Opinions On The Best Learning and Lab Resources for 70-680

Hello to all!

Recently my employer has asked us to seek out the Microsoft 70-680 Certification. They would like a handful of us to attain this certification as soon as possible. As such, they have asked me what learning resources would be best to study from. They have also given me permission to set up a lab of any size to accommodate study of exam topics. So the question is, if you were in my shoes, what would you recommend?

So far, we have gotten the official 70-680 Book and accompanying CD. I have also built a lab consisting of 3 client machines, and two Dell PowerEdge R200 Servers all connected to each other on the same Cisco 3750 L3 Switch.

How would you lay out a lab? What study materials do you recommend? What practice tests do you recommend?

Thanks to many and all for their time and opinions

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Comments

ally_uk

Hey there

I tried using the 70-680 Ms Press book but got fed up because it's full of errors,

You cannot go wrong with this website Professor Messer, CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Microsoft Certification Training the videos are free very informative and easy to follow, the section on deployment is really good, I would also suggest using technet for further learning especially when it comes to the Server 2k8 side of things such as WDS.

As for books alot of people have said this book is good http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Desktop-Support-Administration-Certification/dp/0470597097/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327940253&sr=1-2

If you can afford it get the train signal videos, I don't recommend the CBT Nuggets series I found them lacking in detail and the guy talking has clearly had to much caffeine lol.

I personally would have a server setup so I can learn about WDS, I would also install WAIK and MDT2010, Use the server to get used to the deployment tools, then have one of the clients as a reference machine i.e use it to configure and capture the image (winpe, imagex) you wish to deploy, and have the other clients as test rigs to test the newly created image.

Currently I have one machine running Server 2k8 R2 you can obtain a free 180 day evaluation copy from Microsoft. My server is running Hyper-V in which I have Windows 7 Enterprise running virtually, I also have a separate laptop running windows 7 when required.

Hope this helps

Corndork2

We have got both the CBT Nuggets, and the Train Signal videos.

I am worried that we wont have enough practice questions to quiz ourselves on. Can anyone recommend a good practice test for the exam?

NOLAJ

Corndork2 wrote: »

We have got both the CBT Nuggets, and the Train Signal videos.

I am worried that we wont have enough practice questions to quiz ourselves on. Can anyone recommend a good practice test for the exam?

Transcender is normally pretty good.

Johnny Johnson

I agree with NOLAJ. Transcender is an excellent test-prep choice. As far as a book, I'm currently studying with the MCTS Guide to Microsoft Windows 7. The Course Technology series of books really helped me learn when I was going for the MCSE, and with Windows 7 it's no different. The book is very easy to understand and has multiple lab exercises for each chapter. Not to mention there are very few typos.

Here's a link in case you are interested. Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-70-680-Networking-Technology/dp/1111309779

barringtonjr

I watched the Trainsignal video which is excellent to have a video model to start the learning from, then read the Microsoft MCTS Config Win7 book, now I am currently reading the Windows 7 Exam cram to wrap everything up.

logisticalstyles

ally_uk wrote: »

I tried using the 70-680 Ms Press book but got fed up because it's full of errors,

This is soo true. I'm reading this book now and the errors are all over the place. I didn't pay for the book so I can't complain too much. I've never read a book with so many grammatical and factual errors.

Geronimo

Hmmm. I was just about to start reading the MS Press book in preparation for this cert. I guess I won't even bother opening it. Disappointing.

tr1x

Professor Messer! Seriously the best learning resource out there for this exam. Hours of lectures and labbing. Follow along with his labs and you'll really have the information down pat.