70-686 Passed =)

Limped in with 730 - did well in all areas apart from "Designing Client Configurations" where I only got 50% questions right so the score took a big hit there.

55 questions, 2 hours, 700 passing score.

I used the sybex (70-685 & 70-686) book and the measure up tests, in hindsight I think I'd recommed the official MS book which just concentrates on the 70-686 stuff over the sybex book though.

The measure up test questions were good and quite tough, probably harder than the exam questions, I found this with the 70-680 too.

Good luck to anyone else studying for this one...

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gateway

Well done!

I did the beta and found it quite tough. I scraped by even more with a 700

krusty83uk

Congrats on the pass.

I have been putting this exam off due to work and ill health over the past few months. I have been studying on and off using the MS book and hands on experience at work.

Any advice?

altjx

BasilF wrote: »

Limped in with 730 - did well in all areas apart from "Designing Client Configurations" where I only got 50% questions right so the score took a big hit there.

55 questions, 2 hours, 700 passing score.

I used the sybex (70-685 & 70-686) book and the measure up tests, in hindsight I think I'd recommed the official MS book which just concentrates on the 70-686 stuff over the sybex book though.

The measure up test questions were good and quite tough, probably harder than the exam questions, I found this with the 70-680 too.

Good luck to anyone else studying for this one...

Congrats! I've failed twice and working on my third attempt. Studying hard and doing a huge amount of labs. I've yet to read the official 70-686 book though but might consider doing so before taking this exam.

Psoasman

Congrats on your pass!

BasilF

krusty83uk wrote: »

Congrats on the pass.

I have been putting this exam off due to work and ill health over the past few months. I have been studying on and off using the MS book and hands on experience at work.

Any advice?

Well, I assume you've already done the 70-680 which will cover a fair amount of the exam content anyway - the 686 is more about the theory really. I got the CBT nuggets vids too but didn't watch them all, mainly cos I didn't have time but they seemed OK, but fairly mind numbing...

I'd just recommend the MS book, doing the lab questions / practise tests on the CD, then look at the measureup.com stuff too. Use the study mode (or review the test exams) to understand not just why an answer is right but why the other are wrong. Use technet for any gray areas and you should be good.

Personally I think studying on and off makes it harder, I'd rather slog it out for a 2/3 weeks and sit the exam while it's still fresh.

Good luck, you'll be fine

badboyeee

Congrats OP! thanks for the tips as well

NOLAJ

Congrats on the pass!!

sora

Congrats. I'm studying for the 70-686 as well.

krusty83uk

BasilF wrote: »

Well, I assume you've already done the 70-680 which will cover a fair amount of the exam content anyway - the 686 is more about the theory really. I got the CBT nuggets vids too but didn't watch them all, mainly cos I didn't have time but they seemed OK, but fairly mind numbing...

I'd just recommend the MS book, doing the lab questions / practise tests on the CD, then look at the measureup.com stuff too. Use the study mode (or review the test exams) to understand not just why an answer is right but why the other are wrong. Use technet for any gray areas and you should be good.

Personally I think studying on and off makes it harder, I'd rather slog it out for a 2/3 weeks and sit the exam while it's still fresh.

Good luck, you'll be fine

I have the MS book that is what i was using for most of my study as well at TechNet and other online sources. Your right studying on and off does make it harder. I’ve started again so I will give it a few weeks to see how ready I am for the exam or maybe sooner.

I am finding it a very theory heavy based exam a lot harder than you would expect.

I passed the 70-680 last year.

Russell

Russell

Jander1023

BasilF wrote: »

Well, I assume you've already done the 70-680 which will cover a fair amount of the exam content anyway - the 686 is more about the theory really. I got the CBT nuggets vids too but didn't watch them all, mainly cos I didn't have time but they seemed OK, but fairly mind numbing...

I'd just recommend the MS book, doing the lab questions / practise tests on the CD, then look at the measureup.com stuff too. Use the study mode (or review the test exams) to understand not just why an answer is right but why the other are wrong. Use technet for any gray areas and you should be good.

Personally I think studying on and off makes it harder, I'd rather slog it out for a 2/3 weeks and sit the exam while it's still fresh.

Good luck, you'll be fine

Agreed! I'll read the book, complete the exercises and then just pound practice questions for two weeks straight. I use Measure Up and also Kaplan. I run through the questions every day until I can complete them in exam mode consistently at close to 100%.

This strategy has been very solid for me. Hopefully, it'll work on the 686 before the end of May!

roninkai

So unfortunately I failed this one today. I've been studying hard, but botched this one as now that I've failed, I know where I went wrong.

I used Skillsoft videos for most of the topical material. Not impressed with Skillsofts format at all as the videos are very dry, hard to read on screen, and I dont retain as much. For 70-680 I used Professor Messer which were very good.

Also, I didn't do practice exams nearly enough. I got through some of them, but distracted myself with setting up my virtual lab rather than actually hammering through the practices. I'm using ************** to practice....and getting annoyed that almost 100% of the sim questions or drag and drop dont work and cant be scored. Make me not what to keep using it except for multiple choice.

But the big kicker was this...the exam started and said it was 50 questions. Then, upon beginning, it said it was 40. I was pretty confident I was doing ok and had finished the exam with about 50 minutes to kill. So I decided the check all my answers, taking as much time as I needed to review. When I finished with my review...the system then told me I had 10 case study questions to do. ****. I now only had 20 minutes to knock out 10 questions, which all relied on reading this very long and complex case study. So as you can guess, this part of the exam was rushed.

I didnt like how it really was a 50 question exam, but separated into 40 first. This would have been ok if it were more clear because then I wouldnt have spent so much time on my review knowing I had 10 questions still to go.

Oh well, I get a free 2nd shot. Next time should be no problem, but going to spend lots more time in lab/practice mode.