Which should I do first, 70-680, or 70-640, 642, 643?

EruMais

Which would be the best path to take? Should I do 70-680 first, or would it be better to do the MCSA first? I've read somewhere that doing the MCSA would make taking 70-680 easier. Any thoughts?

quinnyfly

I am also new to the MS certs, it seems most do these certs in the following order: 680/640/642/643. I am doing the 642 first as I am extremely familiar with networking and network infrastructure. The 640 & 680 will be next on my list. Some people say that there is considerable overlap between the 642/680, so perhaps either one first makes sense. I suppose which one you might do first could all depend on your level of experience and expertie, one thing that seems true about these certs, is that hiring managers favour them for many positions.

A lot of people also take the 640 (AD) first and the work towards the others. Just my observations.

tprice5

Passed the 680 on my second attempt. I work with windows 7 on a daily basis in an enterprise environmnet, studied the book cover to cover and watched all of the professor messer videos and still only scored in the 800s. I say all this to emphasize the level of difficulty involved in passing the exam.
Are you trying to work towards the MCITP-EA? We need to know your cert path in order to best guide you.
That being said, I have yet to take any other exams, but I believe it is the consensus of the community to to take the 640 first. At least that is what my research yeilded when I was looking around trying to make myself feel bed about failing the 680 the first time.

EruMais

I work with Windows 7 daily as well, but probably not to the extent that it would enable me to pass a M$ exam on it, like 70-680. I would need to study pretty heavily on it based on what I hear about it's difficulty. If doing the 640, 642, 643 route first would be more beneficial in that it would help me to understand the more advanced concepts related to the 70-680, then I would rather do that. I'm personally more interested in AD and the other server-related certs than the 680 at this point, but it's a toss up. I would rather go the easier route in order to build up on my knowledge rather than try and tackle the more difficult exam.

I will eventually go for the MCITP: EA, but I'm enrolled at WGU and so I am gunning for the MCSA 2008 in order to graduate sooner (Network Admin program). I will then turn my attention to the MCITP after the fact. I just wanted to know if doing the 680 would be more difficult then running through the MCSA first. Given what quinnyfly said, I might take a break in the middle of the MCSA to do the 680 after the 642 if there is considerable overlap.

sratakhin

Is 70-680 really much more difficult than 640 or 642? I guess it all depends on experience, but what do you think?

lovefromindia

i suggest you to crack those hard once first...i mean you start with active directory

if you are after MCITP: Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008 then you need to pass 5 exams they are

70-640 *****
70-642
70-643
70-647 *****
70-680 or 70-681 or 70-620 ( i recommend you to take 70-681 its a kindaf micky mouse )

if you are after MCITP: Server Administrator on Windows Server 2008 then you need to pass only 3 exams they are
70-640 *****
70-642
70-646*****

MCITP exams are just like your MCSE exams no change in exam engines also.but the best part is there are no simulations in mcitp track.all the best