Exam and study material advice please

SamA92

(As ive got a lot of questions i'll number them to make it easier for people to understand)

Hello, first off im from the uk and want to start a career for myself in IT and have spoken to a friend who has his own IT business and said he wouldnt even touch me if i didnt have at laest a 70-680. So ive been looking into the 680 and it does seem an ideal exam for me to study for. Now before i go on to study materials for it, in the future after ive hopefully passed it,1. woud you recommend me going for the 685, 686 and windows 8 687 exams? He also said about CompTIA A+, N+, S+ exams that i would need aswell. 2. Are they also good and worth getting under my belt?

Now for 680 study material ive been doing some research and a lot of you say this book is good Amazon.com: MCTS 70-680 Cert Guide: Microsoft Windows 7, Configuring (9780789747075): Don Poulton: Books and also this being very helpful Windows 7 Portable Command Guide: MCTS 70-680, 70-685 and 70-686: Amazon.co.uk: Darril Gibson: Books=
3. Are these recommended for me to use to pass the 680? Do i need any more? Dont mind spending on another book if it'll help me in future microsoft certs.

4. As you can probably tell i have no previous microsoft certs and am a bit of a noob, so with my limited experience with windows and IT in general (im only 19 and have a ICT gcse and A level) how long would you reckon it'll take to study before im ready for 680?

5. Ive also heard of the term labbing a lot while studying which i presume is trying out in the real world what you learn? Do you use virtual software for this? what would i need to get started?

Thanks for any help from anyone as i woud like to kick start a hopefully good career in IT.

Christobevii3

I thought the windows 7 press book was ok and with the transcender questions that is all I used to pass in a week of studying. If you worked through the windows 7 book (specifically the imaging options) you should do ok. Understand that a lot of the windows 7 stuff overlaps with windows 2008 r2 stuff. If you worked through the 70-680 and the 70-640 books at the same time they overlap a lot.

The 70-685 I am working on now and seems to be more about hardware/software issues and more focus on vpn setup/issues. So they all go together a bit so understand that.

I'm going the 70-680, 685, 640, 642, and 646 route.

I'm doubtful that the A+ matters much if you had the 70-680 and 685 imo but whatever.

N+ is good for a basics of networking and S+ too which should build for a basis of CCNA to start.

My advice: Get a technet subscription, get the 70-680, 685, and 640 books and work through those with virtual machines of server 2008r2 and windows 7. You could probably do those three together in about 2-3 months if you are hardcore about it and have time. Do that, get the transcender questions before the tests and then when you pass the transcenders with high B's take tests.

bruty2fruity

Start yourself slowly. Im assuming your experience is breif at best - please correct em if im wrong.

First do your a+ - this covers the basics of computer fault finding and safety measures etc.
Then your network + - Covers the basics of networking, leading to more advanced configurations.

After these exams you will be prepared to solve general issues regarding PC/networking faults.

Once you have these you will be pretty clued up in the basics.

the 70-680 is a tricky exam. Encompassing how you would deploy and maintain windows 7, and what methods they encompass.
How to upgrade, what programs you could use to perform an export of user files to a location and then bring them back once the upgrade has taken place. Security measures, how you would keep network traffic to a minimum with a file in america and an office in london using branch cache...

SamA92

Thanks for the advice, i think i will do the 680 first though as its being stopped next year. So anyone else have any experience with the books ive selected? Do i need anymore?

I will look into virtual machines and get win 7 and server set up.

embraceIT

I passed the 680 recently. Understatement to say it is a hard one, and that you need to lab a whole lot.

Principally used Poulton's book. Found his treatment about Windows 7 distribution confusing; found the documentation provided in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) to be best knowledge source around. You ought to refer to the microsoft technet web pages that he highlights -- you'll find yourself being tested on things found there (and not necessarily written in the book). The sample test questions in the book and on the CD are good too. In my opinion, his book is the best around for the 680.

Wish I had bought Gibson's Portable Command Guide. Knowing the contents of that book will be extremely helpful. Wish I had known about it before the first attempt to pass the exam. Poulton's book understates these command-line programs, and I believe I might have passed the first attempt had I known the commands and their parameters backward and forward.

I jumped right into the 680 material thinking Win Desktop would be easy. Well ... maybe it it isfor home installations. An enterprise installation is surprisingly complex. I've hear that students going first through the 640, 642 and 643 find the 680 easier because much of the material has already been covered in the 64x series. I'll start them after the 685, so I guess I'll learn the answer to that later.

Everyone above has given excellent!! advice. You really should lab. Get either evaluation copies or get a microsoft's technet subscription. (I'll be purchasing a year's subscription soon!) The big question is how new is your motherboard, and does it support hardware virtualization. The bios will show you whether it does or doesn't. If it doesn't, you'll be stuck using Server 2008 (32-bit) instead of Server 2008 R2. Since microsoft server software only supports 64-bit now and going forward, maybe consider getting a new second-hand PC.

Good luck. Sounds like you are off to a good start, and you have been given good advice by the other responder

SamA92

Thanks for the reply. Ive got those books ordered and i dont think VM's will be a problem on my machine as its only 3 weeks old but heres my spec and mobo:

i5 3570k ivy bridge @4.2ghz
Asus P8Z77 V mobo
Corsair AX 850 psu
16GB Gskill Ripjaws @ 1866mhz
128gb Crucial m4
1TB WD Caviar black
2b hd 7850 for my gpu.

As for VM what would be the best version of windows 7 to run to help me in these certs? also why not windows 2012 server? is 2008 r2 better for 70-680?

4_lom

I passed the 680 back in June. All I used to study was Professor Messer videos, the Don Poulton book, and Technet. I also used the MeasureUp practice exams and in my opinion, these were much harder than the Microsoft exam. If you can pass those with a 80% or better, I would say you're in good shape for the real thing.

embraceIT

Sweet motherboard!

Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Ultimate are preferred, imho. Server 2012 is still pre-release. Consider purchasing a Microsoft Technet subscription. It will save you $$$.

SamA92

embraceIT wrote: »

Sweet motherboard!

Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Ultimate are preferred, imho. Server 2012 is still pre-release. Consider purchasing a Microsoft Technet subscription. It will save you $$$.

Ok thanks, my books have turned up and boy the poulton book is BIG lol will take some reading. Ive already started downloading the trial of win 7 enterprise, would that be ok? i'll get 2008 r2 then. Also tried Ubuntu and win 8 in virtual box just to get used to it and it runs great so thats not a problem. I did have to enable Vt-x virtualization in my bios though as it was disabled by default.

Psoasman

Windows 7 Enterprise will be fine for your labbing. Make sure your server is Server 2008 R2, as that is what the current exam objectives focus on.

SamA92

Psoasman wrote: »

Windows 7 Enterprise will be fine for your labbing. Make sure your server is Server 2008 R2, as that is what the current exam objectives focus on.

Thanks i'll carry on downloading it then along with 2008 r2.

embraceIT

Strongly consider using Gibson's Command Line book too. Unless the exam changes dramatically, you'll need to know a lot about command line programs. Poulton's books covers most of them, but his emphasis is on the GUI and overall concepts. Let me think off the top of my head some of the command line programs you will need to know....

net, netsh, cipher, bootmgr, defrag, robocopy, winrm, wecutl, dism, imagex, diskpart, fsutil, icacls, schtasks, wbadmin, vssadmin .... I know I'm missing some, but you should get the idea....

SamA92

Ok thanks again, yeah i did buy his book aswell and will make sure i use it. Ive used a few of those before so shouldnt be to bad. Thanks