70-680 - Failed

excalibur1814

Third time now! It's the first exam I'm trying to pass after a long break but I'll crack it next time. How long do I have to wait before I can sit this again?

100% - Install, Upgrade, migrate Win 7
65% - Deploying Win7
50% - Config Hardware and applications
100% - Config network Connectivity
90% - Config Acces to resources
30% - Config mobile computing
100% - Monitoring and Maintain Win7
100% - Config Backup and Recovery options

For now I'm jumping straight to the 686/685 and then back to this one.

Why did I fail? I did no revision for this resit and once back home, I realised a few silly mistakes. I must read the sections of the book again as above. I'm only using the MS press book and actually thought that I'd fly through this one based on my other certs.

Again, I should never 'assume' things.

Swift6

3 times is a high for one cert. Have you considered using practise questions? they might be of help to you.

DoubleD

Whats the Scope on the Second Shot?
Do you have to use it by a certain time? Or can you retake the second shot when ever your ready? Just need to bear this in mine when Im ready to do mine

Daniel333

That test is no joke. Esoteric cli options. Disk images. Wds. Good luck on round 4!

zdq

Well, I have failed this exam twice already (both in December) ....
First time I got 616 and second time 666 (so there was an improvement ). Anyway, I'm going to learn harder and take another try later in January (in 2-3 weeks).

Seems that "network connectivity" and "config access to resources" were the weakest parts twice ...

What surprised me most was the low number of Win7 specific questions in the test ...
So far I used MS book (70-680 Self-paced traning kit) and both tests included questions dealing with topics which were not covered in that book ... good that in one case I knew the answer from my own Win7 experience (been using that OS since Sept. 2009).

Any tips/advices ?

TheSuperRuski

zdq wrote: »

Well, I have failed this exam twice already (both in December) ....
First time I got 616 and second time 666 (so there was an improvement ). Anyway, I'm going to learn harder and take another try later in January (in 2-3 weeks).

Seems that "network connectivity" and "config access to resources" were the weakest parts twice ...

What surprised me most was the low number of Win7 specific questions in the test ...
So far I used MS book (70-680 Self-paced traning kit) and both tests included questions dealing with topics which were not covered in that book ... good that in one case I knew the answer from my own Win7 experience (been using that OS since Sept. 2009).

Any tips/advices ?

I just bought the MCTS:70-680 book by Don Puolton(I feel like i am promoting this book) It doesnt have any reviews as it just came out in Nov. of 2010. I will plan to sit for the exam on the 11th but its looking more like 14th - 20th. I will re-post with my results.

Besides focusing on the material you are weak on, maybe getting other training materials will help. You say the book didn't cover some aspects of the test. Sounds like its time to get a new book.

shaX 07

Sorry to hear that, hope you pass next time.

I am also studying for this exam now, after reading so many fail threads, i'm going to be putting a lot of extra work into this..

zdq

And another thing:
this may be only my impression but the questions in practice tests from the dvd included with the book were totally different when compared with the real ones during the exam ...
They were much easier (maybe because they were "strict on the subject" while real exam questions are much more vague ...).

Strange thing given that this is a Microsoft Press book ...

TheSuperRuski

zdq wrote: »

And another thing:
this may be only my impression but the questions in practice tests from the dvd included with the book were totally different when compared with the real ones during the exam ...
They were much easier (maybe because they were "strict on the subject" while real exam questions are much more vague ...).

Strange thing given that this is a Microsoft Press book ...

Well I have seen post about how easy this test was a few months back to when it was first released. They probably made it harder.

If you haven't seen it, you should check out that Microsoft video someone posted in the off-topic forum(I think) It definitely adds to my theory.

zdq

Well, looking at the "Skills Measured" sections for both Vista and Win 7 exams the latter seems more difficult (more topics covered).

I'm going to pass it anyway, I'm really determined now (not to say "pissed off" ).

bettsy583

I have heard the exam consentrates heavily on the images section of the book? I think this is the hardest chapter in the book easily?

CChilderhose

bettsy583 wrote: »

I have heard the exam consentrates heavily on the images section of the book? I think this is the hardest chapter in the book easily?

Yep images and Deployment in general. If you have the chance to read some of the Server 2008 books that cover WDS then it also helps too with this exam because of the overlap.

zdq

There were 3-4 image related question in both of my 70-680 exam attempts ...
This topic (image creation and deployment) is the biggest part of most of the preparation books.

bettsy583

cheers guys someone else had said similar things, do you think its even a worth while cert as it dos not count towards mcitp?

shaX 07

bettsy583 wrote: »

cheers guys someone else had said similar things, do you think its even a worth while cert as it dos not count towards mcitp?

What do you mean? This Cert (70-680) counts towards many of the MCITP certs including: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician, Enterprise Desktop Administrator, and Enterprise Administrator.

TheSuperRuski

Yea shax 07 is right. The 70-680 counts toward a few of the MCITP tracks.

As far as on its own, I think it could be worthwhile to have if you were trying to work in a Windows 7 environment and especially if you were going to do deployments. Its not like they are all going to be done in one year. I saw the DMV computers JUST upgrade from MS-DOS to XP like 2 months ago.

zdq

MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional) | Training Courses for IT Professionals

Killermac

Nice thanks for the FYI.