is the 70-680 really tough?

Jasiono

I just got an email from my so called class mentor and it seems very daunting. I understand that studying for anything you are going to be tested on is always a good thing to do in order to pass but he makes it seem like its one of the hardest and almost damn near impossible tests on the face of the planet.

kriscamaro68

Take a gander at a thread I started after passing the 70-680: http://www.techexams.net/forums/windows-7-exams/75134-passed-70-680-a.html Should give you an idea of what to look for and expect.

ITMonkey

The 680 is challenging. It takes it up a notch or two. You can't just read and memorize facts off Cliff Notes and expect to pass.

Browse through this forum and you'll see people passing it, however. It is not an impossible challenge to meet. And, I fully expect the exam I am now studying for (70-685) to be harder. I'll find that out soon enough.

Jasiono

Oh yeah. I'm taking the challenge. The mentor made it seems as though its like learning every fine grain of detail about the entire universe.

neathneathneath

I have passed more difficult exams than this, e.g. 70-291 and 70-643.

However, if you study the Microsoft Exam Objectives for this exam, read a couple of suitable books, lots of practice using Win 7 and labbing things you don't normally do, it should be fine.

Practice tests like Transcender also help toward the exam as they give you similar style questions.

MS client exams tend to be very wide-ranging topic wise, and beware of the usual trick questions.

antielvis

My guess is people say it's a tough exam because it's seen as "desktop" and how hard could that be? Is it challenging? More than the XP version, that's for sure. It'll take more than just reading the book. The 686 is even harder. First MS exam I ever failed lol and I started this with NT 4.0.

Jasiono

Yeah okay I see what you mean with desktop. I never looked at it from the desktop point of view so I'm really preparing for it. I know Microsoft is notorious for their exams.

It makes sense that people thinking its only desktop oriented think its very thought and I see that the mentor is making sure the students don't think in that direction. He's afraid people won't take it as serious as they should.

antielvis

I just re-read my post & man, what terrible sentence structure

What I meant to say is that don't be tricked into thinking "how hard could this, it's just a desktop exam". As exams go, it's quite challenging & demands you know the material well. Truth is, this exam is less about desktop support & more about managing the desktop at the enterprise level. This exam, coupled with the 686, can be taken as part of the path the the new MCSE Desktop certification.

One tip for this exam without getting myself in trouble. MS tends to focus on the "new and upcoming" stuff and that's relevant in this exam. Get yourself James Conrad's CBT Nuggets, follow along & do what I didn't do. Read the MS press book.

At least 75% of the guys I know failed this exam first time around.

kanecain

It took me three tries. The 3rd time, I did finally pass with a perfect score.

rejaz

The 70-680 is a mini version of the 70-685 but, This exam is not difficult to pass, when I did it the questions were worded in a way to confuse the guy taking the test. But if you revise hard enough you will learn to rule out most of the answers they give you for the questions, make sure you know about deployment (ImageX, Dism, WDS, WinPE, Sys prep) and you will be fine

good luck for when you take the exam.