Am I the only one 70-647

za3bour

Am I the only one who hates studying for 70-647 ? I started studying
last Sunday and till now I'm still at Chapter #1 Lesson #1 of MS Book.

I'm using two books the MS self study book and Sybex book I havn't read the Sybex book yet but reading through first chapter of MS book wasn't easy at all.

It seems this exam is so different than any other MCITP exam I took, I truly find it HARD to read and a bit overwhelming.

I really appreciate any notes from this test takers and readers , ways to study it how to prepare for the exam ..etc.

I didn't schedule it yet but I'm planning to do so before end of year hopefully in mid December so that I can take the rest of Dec off studying.

I hope that Sybex book is better and easier to read, I usually finish first book then read the next book. I'm also planning to use R2 unleached book.

za3bour

wow, 44 readings and not a single repl0y

earweed

I would have replied but I'm not up to studying the 70-647 yet and I don't really have the available working brain cells to really have anything worthwhile to say.

za3bour

That's ok, it seems not a lot did take this exam or are currently studying for it. I just want to know if the way I'm studying is why I'm not progressing or it's something common for this particular exam.

LCA

I haven't looked seriously at 647 just yet as I'm in the middle of 643 study but I do have the Sybex and MS Self-Paced Training books. 647 definitely looks like it's almost exclusively about designing, planning and the advanced administration of large networks.

While both of the books have their good points neither goes deep enough for my liking. For me it will be about using Technet and 2008 reskits. The reskits cover designing and planning in some detail especially the PKI and Certificate Security book by Brian Komar which is very detailed, also the Active Directory book which has a lot of good information.

Designing and planning networks are topics that really row my boat so I'm looking forward to studying them. More fun than studying IIS...........

za3bour

LCA wrote: »

Designing and planning networks are topics that really row my boat so I'm looking forward to studying them. More fun than studying IIS...........

It is for me too, I did skip a lesson and now I'm in Chapter #2 (Design AD) which seems more fun so will see.

IIS was not fun at all but on the other hand I'm not interacting that much with it in my work so it was pure study for me nothing more.

Essendon

I am taking it on tomorrow at about 1pm our time, we'll see how it goes. I'll give it all but I'll count it as a trial run if I dont get over the line, especially with all the R2 stuff that's on these days.

za3bour

Essendon wrote: »

I am taking it on tomorrow at about 1pm our time, we'll see how it goes. I'll give it all but I'll count it as a trial run if I dont get over the line, especially with all the R2 stuff that's on these days.

Good luck for you, what materials did you use for study ? and please keep us posted.

erpadmin

Dude, you are still a beast (in that good way, by the way).

Do you utilize any practice exams at all before you sit for the real thing? Or do you just feel confident in your studies and just sit for that bad boy?

Essendon

TBH I only used practice exams for the MCSA and the 83-640, havent used any since. The MeasureUps are crap and Transcenders are unaffordable. I used LabSim for the 70-284, the practice exams were ok but the CBT's were horrible. So since then, it's only been my own lab, TechNet, CBT Nuggets and MS Press. Generally this combo has been enough, let's see how I go against the 647 tomorrow. I am feeling strangely confident about it, unlike how I have felt before other exams. So whether it's for good or bad, we'll find out tomorrow.

za3bour

erpadmin wrote: »

Dude, you are still a beast (in that good way, by the way).

Do you utilize any practice exams at all before you sit for the real thing? Or do you just feel confident in your studies and just sit for that bad boy?

I only use the practice test that come with the book, I can't afford to buy extra practice test. My strategy is simple I usually do an assessment test before I even touch the books then I read the books then read them again I take a lot of notes during this and finally two days before the test itself I read notes and do practice exams.

It's been working so far but gotta say this exam is different, it's all about design and it's pretty complex. Labbing alone won't do it you gotta be familiar with complex/large network which I am not.

