Recently acquired A+ & N+ and now going for 70-680

QuietOne

Hi guys, I keep coming here just to ask questions and I do apologise. I recently passed A+ & N+ and I want to go the Microsoft route. I was thinking of starting with the 70-680 and then go for the 685 and 686 and I was wondering what is the best study material to use?

I've been reading on here that Microsoft test are a beast and requires a lot of labbing. Thanks in advance.

embraceIT

I've picked up on the same things as you. My study materials are a mix of online videos, books and lab. I've been studying for almost two months.

The videos are produced by Prof. Messor and ITFreeTraining. (www.professormesser.com and www.itfreetraining.com , rspectively). I hear great things about CBNuggets, but I have not found where I can view them end-to-end.

The books are Don Poulton's 70-680 Certification guide (2011), and the Microsoft Official Academic Course book for the 70-680 and accompanying online lab. The MOAC lab is great, buy the way. Don't bother purchasing a lab book because the the lab exercises are downloadable once the virtual machines have been loaded (a Server 2008 instance and one or two Win 7 virtual machines). You have a degree of flexability to ignore the exercises and just utilize the virtual environment. Still, there are things that can't be done in the MOAC virtual labs, so that leads into making your own lab.

Last week I made modest upgrades to my PC, installed Windows 7 Ultimate (thru eBay at a discount), installed Oracle's VirtualBox freeware, installed a free trial version of Server 2008. So I have my own lab now. Hit small snags along the way, but it was a good learning experience. Right now, I prefer the MOAC lab environment to my own lab. Setting things up in my own lab is cumbersome, but the experience (good and bad) is priceless. There are probably better ways to create and maintain my lab. I'm probably taking all the wrong approaches right now. If you come across any write-ups on "Best Practices" in creating and maintaining one's own lab, let me know!

Good luck on your studies.

barringtonjr

Do alot of lab with imagex, i mean alot, I did so many that I liked doing it. Its very easy, just keep practicing.

embraceIT

I've read the same things you have: the 70-680 is a hard exam to pass.

As my primary reference material, I'm using Don Poulton's book and Microsoft's ITOnlineAcademy 70-680 textbook and online lab (MOAC). I supplement these with videos I find on the internet and Windows 7 Ultimate which I've installed on my PC.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I am taking the right approach. Time will tell.