Last minute studying tips for 70-680?

Commguy23

Im testing on Tuesday, if I pass I start a new 60k job the next day, if I fail I loose the opportunity and keep my 13$/hour job . I took the transcender test and got a 70%, Everyone says they are always alot harder than the actual test so hopefully this stands to be true. I have read the Poulton book and labbed a little here and there and watched all the professor messor videos. I am going to take the Poulton test now. Any last minute tips? I have 4 days! I was thinking about the 24hour cbt nuggets option for $24 and going through all of those videos to refresh everything.

ITMonkey

@altjx put-together very good notes which he provided in a thread that appears three or four threads beneath yours. With the exam so close, you ought to feel comfortable with the technology and nomenclature used in your 70-680 study material. I love Messer's videos, but you might put more time on command-line programs (what they do, and a familiarity (not necessarly rote memorization) with their respective parameters. @altjx did a good job of documenting them. The exam that I took in June had a lot of command-line program questions.

I'll be taking my first MCITP exam next week. Having acclimated to taking a few MCTS exams, I've experienced what's probably going through your mind as the clock ticks down.

Good luck on your exam. Let us know the outcome.

ahphoto

Good luck and keep us updated! You can do it!!!

aj6065

I second ITMonkeys's advice to get a lot of experience with the command line. Darril Gibson's Portable Command Line book is great and useful to have even after you've passed the test. I used a combination of Prof. messers and CBT Nuggets videos, and would recommend giving the CBT ones a look at. My last minute cramming was done using Techulator.com's randomly generated 70-680 practice tests. I wanted to get Poulton's book for the practice test, but never did. good luck!

Commguy23

Thanks for the help guys! I spent the last couple of days watching all of the videos on cbt nuggets. They are pretty awesome. I was wondering if anyone had a technique to help remember the different ipv6 headers, such as fe80, 2002, and what they relate to like toredo, link local, site local ect. They have tripped me up on a few practice questions.
AJ, I did pick up the gibson command line book but never got a chance to read through it. There's no way I'll have enough time now. Did you see a lot of the cmd line questions also? I was hoping I wouldn't get many

Psoasman

I'd make yourself a little chart and write it out a few times, until you've memorized it. That was one of my tactics for the 680. It helps to be able to recreate that stuff on the laminated paper they give you.
The other thing is to look over the exam objectives and make sure you are solid on them. Good luck!

joe0121

I have my exam coming up in a couple weeks. It's my first MS Exam so I think for me the biggest part isnt falling into the trick questions.

mr_tech_uk

Yeah good luck as well

I am the same I got me 70-680 exam on the 14th Sept first Microsoft Exam


Good tips ppl

aj6065

Commguy23 wrote: »

AJ, I did pick up the gibson command line book but never got a chance to read through it. There's no way I'll have enough time now. Did you see a lot of the cmd line questions also? I was hoping I wouldn't get many

I ended up not seeing as many command line questions as I expected, but I still got a small handful. Its tricky, because you will get some questions asking you how to do things with a GUI in the Control Panel, and then they could throw the same problem at you but it requires you to use the command line instead. It seems like it's all luck of the draw.

Commguy23

Passed with a 760. It was pretty difficult. I went in fairly confident and about halfway through started to worry. My resources:

Professor Messor videos
IT Free Training videos
CBT Nuggets videos
Don Poulton book and practice exam
Darril Gibson command guide
Transcender Practice exam
Various technet articles

I recommend watching ALL of the videos, they each explain different aspects of the objectives, and seeing them perform everything really helped me out. In total I spent a little over 2 months of non-stop studying. I pretty much had no social life while preparing for this exam, so it feels good to finally pass. Good luck to all!

ITMonkey

Congrads on the pass. Not to steal your applause, but I too passed an MS exam (70-686, MCITP Desktop Admin) with a very similar score. Have a beer on me! Feels good regardless of the score, doesn't it?!

Psoasman

Congrats on passing!

pizzaboy

Congrats, so what's next?

Commguy23

Thank guys, my next step is the MCITP Server 2008, so I will be working towards 70-640 --> 642 --> 646. I am starting a new job since I passed the 680, that was needed before I could even obtain a domain account so they needed me to get that cert first, but now want me to work towards server certs within the next 6 months. Ill have to look around the forums for study resources for the 740 now.

ITMonkey

The Microsoft 70-640 Toolkit is a good book. I can't say that with most Microsoft books, but the authors of this book did a really nice job of combining lecture with lab exercises in my opinion. Get the 2nd edition for Server 2008 R2; the 1st edition covers Server 2008.

I really intended to pass along a great book about group policy: Jeremy Moskowitz's Group Policy. It reads like a summer novel at times, and can be hard to put down -- quite unusual for a technical book. It goes into depth I have not yet seen in the Microsoft book mentioned above. A lot more entertaining too!

Commguy23

Awesome, I'll look into those books! I found this through the forums: LabSim - MCITP
It's $1000 for the bundle with 640, 642, and 646 with a ton of videos, labs, reading, and practice exams. I might give that a try, it is cheaper than CBT nuggets and comes with practice labs

cacomerariu

I have no idea if this the right thread, I'm kind of new to this.
I'm studying for the cert 70-680 and I did various exams from ********, ****, etc. There is a couple of question that bugs me:

1) About Windows update; I've seen videos and checked my control panel and were under the impression that you should reach the Windows update through System and Security option from Control Panel, but all the exams answer were going through the Programs option. I know that we can reach the Windows Update through both options but at the exam what choice should I pick?

2) About installing Windows 7 from Vista either by New install or Upgrade (maybe there is a difference between them); I know that we can launch the installation from the DVD by booting the computer from the DVD or inside Vista by choosing the Setup.exe. Again on the exams that are mixed answer: sometimes the answer is boot from DVD and sometimes is the Setup.exe from inside Vista. Again on the exam, which option should I choose?

Thank you all for your comments.