I was planning to do the test in Nov but this seems impossible now. I will be really happy to finish it before 2010 end. I have to do it so I started dedicating more time to study. I don't like it since this is taking time off my family but it's not an option now to just take a rest.

za3bour

Essendon wrote: »

TBH I only used practice exams for the MCSA and the 83-640, havent used any since. The MeasureUps are crap and Transcenders are unaffordable. I used LabSim for the 70-284, the practice exams were ok but the CBT's were horrible. So since then, it's only been my own lab, TechNet, CBT Nuggets and MS Press. Generally this combo has been enough, let's see how I go against the 647 tomorrow. I am feeling strangely confident about it, unlike how I have felt before other exams. So whether it's for good or bad, we'll find out tomorrow.

I don't see the Measureup as crap to be honest, I think they're good I havn't used Transcenders so I can't talk about them.

Please keep us posted about your 70-647 exam and good luck

valen

za3bour wrote: »

I only use the practice test that come with the book, I can't afford to buy extra practice test. My strategy is simple I usually do an assessment test before I even touch the books then I read the books then read them again I take a lot of notes during this and finally two days before the test itself I read notes and do practice exams.

It's been working so far but gotta say this exam is different, it's all about design and it's pretty complex. Labbing alone won't do it you gotta be familiar with complex/large network which I am not.

I was planning to do the test in Nov but this seems impossible now. I will be really happy to finish it before 2010 end. I have to do it so I started dedicating more time to study. I don't like it since this is taking time off my family but it's not an option now to just take a rest.

This is my strategy for MS exams too. I'm working on 70-647 now and I'm using the Sybex book. I'm not finding the material to be too difficult to follow, but I have a lot of on the job experience to draw from.

LCA

I've just started a preliminary survey of the 647 topics and it looks like I'll be doing a great deal of reading. As many others have noted here at TE it's an exam that isn't about how to do something it's about why are you designing the network infrastructure that way.

My plan is apart from the huge amount of reading is to do a complete refresh of what was in the other Windows Server exams. I'm also going to expand my current home network and tailor it as much as possible to my needs.

What also helps me a lot is the full time IT course I'm currently doing. At the moment we're building two networks one using NLB with a SharePoint farm, the other a network with failover clustering and multiple SQL Server boxes (setup as a virtual instance).

za3bour

valen wrote: »

This is my strategy for MS exams too. I'm working on 70-647 now and I'm using the Sybex book. I'm not finding the material to be too difficult to follow, but I have a lot of on the job experience to draw from.

I agree the job experience will make a big difference, too bad I'm working on a scale that's really smaller than what I'm studying that's why I'm finding it hard.

za3bour

LCA wrote: »

I've just started a preliminary survey of the 647 topics and it looks like I'll be doing a great deal of reading. As many others have noted here at TE it's an exam that isn't about how to do something it's about why are you designing the network infrastructure that way.

My plan is apart from the huge amount of reading is to do a complete refresh of what was in the other Windows Server exams. I'm also going to expand my current home network and tailor it as much as possible to my needs.

What also helps me a lot is the full time IT course I'm currently doing. At the moment we're building two networks one using NLB with a SharePoint farm, the other a network with failover clustering and multiple SQL Server boxes (setup as a virtual instance).

Good luck for you, the course will certainly help, and reading 640/642 materials as well.

Sabalo

I used the MS Press book and passed comfortably. The test was... to my thinking... an easy one.

za3bour

Sabalo wrote: »

I used the MS Press book and passed comfortably. The test was... to my thinking... an easy one.

Thanks, what do you think about studying itself was it hard or easy as well ?

za3bour

Things has been running more smoothly after finishing the first 3 chapters I'm kinda used to it more now.

I really hope and actually I should finish it before Dec 4th, some exciting news soon

earweed

Man, chapter 1 of the MS book is really hard to get into. Now I understand what you were talking about earlier. I need to get this knocked out by the middle of January at least. Not having the experience is gonna make this really hard for me.

Have you scheduled it yet za3bour?

