70-680 Another Fail Story

eliphas0

Sat the 70-680 today and felt I have a good mastery of the topics and subject matter going in.
Well I can thank the MS Pres Guide for that false sense of security, (and my 556 Score)
Despite numerous negative reviews of it (and my own distaste for it) I used it and the Prep Logic Megaguide, which is essentially a recap of the MS Press Book.

Many of the questions had little to do with Windows 7 or its features, which I know I was able to answer correctly due to studying for the 70-642 and passing the 70-622.

My Best Advice is practice using 7 in a Domain with Server 2008 and use Something other than the MS Press Guide for this (or the 70-622 Exam) and to give yourself more than a week and a half to prepare.

I will be retaking the the exam in the form of the 70-682. Sometime in the next few months.

Psoasman

Sorry to hear you didn't pass. If you are going for the 682, then you should study for the 685 as well. the 682 covers material from both exams.
Darril Gibson's book covering the 685/686 is pretty good. I've heard good things about Poulton's book as well.

LCA

Sorry to read you missed out.

Re that MS Press guide you mention. It's not a very good manual and is inadequate for 680 IMHO.

eliphas0

LCA, do you have any suggestions for other materials I can use.

I just looked over reviews for the Sybex and other Guide listed up top and both of those received poor reviews as well.

I'm going to generally avoid the MS Press Guides in the future as I nearly failed the 70-622 and felt that had a lot to do with the MS Press Guide.

I do plan on taking advantage of the Testout free trial for the 70-680, do you
or anyone have an opinion on it?

Thanks

Excellent1

I'd recommend Don Pouton's book: Amazon.com: MCTS 70-680 Cert Guide: Microsoft Windows 7, Configuring (9780789747075): Don Poulton: Books

Also, give Darril Gibson's a look, as well: Amazon.com: Windows 7 Desktop Support and Administration: Real World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond (Exams 70-685 and 70-686) (9780470597095): Darril Gibson: Books

The Gibson book isn't written specifically for 680, but it covers a LOT of the objectives, and is well written, in my opinion. Both of these resources helped me pass (along with several others on this site), but most of all, I'd advise you to lab as much as you can. Use the migration tools, use the deployment tools, use the monitoring tools, etc. Be especially aware of the new features in Windows 7 (i.e., what's changed since Vista), as many of the new features are focus points.

Good luck.

LCA

eliphas0 wrote: »

LCA, do you have any suggestions for other materials I can use.
Thanks

The Windows 7 Resource Kit is sometimes dry reading but covers a lot of territory that is in the exam.

The other essential source is Technet even if it takes a bit of digging around sometimes to find stuff. Many of the 680 topics such as deployment etc are covered under Windows Server 2008 R2 topics in the Technet library.

The aforementioned Technet Library has numerous walkthroughs of all the essential topics. Labbing the deployment stuff is essential as it helps remembering the myriad of command prompt stuff that MS loves to stuff in their exams.

Jourdsh

Professor Messer has a a number of free videos available on the 70-680. The MS press book is a little dry and sometimes having someone talk about it a bit helps you to learn it.

Definitely do the labs, I didn't need to set up a server to pass it, and am not sure that would be a lot of help for this exam. (others sure, but I think the time and money could be spent better for this exam.)

eliphas0

Thanks LCA,

I disagree Jourdsh, several of the questions I saw asked directly to Server 2008 with little to no reference to Windows 7 itself. Also Ive no idea why you are spending money to setup VMs, but there are plenty of free solutions such as Virtual Box.

Thank you all for your input, please keep in mind I am looking for input for material not advised on my study skills or technique.

Krunchi

Have to agree with you the MS PRESS books are missing vital information are they give the wrong information. For the 70-623 exam the first time I used only the MS PRESS book and crashed and burned on the exam I ordered the Sybex book studied it then retook the test and passed with a pretty high score I used Self Test each time also.

You'll get it next time btw why don't you just take the 70-682 bridge exam since you have the 70-622? From my research it's a mix of 680 and 685.

NOLAJ

eliphas0 wrote: »

Thank you all for your input, please keep in mind I am looking for input for material not advised on my study skills or technique.

Darril's 685/686 book is a great compliment to the 70-680 exam.

LCA

eliphas0 wrote: »

Thanks LCA,

Several of the questions I saw asked directly to Server 2008 with little to no reference to Windows 7 itself.

It's over a year since I did 680 but I do remember questions that expected me to know quite a bit about specific Server 2008 R2 technologies in order to attempt to find the correct answer.

Timelord

I have to say, this Video Links resource for the 70-680 is really popular in our office right now.