My MCSA 2008 plan; suggestions?

zrockstar

Thanks everyone who has already answered some of my questions on server material. So I have nailed down a plan of attack to get certified for MCSA 2008 since I will not be able to make the cutoff for MCITP. My journey is going to be based around a three course series at my community college. I'm not sure why but our sequence at the college starts with a class on 70-646, then 70-640 the next term, and 70-642 the term after that. The program is based off of the Microsoft Official Academic Course books with the online lab. Since the material doesn't cover R2, I bought Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed which I will use to supplement. I have also decided to do the TestOut Labsim for each test in conjunction with the course curriculum which also covers R2. I don't want to just pass these classes, I want to pass the cert. As a beginner with no server experience, should this be sufficient?

certs4me

I think you mean your trying to get the MCITP: SA rather than the MCSA 2008?

I'd recommend you set up a lab yourself as you'll gain more experience through trial and error. Also make sure you read through relevant material on tech net.

ajs1976

Mcitp:sa = mcsa 2008

pumbaa_g

When you start 646 things will not make sense, as you go through 640 & 642 things start getting clearer. You wll need to refer the material for 643 and 680 to a limited extent (example Branch cache) for complete understanding. 646 being a design exam will really test your knowldge of providing an end to end solution hence take the time to go through Hyper V, SCCM 2008 & SCOM 2008 to understand the difference between the MS Solutions. Clustering & High Availability was my weak area in 646 and barely scraped through. I have started with Storage+ to understand this better

zrockstar

Pumbaa, thank you for your advice. I have already started looking at the 646 material, and you are correct. They assume you already know AD, forests, domains, etc. I don't know why my school would start us with this class, but I can't change that. Do you think I can pass the 646 before taking the 640 and 642? I generally pick up on stuff like this pretty quick, and I will be studying a lot for the exam. I would like to plan to take each cert test at the end of the class while it is fresh.

pumbaa_g

Best of luck!