Essendon

Yeah I felt that too. I am just sticking too TechNet and the Unleashed book, should be enough, might just try out LabSim for this exam too. Thoughts?

erpadmin

Is CBT Nuggets good for the 70-647? I'm liking LabSim for the the 70-642 so far, but if CBT Nuggets is best for the 70-647, I'll spring for that.

Essendon

I've found it to be good, like the Nuggets are, but of course, by itself it's not enough. But the ones I have dont have any R2 stuff. Maybe they will soon ?

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

Man, chapter 1 of the MS book is really hard to get into. Now I understand what you were talking about earlier. I need to get this knocked out by the middle of January at least. Not having the experience is gonna make this really hard for me.

Have you scheduled it yet za3bour?

MS book is just ugly, I scheduled it on Dec 20th I hope it's a realistic one. I have no problem in studying but some fun in the book won't hurt it's just dull and hard to follow.

Sybex book is better but what I really like is the unleached one. I'm not labbing a lot this time.

za3bour

Essendon wrote: »

Yeah I felt that too. I am just sticking too TechNet and the Unleashed book, should be enough, might just try out LabSim for this exam too. Thoughts?

I havn't try LabSim so I can't give you my opinion about it I don't know if the Unleached book is enough but it's really a good book.

earweed

The book was just too dry and boring so I tried it a new way. Watched Labsim for the whole lesson and tested and then reviewed the book for what I was weak on. I've got Trainsignal for this too and also watched those first few videos but like the labsim better. Going way better. Trying to just read the stuff straight out was getting to me and sapping my enthusiasm especially since there is way less you actually lab with 647 it seems. There is labbing you do but the material is more conceptual and less "configure it this way or that" it's more "this is why you might configure it this way or that way". The only labbing I've really done has been more to just keep me interested than actually needing to lab.
Doing the videos first I've progressed faster and gained a little more interest in the material.

earweed

About at the halfway point now. Man this covers a lot of material.
I'm still weak on DNS so going back over that material. Surprisingly Core identity and access management area was pretty easy for me to go through.

@Za3bour, how is changing jobs and moving affecting your studies?

LCA

I'm at the halfway mark with 647 as well. Seems like I'm gonna ending studying all of what was in 640, 642, and 643 solely from the design/planning perspective.

I installed System Centre Configuration Manager 2007 the other day to have a look at it. That is one tough install. I also did a couple of the Test Lab Guide scenarios where I ended up with a swag of servers one which has ForeFront UAG on it and is configured for Direct Access. Took me 12 hours to get things working and I still haven't quite finished yet. It was worthwhile building both the networks as I learnt a lot.

earweed

As far as actually "restudying everything" I seem to be catching on pretty good. I'm actually having to go back and look at some of the" little things" that apparently didn't stick very well earlier. Last week I had to go back through assigning and publishing apps through group policy as I forgot which one did which. It's due to so much time between tests, the stuff isn't fresh in my mind. The Big stuff seems easy.
The easy way to remember diff is you can't publish to computers > publishing takes interaction (install through add/semove programs) Assign can install app at next logon.

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

About at the halfway point now. Man this covers a lot of material.
I'm still weak on DNS so going back over that material. Surprisingly Core identity and access management area was pretty easy for me to go through.

@Za3bour, how is changing jobs and moving affecting your studies?

Well it's affecting my study very badly, I spent the last week doing paper work and the two weeks before it finishing some tasks at work so I wasn't really able to study (only one chapter).

I'm traveling tomorrow I think I will need few days to settle then I will hit studying really hard hoping that I can finish exam before end of 2010 which is not very realistic.

I do enjoy studying it more now after finishing the first half of the book.

Good luck for you guys as well

LCA

First a heads-up, I've added some more urls to the 647 resources sticky thread, mostly some new stuff about migration.

Overall I'm really enjoying studying 647, I don't find it especially hard, its mostly just refreshing and remembering and thinking about stuff in a different way. I'm planning on doing the exam at the end of January or early February.

Then it's onto SQL Server exams.