federated trust through Microsoft?

Setting up the federated trust doesn't cost anything per-se. What does cost - and sometimes a lot - is the x.509 certificate required, as it is very specific to the federation trust. Not every SSL cert can be used for it ... Plus you need someone setting the trust up with you so you can "play" with calendar informations, free / busy schedules, sharing polcies etc.

If you do have a lot of "kit" and two domains to play with and you don't mind the costs involved, get two certs and get going.

Trusted Root Certification Authorities for Federation Trusts: Exchange 2010 SP1 Help

peakbagger66 wrote: »

Did you do any of the practice tests that came with the MSPress book? Wondering how close to the exam they are.

thanks!

Some books coming with a small selection of MeasureUp - they supposed to be harder than the real ones, hence making it very likely to pass. Having said that - a few guys came back from a training course for Server 2008 exams and they got a month pass for MeasureUp - around 2% of the answeres were plain wrong and didn't even make sense ... So personally I'd stay away from them and maybe pay a bit more but get Transcender instead.

Whatever you get, make sure you test with http://www.certguard.com/ to make sure you don't buy any braindumps.

peakbagger66

Gomjaba wrote: »

Some books coming with a small selection of MeasureUp - they supposed to be harder than the real ones, hence making it very likely to pass. Having said that - a few guys came back from a training course for Server 2008 exams and they got a month pass for MeasureUp - around 2% of the answeres were plain wrong and didn't even make sense ... So personally I'd stay away from them and maybe pay a bit more but get Transcender instead.

Whatever you get, make sure you test with CertGuard | IT Certification Exam Security & Integrity to make sure you don't buy any braindumps.

Definitely going to purchase Transcender, but I want one more for a different "perspective".

I used Measureup for the 70-667 Sharepoint test and found it to be quite useful. It seems like what they do is ask questions inspired by the "live" test. Not exactly the same question reworded, but with the same concept and if you read and understand the explanations you can work out the correct answer on the exam. Not sure if I am making sense there.

I have also used Self Test in the past and found it to be really good too, so I am not sure which to go with.

jibbajabba

You can't really getting used to setting this up without getting proper x.509 Cerys (expensive) and setting up two domains in order to actually test this. Setting up FT is a next next next action really - configuring policies a whole different matter.

peakbagger66

Gomjaba wrote: »

Setting up the federated trust doesn't cost anything per-se. What does cost - and sometimes a lot - is the x.509 certificate required, as it is very specific to the federation trust. Not every SSL cert can be used for it ... Plus you need someone setting the trust up with you so you can "play" with calendar informations, free / busy schedules, sharing polcies etc.

If you do have a lot of "kit" and two domains to play with and you don't mind the costs involved, get two certs and get going.

Trusted Root Certification Authorities for Federation Trusts: Exchange 2010 SP1 Help

I am considering exploring this in my studies. In the help link mentioned above they also indicate that you can use a self-signed cert. I didn't read it thoroughly, so maybe I missed something. Is there any reason the self signed would not work?