Trying to organize a study group

DJohnsonRose

Who is interested in studying the 70-640 with me? I am to learn it in about 3 weeks, I will spend 2 hours labbing each day with a whole load of reading. I am willing to swap revision notes to cross reference and answer questions if i can.

Who is interested?

gbdavidx

How are you going to do an online study group? I'm interested

nmarlowe

I am interested in this as well. I am currently studying for 70-640 and would love to share info and learn more. I'm guessing it's not going to be a live group, but maybe a google group or hangout?

kurosaki00

Interested too but... care to abound about the study group?

nycid

I'll be interested too. I'm sitting this end of feb.....

DoubleNNs

I'd be interested if you give more details on how the study group would work.

gbdavidx

Could somthing like this be done over google+ chat? we'd all have to have similar setups and be able to meet at the same times

DJohnsonRose

I am thinking that we break down the 70-640 exam into small subjects and study it in about a week then we all met up somewhere like on google+ chat and discuss the subject, maybe exchange study notes and go over anything we don't understand. Obviously this is just a rough idea of how it should go I'm up for any ideas.

gbdavidx

So what kind of setups (labs) do you guy's have? Should we gather a list of emails and start installing the o/s?

What is the game plan...

DJohnsonRose

This should really be in the Windows Server 2008 forums lol. I am currently using Trainsignal for the labs, I have a official Microsoft 6425C Training book from a 5 day course I went on (I am getting the Virtual Machines from them either this Friday or next which I will upload along with the lab instructions) and I have CBT nuggets which I will begin to use later on for cross referencing.

I am willing to start from the ground up with everyone as we are all probably at different levels when it comes to the 70-640. I think gbdavidx's idea for a google+ chat or hangout is a good idea. Maybe a skype chat so there is a transcript which people can later refer too?

I have a few questions though:

Where else can we get labs for this? How many of you deal with AD day to day? What is everyone's strong and weak points when it comes to AD? Who is actually willing to go through with this? What time zone is everyone in? When are people planning on taking the exam?

I personally am aiming for mid to late feb.

JustFred

Do you have some kind of a virtualization environment at home, VmWare or Virtuabox lab?

DJohnsonRose

I have VMWre Workstation 8 at home and at work, both machines are very powerful.

Cerebro

My bad, I thought you were talking about 70-680.

DJohnsonRose

Perfect, I think we should discuss it here and come with a gameplan so everyone knows whats going on. So far is everyone happy with what has been mentioned above?

gbdavidx

So everyone is using vmware? do you guy's have 2 workstations setup through it with windows server?

I think everyones setup should be the same, i created a google+ community page, if everyone wants to send me there email address who wants to join i can invite them and we can chat through there

JustFred

I have a Dell 1950 server with 16GB ram, however i have no VMs installed actually there's nothing on there

Not sure whether to install VMware or Virtuabox or Hyper V on it.

kurosaki00

I have a Asus g74sx with 12gbs of ram
so I can run a couple of VMs at the same time.

I agree this should perhaps be moved to the windows forum.

We can make a group in google or a circle in google+
and set weekly goals
like... this week chapter 1-3 or something like that
post results of your labs
things like that

and of course comment about troubles and stuff

PS. I need to wait till next check to buy the book

gbdavidx

Well i have already setup a community plus page on google, just need email addresses, sounds like everyone is using vmware, you can join workstations to a domain with that ok?

nmarlowe

Anything that helps me discipline myself to retain more. I have horrible reading retention and that worries me. I feel better completing the exercises in the MS book, but in the end I'm still just following instructions.

I'm seeing this as a sort of book club. I've been following the verge book club this month. Having a schedule to read by and discussions of the book is forcing me to pay better attention. I could even see group created lab exercises as beneficial. Of course, the downside to this is if I wing it in an exercise, what if I don't do it the "MS" way? Am I making it worse by learning bad habits?

I have a HP workstation with 12 GB loaded with Virtual Box and it has been working great for me. I also have an older macbook that I will use when the time comes. Not the fanciest equipment, but I suspect I'll at least get through the MCSA with it.

Sending PM now with my email address.

gbdavidx

So far gotten 2 replys, invited them to the google+ community page

DJohnsonRose

That's fine, once everyone is in the group I will send everyone a copy of the Microsoft 70-640 self paced training kit and some lab material. You will all need the .iso for Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 & R2 of course and Windows 7 for your clients. The scenario I have here is one with 9 machines although the most we would simultaneously is about 3.

nmarlowe

Any interest in still doing this? I haven't seen any invites on my communities page. But I've never used it, so I could very well be missing something.

kurosaki00

can you share the group url?

nmarlowe

Not to step on any toes, but I created a Google+ Community as well as it's been almost a week.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/106839796621473806971

If you need an invite, send me a PM.

This is my first time using Communities, so I'll do my best. If someone wants to take the reigns on actually organizing the group as to what we will do, schedules, labs etc, feel free. 3 chapters a week may be a bit much for me, but I'm willing to at least give it a try.

DJohnsonRose

I cant seem to connect to the community, I think Skype is much easier to manage as messages are stored, we can share screens and provide video if necessary and I think its more widely used.

I will PM you but please can everyone list their skype too. Appreciate your enthusiasm.

nmarlowe

You should be able to connect now. There was 3 requests to approve, and all have been.

It was my understanding that the big advantage of using google hangouts was you could have multiple attendees, whereas skype was only 1 to 1. Has this changed or am I completely wrong?

DJohnsonRose

Just to let everyone know, this group is now live and there are currently 6 members.

We have 'topic of the day' where we pick a topic and everyone takes turns to write something about it.