70-640 Pass ^____________________^

lsud00d

I passed the 70-640 today by the skin of my teeth, which probably was the result of changing a few answers at the end before submitting it. I know it's bad practice and I told myself DON'T DO IT! but the compulsion overcame rationale and I nearly tapped out as a result! I would have been super mad grrr.

BUT

I'm stoked about passing first try. Now I can relax and kick back a few brews after work

I used the CBT Nuggets, thorough scouring of MS Technet, self-generated notes, this forum, and labbing (via VMWare workstation, was able to run 6 VM's simultaneously w/16gb RAM on my desktop). The labbing helped a lot because I am a very visual learner so being able to 1.) run through exercises then 2.) walk through it in my head during the exam was very beneficial.

I only had experience with AD Users and Computers management and some local GPO tinkerings before this and not saying that I could jump into an AD admin role tomorrow, but I would feel very prepared after studying for this exam.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions to the stickies in this section! Good luck to all who have this exam coming up.

N2IT

You are a beast

Nice work on crushing this chalenging exam (at least from what I hear)

What's next? LPIC-2?

lsud00d

Thanks man!

This exam was expansive so I'm glad to get it out of the way. My employer designates quarterly MS goals so I'll be going for the MCITP:SA/MCSA 2008 in 2013.

Now what *I* want to do is different...looking at Sec+ (the more I look into it the easier it seems), CCNA/CCNA:S, CISSP...I would really like to go Security so I am trying to develop varying levels of proficiency in many technologies to expand my current breadth and depth of knowledge. I anticipate a move to lower management in the next couple years so just trying to get my hands on and in as much stuff as possible, you know how it is

foxtrotsierra

How long has it taken you to pass this exam?
Regards

Saundie

Good effort, lsud00d. I hope to get the 70-640 under my belt within the first couple of months of 2013. Did you find that the CBT Nuggets covered AD RMS and AD FS sufficiently, or did you need to use other resources in order to learn them?

lsud00d

Thank you @foxtrotsierra and @Saundie!

I studied for 1.5 months. The CBT Nuggets are a great resource and helped demystify RMS and FS. RMS and FS have a lot of nitpicky things about them and I feel the videos help point these things out. As I watched the videos I took notes so I could review them when I wasn't studying at home--I retain things a lot better this way.

But, I also would google the subtopics...TechNet can be very dry so I would also check out peoples blogs to enrich the holistic viewpoint. Good luck with your 70-640!

JCGee

Where did you find the labs? TechNet, here or created yourself?
What type of virtual setup did you have by the end of your studies? You stated 6 VMs...how many DCs, wks? any print/file servers. Mainly just curious about this since I *just* installed server 2008 and set up my virtual NAT network.
Did you use any text books that start you off from a simple network/lab and expand on your build through each chapter/excercise or did the CBT Nugget vids do this? Only have the 640 nugget, but have the entire MCITP: EA line and hoping they are fluid enough to be able to follow a slow, steady progression.

Thanks and grats!
Whats next...642?

nosoup4u

Congrats man!

I've been studying for this for a few months now off and on and finally got approval to open the class at WGU. I'll be taking it at the end of the month.

Now time to just lab all month long with my Proliant server...

Ivanjam

@lsud00d - congrats on the pass!

lsud00d

Thanks y'all!

@JCGee, I have VM templates with Win2k8r2, XP, and Win7 so I could spin up clones and modify at will, so the VM setup was very fluid. I use VMWare Workstation so it makes it very easy to manage everything, and it's similar to VMWare VSphere which I've worked with in varying capacity the past ~3 years. I don't have any books on the topic but along with taking notes while watching the CBT nuggets, I would mimic what was going on and take time with the video on pause to navigate around the topic in the VM's. I've also worked with Server2k3/2k8/r2 in varying capacity the past 5 years so I had the foundation, just needed to build that dream home with the fancy kitchen on top of it The CBT's for 70-640 were excellent IMHO. I have dual 24" monitors so it was great having the video in one monitor and Workstation in the other.

Also, there is something to be said about test-taking skills, content-agnostic. I've always done well with multiple choice tests and often times 1.) the answer is in the question (or a super duper hint is there) and 2.) you can eliminate half of the potential answers instantly.

You are correct, I will be going for the 70-642 next, probably in February. I want to get Sec+ out of the way and also start working on my CCNA...so many things I want to do!

@nosoup4u, good luck with your 70-640!

@Ivanjam, thanks a lot

JCGee

Thanks for the feedback lsu. Got sidetracked last night with packettracer a bit. What a sweet program, but will get back to 70-640 soon enough...I think.
Like you said, too many things we all want to do! Need focus.

Dr IT

congarts on the Pass @lsud00d -

I am preparing for the 640 exam myself after having finished by 642 and with out a solid AD working experince i am really finding it tough to get the grips of it but have set myself a target till April/May to get this cert done - well will see how this pans out.