Question for the certified MCITP-EA's out there

LAN_Guru

I am taking the exams in a twisted sequence due to the availability dates of the 2nd Edition books. I took 642 first, then 680 today. I did well on both of those exams. The remaining exams will be taken in sequence 640, 643, 647. From your experiences, what is the relative difficulty of 640, 643, and 647 compared to what I have already passed? I have read that people save 680 for last because it tests a lot of skills that were already studied in previous exams. Can it work in my favor that I did so well on 680 and have a firm grasp of those technologies already?

Thanks in advance. You guys (and this site) rock!

Tommy

Essendon

IMO, 640 is a 4 out of 10. 643 is a 7. The 647 is the beast at a 9, simply because of the broad spectrum of topics and the design aspect.

LAN_Guru

Essendon wrote: »

IMO, 640 is a 4 out of 10. 643 is a 7. The 647 is the beast at a 9, simply because of the broad spectrum of topics and the design aspect.

Where does 680 fall in there? 647 sounds like 680, covers a lot of different ground.

Essendon

Havent taken the 680 but covers a lot of topics based on what I have read on here. You, for one wouldnt have too many issues with the 647.

LCA

My rankings of the 5 MCTIP:EA exams would be (out of 10):

647 = 9
643 = 7
640 = 5
642 = 5
680 = 5

680 I think trips so many people up because it gets taken lightly as it's only a 'client' exam. It does actually require good knowledge of the decent range of networking and server topics and not just desktop operating systems.

LAN_Guru

Exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I hope more of the EA's chime in.

I really learned with 270 not to take the workstation OS exams lightly. I had been using and supporting XP for 5 years before I took the exam. I accepted a job with a consulting company and after we did the paperwork so I could start in a week, he said there was a stipulation. I had to pass 270 within 5 days so he could keep his Gold Partner status with Microsoft. I overnighted the book from Amazon on Monday, received the book on Tuesday, studied Tues through Thurs (no labs), and took the exam Thurs evening. I passed with a 790 but would have bet you 5 days before that i would make 900 or better on an XP exam. I was only able to study just over half the book in 3 days, but still, that exam bit me. 99.9% of us have never used the enterprise features and deployment tools in the workstation operating systems hence why we get bit by the exams.

Moral of the story: I don't care how well you know something, never take these exams lightly. I failed 642 in March...my one and only failed exam. I was not prepared for the exam... read 60ish pages of the 1st edition book, did no labs, etc. I was working on a big Citrix deployment and just didn't have a lot of spare time to study. Same guy threw a last-minute exam at me (for Microsoft Gold level, go figure)! I knew I wasn't prepared and made a 550 on the exam. I had never heard of DirectAccess, BranchCache, etc. I will never get caught with my pants down by a tech exam again, never.

neathneathneath

I've not done the 647 yet but I have passed the SA 646.

These exams (646 and 647) are tougher than the others as they are a PRO series exam rather than the MCTS exams. i.e. they are the final exams which encompass all the previous exams in some way.