70-649 upgrade advice ?

Anyone.
Since completing the 2003 MCSE 6 months ago i have decided to now look at 'upgrading' to the 2008
version. Has anyone got any experience on taking 70-649 or think the combined 70-640,70-642
and 70-643 is another (maybe better) way to do it ?
I can get course work from my employer for the 70-649 but any recommendations would be welcome.
Rgds
D.S.

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MrAgent

Im working on 648 right now (MCSA upgrade to MCITP:SA), and I failed pretty bad the first time. I imagine that 649 is a lot tougher. Its definitely doable, but just be ready for some serious studying.

daninthemix

I just crashed and burned at 70-649, and I used Transcender to guage whether I was ready. DO NOT use Transcender! I was getting 90%+ on Transcender but the actual exam contained completely different stuff to the Transcender. Am sort of at a loss as to how to proceed with studying for this *****.

docspawn

daninthemix wrote: »

I just crashed and burned at 70-649, and I used Transcender to guage whether I was ready. DO NOT use Transcender! I was getting 90%+ on Transcender but the actual exam contained completely different stuff to the Transcender. Am sort of at a loss as to how to proceed with studying for this *****.

Thanks for reply, what did you use for study material ? I'm looking to use the Microsoft IT Academy program and ofcourse
Nuggets video.
D.S.

daninthemix

I have a subsciption to Safari Books online, so I used the Sybex and Microsoft study guides on there.

BruceRobertson

I took a look at the 70-649 and decided there would be so much to learn that I'd probably forever be putting off scheduling the exam.

Instead I decided on the unconventional route of taking 70-643 first to get back into the swing of taking MS exams and then took the 70-648 (i.e. combined 70-640 & 70-642) yesterday and passed. Personally I think its worked better for me. I could actually contemplate learning AD and Network Infrastructure at the same time and they dovetail better than trying to learn the Application Infrastructure stuff which is a bit of strange mix of topics and feels more like your training to be a MS sales consultant.

Only downside to sitting the 70-648 is that some of the AD topics they choose to focus on are either pretty boring or require a lot of work to setup in a lab. AD Rights Management and Federation services spring to mind... If you were sitting the 70-640 then those topics would form a small percentage of your overall score and you could choose not to devote too much time to them. On the 70-648 you can't choose to neglect those topics.

Only other thing I'd say is that MS still haven't got round to updating the skills measured page for the 70-648 however be in no doubt that that the exam has been updated to reflect W2K8 R2. Use the 70-648 Skills Measured page as only a guide to the main topics covered and then look at those topic headings on the 70-640 and 70-642 skills measured page for an accurate picture of the detail. As an example you won't find DirectAccess mentioned under "Configuring Network Access" on the 70-648 skills measured page but it does show up on the 70-642 skills measured page under the same heading.

docspawn

Thanks all for reply, i'll need to first of all buy a new computer for lab work and check out options.
I'll update anyone who's interested.
Good luck
D.S.

Todd Burrell

I took this exam about 6 months ago and I found it to be a royal pain. It has three sections and about 15-20 questions per section - so there is absolutely no room for error. My work is paying for me to take the exams so if I had it to do over I would take 640, 642 and 643 as separate tests. But if you choose to take just 649 I would use the 640, 642 and 643 books to prepare.
I took the test twice to pass it, but I just thought that the format made it VERY hard to pass.

Good luck.