How long did you study for 70-680 before taking the exam?

I have gone through all the Messer nuggets and have been going through the MS 70-680 book. I also have been labbing in VM sessions.

This thing seems like it could take 6 months to get ready for. I'll be honest I thought going in, it could be done in 1-2 months. Without serious admin knowledge this is an uphill battle.

Any secrets to this?

I've installed dual boot, and done all the different types of installs including an install off a USB to a netbook. I've start to set up a network share on a VM session of server 2008 180 day trial.

Do you think labbing 70-80% of the time would be enough or should the mix be closer to 50/50?

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Comments

Psoasman

I studied for about 2 months. I spent most of my time labbing through the exam objectives and reading up in Technet for clarification. The MS press 680 was poorly written, so you'll need another source, if using that one.

I found that reading through some of the material on the 686 exam helped later on with getting some of the concepts, I wished I had gone through the 686 at the same time I was going through the 680, as that would have cleared up some things for me.

MrAgent

1 week here... I used the MS Press book... but I also barely passed with a 700. I used the free voucher from dreamspark, and I only had a week before it expired other wise I would have studied longer.

Mokilok

3 weeks here. I used the William Panek Cybex book but it had a few errors so I would recommend finding something better if you can.

Also I was lucky in that I had access to server 2008 R2 Technology at work so I already had some experience in this area. This exam relies heavily upon technology that wouldn't even ordinarily be used by a Technician as such.

The exam was definately not easy I only passed with a 734 but now I am studying the MCITP 70-685 DST and its cross covering some content done in 70-680 which is making this cert seem a lot easier.

N2IT

Thanks for the replies.

I'll keep plucking away. I am hopefully I will gain some traction shortly. I think once I get the imaging part down and the different exe associated with Windows 7 along with labbing I should be good to go.

KenC

About 2 months for me - I found the Messer videos to be very good for this exam. From what I remember, certain little gotchas and specific requirements of features that he mentioned in the course of his videos seemed to be asked, and I remembered him mentioning them.

It will very much depend on your experience to date, as I did not struggle with questions on certain sections, e.g. networking, due to troubleshooting experience that I have.

Know deployment, working with desktop images, and what features are present in what versions.

Good luck.

rmaster1

I studied for about a month, but got serious for the last two weeks. Used the Poulton book, parts of the MS Press book, and the Messer videos at the last minute to get a good refresher. It can be done!

Claymoore

I studied about a week using the technet and community resources posted in the forum. I took it on the first or second day of the beta exam period and passed it with a 900. I eventually got around to installing the Win7 RC a couple of months after I took the test.

N2IT

Claymoore wrote: »

I studied about a week using the technet and community resources posted in the forum. I took it on the first or second day of the beta exam period and passed it with a 900. I eventually got around to installing the Win7 RC a couple of months after I took the test.

LOL

Good stuff, I think I will require a little more time than that

Akaricloud

I didn't really study per se but I spent months working with deployment methods in an enterprise environment and had probably researched everything the test was on at one point or another.

Scored in the mid 900's!

Ch@rl!3m0ng

I studied for about 2-3 months for this. I read the MS press book which was poor to be fair. Once I had read it through once I then went through it again doing all the labs in VM's and using technet more than the book as i said I felt it was poor.

xirtlook

I studied for a month. 8-12hours a day (studying at work), including weekends.
I watched TrainSignal videos, Professor Messer videos, and read the Microsoft Press book.
I have vmware workstation, Server 2008 R2, and 3-4 Windows 7 ENT clients for lab practice.

2-3 months seems like pretty good timing, but my job was pushing for me to hurry up and pass this test. Coworkers did it in 2-3 weeks.

Devilry

N2IT, don't mean to jack your thread.

Everyone here says the MS Press kit sucks, I just got it, although I have not started yet.

What does everyone recommend using for study material? Would love to know, so I don't waste time.