passed 70-680 first certification exam!

ehnde

I'm no longer a poser

I passed an exam!

'ed for this for the past 3 months roughly 10 hours per week. My score was 812/1000

Installing, Upgrading, and Migrating to Windows 7 100%
Deploying Windows 7 100%
Configuring Hardware and Applications 90%
Configuring Network Connectivity 80%
Configuring Access to Resources 80%
Configuring Mobile Computing 100%
Monitoring and Maintaining Systems that Run Windows 7 100%
Configuring Backup and Recovery Options 100%

I used CBT Nuggets Windows 7 Configuring videos, the 70-680 exam objectives link in these forums, the Microsoft Self-Paced Training Kit, and various virtual machines in my ESXi lab to do the labs in the Microsoft book.

Next up is the A+ exam....should be taking that next week.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

earweed

Congrats...Don't forget to add it to your cert list.

Repo Man

Congrats on the pass.

I'm taking longer than I'd like to pass this exam but I want to do all of the labs (especially the deployment ones) and it's been difficult with my setup.

veritas_libertas

Congratz!

ehnde

Repo Man wrote: »

Congrats on the pass.

I'm taking longer than I'd like to pass this exam but I want to do all of the labs (especially the deployment ones) and it's been difficult with my setup.

I think doing the labs helped me out more than anything else. Now that I see HOW to study for these exams, I've got a foundation to take the exams in the MCITP:SA series. The labs are very, very important. Reading would not have been enough for me. I suspect this is just as true in the SA and EA exams!

earweed

Labbing is really important in the MCITP:SA/EA exams. A lot of test questions you can get if you're good at remebering what steps you took and what choices were available at each step.

apena7

Congrats!

badboyeee

Congrats!

How difficult did you find this exam to be?? This might be my first MS exam to take, still deciding on that or just jump into the MCITP:SA trek.

ehnde

badboyeee wrote: »

Congrats!

How difficult did you find this exam to be?? This might be my first MS exam to take, still deciding on that or just jump into the MCITP:SA trek.

I thought it was hard, not going to lie. It's amazing how much this exam covers considering it's just about configuring Windows 7! But anyone that read the exam objectives ahead of time would have known this.

If you have a background in XP and vista this could give you a false sense of security, but it's true what people say on techexams about microsoft exams: they emphasize new features! It helps to be very familiar with WAIK. Having used Windows 7 for the past year is not enough to pass this exam. I would have underestimated this exam. TE saved me from that. People having the guts to post that they failed saved my butt. Thank you for scaring sense into me.

It helps to have a basic working knowledge of subnetting, IPv4 and IPv6. I seem to have been weakest in this area. Sorry if I'm being vague, trying to not violate the NDA.

badboyeee

ehnde wrote: »

I thought it was hard, not going to lie. It's amazing how much this exam covers considering it's just about configuring Windows 7! But anyone that read the exam objectives ahead of time would have known this.

If you have a background in XP and vista this could give you a false sense of security, but it's true what people say on techexams about microsoft exams: they emphasize new features! It helps to be very familiar with WAIK. Having used Windows 7 for the past year is not enough to pass this exam. I would have underestimated this exam. TE saved me from that. People having the guts to post that they failed saved my butt. Thank you for scaring sense into me.

It helps to have a basic working knowledge of subnetting, IPv4 and IPv6. I seem to have been weakest in this area. Sorry if I'm being vague, trying to not violate the NDA.

Thanks for the info! Hmmm a lil scary, XP is where most of my experience is. I might do XP then, I just want to get my feet wet with MS certs.

joshmadakor

Grats Dude! That's going to be my first MS Cert too! When I get around to it that is.

badboyeee wrote: »

Thanks for the info! Hmmm a lil scary, XP is where most of my experience is. I might do XP then, I just want to get my feet wet with MS certs.

Probably won't make a difference as far as difficulty, as both will probably cover a lot of material that you aren't familiar with. I would go with whichever you think is more useful

Psoasman

Congrats on your pass!

elkristo

how many questions for the 70-680 exam and need to have 700/1000?

Psoasman

You need 700 to pass and the number of questions varies. I have heard between 40-60 questions.

themagicone

Congrats! I'm scared too to take this this. Looking at your score % you got around 94% avg yet that is only good for 812! Seems they are very tough on grading. Congrats again.

ruderger

Yay I password 70-680 today, also got 812, pretty similar to original poster:
Installing, Upgrading, and Migrating to Windows 7 100%
Deploying Windows 7 80% ?
Configuring Hardware and Applications 100%
Configuring Network Connectivity 70% ?
Configuring Access to Resources 70% ?
Configuring Mobile Computing 100%
Monitoring and Maintaining Systems that Run Windows 7 100%
Configuring Backup and Recovery Options 100%

There were heaps of questions I wasn't 100% sure about. I used CBT Nuggets, MS Press Book. I had already done 70-685 and I think that helped a bit. Sat 70-685 3 months ago, spent the last 2 weeks really studying for 70-680 to pass before christmas

N2IT

Great certification to start off with!

Nice job!

I have to admit this one intimidates me.

Sounds Good

how hard would you say this test is in comparison to one of three CompTIA exams? (finding them extremely easy) put it on a scale of 1-10 if you can.

bdub

Sounds Good wrote: »

how hard would you say this test is in comparison to one of three CompTIA exams? (finding them extremely easy) put it on a scale of 1-10 if you can.

The A+, Network+, and Security+ are all much easier than the 70-680 IMO. The format is the same and the way the questions are asked is very similar. Biggest difference is MS exams tend to ask more obscure questions whereas CompTIA asks more broad and generalized questions. Also MS is better at making it harder to quickly eliminate wrong answers, whereas CompTIA you can pretty much rule out 2 of the 4 answers the instant you read them.