Windows 7 Cert Update

Hey everyone, so the last few weeks have been awesome fun.
Sorry for being so slow with replies, life is hectic right now! I have been doing 10-12 hour study and lab sessions since my pass until just yesterday morning. Passed my 70-685 and 70-686, I was surprised that the EDA took me 30 minutes and I passed with a 900+ score.
All of the questions are concepts I actually dealt with within my labs and real life, same with the 685 but my weakness in "having sleep the day of the exam" got me a lousy..
Well, a pass is a pass. Grr. Damn "Mobile Users" criteria. Ahah.
In short; If you have the Msoft press books, lab -everything-. Do it over and over. I found it useful to setup WSUS/WDS on my local network just so I could save time imaging my computers and VM's over and over. (I love multi port NIC's for this, sure it's not 1000 clients at once, but I managed 10-20 on my beast of a workstation) Also, if you don't already use a DC as a hobbyist, learn to do it- A lot of the networking portions required some form of Domain Controller, I just used my Asus Netbook to run the DC.
~Lab like crazy, every day
~Read the books (I recommend Msoft Press for all 3 exams, for each exam. Read all 3 and know all 3 before even taking the 680)
~Read these forums, every solution learned from here has aided me somehow.
~Read Technet, especially in Active Directory and Deployment best practices.
~Understand basics about AD for Server 2008R2, I am serious. I was freaked out by how much server stuff was involved.
~Have experience to ensure a 900+ score.
If anyone has any questions regarding Enterprise level deployments or troubleshooting, shoot away I'll do my best, albeit I warn you- I respond slowly, so make them good questions.
Sorry for being so slow with replies, life is hectic right now! I have been doing 10-12 hour study and lab sessions since my pass until just yesterday morning. Passed my 70-685 and 70-686, I was surprised that the EDA took me 30 minutes and I passed with a 900+ score.
All of the questions are concepts I actually dealt with within my labs and real life, same with the 685 but my weakness in "having sleep the day of the exam" got me a lousy..
Well, a pass is a pass. Grr. Damn "Mobile Users" criteria. Ahah.
In short; If you have the Msoft press books, lab -everything-. Do it over and over. I found it useful to setup WSUS/WDS on my local network just so I could save time imaging my computers and VM's over and over. (I love multi port NIC's for this, sure it's not 1000 clients at once, but I managed 10-20 on my beast of a workstation) Also, if you don't already use a DC as a hobbyist, learn to do it- A lot of the networking portions required some form of Domain Controller, I just used my Asus Netbook to run the DC.
~Lab like crazy, every day
~Read the books (I recommend Msoft Press for all 3 exams, for each exam. Read all 3 and know all 3 before even taking the 680)
~Read these forums, every solution learned from here has aided me somehow.
~Read Technet, especially in Active Directory and Deployment best practices.
~Understand basics about AD for Server 2008R2, I am serious. I was freaked out by how much server stuff was involved.
~Have experience to ensure a 900+ score.
If anyone has any questions regarding Enterprise level deployments or troubleshooting, shoot away I'll do my best, albeit I warn you- I respond slowly, so make them good questions.
:twisted:
Comments
A+;Net+;XP,MCP, Security+, Win 7: 70-680
The 680 was far more difficult than the 685 and 686, I see it as a huge trial and mountain of knowledge to hike, then the 685/6 are the rest stops at the bottom.
tl;dr- 680 is a foundation, the latter are specializations either in Troubleshooting said systems or Administering them.
Next step; Either take a week and do the MCDST combo (MCP title as well) and then continue into MCITP:EA. That one will be the 6-8 month trial through hell; I hate AD with a passion.