70-640 - Passed!

Henry is God

Passed this exam today folks. I have to say I am over the moon to get it out of the way, and in my opinion it is a very tricky exam. One down two to go though, and the 70-642 should be easier given my Cisco/networking background. I'm just now awaiting the return of Fabregas to Arsenal to complete the ultimate year for me

Any questions or study resource questions I will be glad to answer.

Thanks.

Bloogen

Nice job! How did you score? Are there any resources or subjects you found essential to passing? I am hoping to get mine done by mid october or sooner.

recktechie

congrats. I want to do the 70-640, 642, and 646. But I have no work exp or any other server experience, do you think it will not be feasible for me to do? What materials did you use and how much exp do you have? I plan on using testout and the MS press books, will that be enough?

Oh, can you help me set up the virtual labs needed?

Henry is God

Bloogen wrote: »

Nice job! How did you score? Are there any resources or subjects you found essential to passing? I am hoping to get mine done by mid october or sooner.

Alright son, I will tell you what I used and you can decide for yourself as different people take to different styles/methods.

Testout Labsim - Good explanations, notes on all topics good for checking up if something puzzles you, and advantage of a built in simulator for practicals. I found the American guy very lifeless and mong like, so skipped most of his videos. The other boy was OK though.

Virtual Labs - Setup 3 servers with iso images and a 7 client. Good for learning and understanding, bit of a pisser when things go wrong and you need to reboot and what not. Sometimes the copies of machines don't run as expected and a fresh install is required. That being said, a must have in my opinion.

CBT Nuggets - In depth and crystal clear explanations. Some really poor humour throughout but the guy keeps you interested and I took to his delivery method fairly easily.

Books - Server 2008 portable command guide and Active Directory cookbook. Both of these helped me understand the topics and why the commands are used as opposed to the GUI.

Website - I found this very helpful. I am not sure how I found it, as I need to manually alter the address to read the material.

http://www.kurtdillard.com/StudyGuides/70-640/2.html

Where you see the '2.html' I was just changing that from 1 through to 6. Priceless information all relating to the exam and I would advise you to take in all the chapters. I used this in the build up to today and found it a huge help.

Technet as well but that is a formality when studying Microsoft.

I scored 788 overall which I was pleased with, as the test was tricky and some of the wording of questions are designed to catch you out so I advise to read carefully!

Key areas - AD CA, AD FS, AD RMS, command line, Powershell, replication.

Anything else just shout me.

Henry is God

recktechie wrote: »

congrats. I want to do the 70-640, 642, and 646. But I have no work exp or any other server experience, do you think it will not be feasible for me to do? What materials did you use and how much exp do you have? I plan on using testout and the MS press books, will that be enough?

Oh, can you help me set up the virtual labs needed?

Please see my reply to the other guy. That should cover your questions.

j.petrov

Congrats on the pass! I'm looking to start studying for that exam in the next week or so.

Fabregas will never go back to Arsenal... oh and thanks for Van Persie! Utd all the way!

recktechie

Congrats again. Did you have work experience, is that a must? I have no exp at all and wish to use testout and ms press books for the mcitp sa, you think that will cut it? FYI, from what I understand the press books advise me on how to set up a virtual lab as it is a part of the traning.

Zorodzai

Congrats

A fellow Gooner lovely. We don't need Fab, we got Cazorla and let's hope Diaby stays healthy because he was quite a revelation against Liverpool.....

Henry is God

Nothing is a must if you want it badly enough and are willing to put in the work. My situation was that I studied Server 2008 in a module at university and consequently got a merit award for designing and implementing a scaled down version of an organisations AD structure. Better than nothing, but still no work experience as such.

I can not say what will cut it for you as it is different for everyone. I picked the concepts up very easily which helped me alot. Some may struggle with the concepts, I obviously don't know you to make that call! Others retain information easily, others need to go over the same thing over and over again, only you know your learning style. Start off on Testout and see how you go would be my advice.

Testout have labs built in but I would also advise on doing your own as they are set out to mimic a certain experience.

Henry is God

Zorodzai wrote: »

Congrats

A fellow Gooner lovely. We don't need Fab, we got Cazorla and let's hope Diaby stays healthy because he was quite a revelation against Liverpool.....

Diaby got injured last night! He has been awesome the first few games. Cazorla looks class as well. Would still have Cesc back in a heartbeat.

Hopefully Giroud comes good and then I can see us doing something this year. If he goes on without scoring he could be another Chamakh and could be time for a striker come January. I personally still think we need another striker for rotational purposes.

Lunchbocks

Congrats on the pass. My test date is September 24th, and I am nervous. I haven't taken a Microsoft cert exam since the NT 4.0 days, so I'm not sure what to expect. I have a lot of experience with the basics of Server 2008 and R2, but nothing enterprise level.

Lunchbocks

BTW, thanks for the links to the Kurt Dillard study guides. I've only started skimming through them and they are pretty detailed.

netsysllc

Congrats on the pass, was a tough test. Don't be fooled by the title of the 70-642 it does not cover much networking but rather Microsoft's network services.

al3kt.R***

Way to go m8

t4ttyt3ddy

Congrats, I passed mine yesterday too.

eaterofsmoke

Congrats passed mine on the 11th. Was so relieved I was dancing in the test center, people were looking at me funny with my silent celebration.

Smoke

Commguy23

Henry is God wrote: »

Alright son, I will tell you what I used and you can decide for yourself as different people take to different styles/methods.

Testout Labsim - Good explanations, notes on all topics good for checking up if something puzzles you, and advantage of a built in simulator for practicals. I found the American guy very lifeless and mong like, so skipped most of his videos. The other boy was OK though.

I'm curious as to how you did on all of the practice exams in Testout LabSim. I am about 70% done with all of the lessons and have failed most of the end of section exams, but after reading the explanations I think I will do much better on the final practice exams. I'm wondering if it will be enough or if I should buy transcender also, as it has helped me with Security + and 70-680. Thanks!

Commguy23

I was also debating whether or not to get CBT nuggets, as I bought them for the 70-680 and loved it... Wicked expensive though but my job is requiring me to get the 70-640 (and 70-680, thank god I passed that one) so in the end, I lose out on a job if I can't pass.