Need your opinion for 70-680 and 70-685

Ok, so I started working as a Help Desk employee in August of 2011 for a start up company, and quickly developed a strong work relationship with co-workers and most importantly, software developers one in particular who is above all DEV but has strong knowledge in IT, and after kicking butt in Help Desk, and my work began to take notice, i quickly began to get bored, and started to kick myself for not having a degree. I told this to this person and told me i did not have to have a degree to be in IT after i told him I wanted to pursue my career in that field, i was excited about the fact that i didnt even have to take courses for the exams and i could do it self paced,

have been studying to take the 70-685 exam for 10 months now, its taking me this long because i am new to the IT world, and i want to study hard and prepare the right way, focused, determined, dedicated, but not rushed. Lets just say i have put in countless hours, a lot of sacrifice involved, but a must in order to do this for me and my family. The study has really loaded me with strong knowledge and again my job took notice, especially since they all know about my preparation for the exams, so they helped me a lot, even offered to pay for my exam, and i have become the primary assistant to our network admin, and now i was promoted 3 weeks ago to tech admin. Anyways i did not immediately begin on the training kit, i first started on XP MCDST training kit, only because of all the introductions and i thought it was a good strategy to prepare for the real deal even though the MCDST had been retired. Once i finished from beginning to end on MCDST, i began on the MCITP 60-685, NOT KNOWING there is a 60-680 exam 1st. Again i am new to this and i should of done more research but, i was so excited about preparing for the MCITP exam that i just stayed glued to the book and as silly as it sounds, stayed off the grid for awhile to focus and stay off the net in other words.

Now that i have finished studying for the MCITP, and oh man i feel like im still not ready and so much hands on i feel i need to do in order to translate from book to actually doing it, do you think I should wait, purchase the 70-680 training kit, prepare and take that exam before the 70-685? From what ive read on sites, its very complex, and im afraid im going to fail. I want to be certified so bad, but not sure if i can take the gutted feeling of failing and losing on the fee money to pay for the exam.

How hard is the 70-680? and how hard is the 70-685? Im leaning towards putting the 70-685 on hold and starting on the 70-680, but im also concerned time is not on my side as ive read that the 70-685 will be discontinued as of jan 2014. Your opinion would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long story, but I am a beginner who only dreams of being at the same level of most of you in this forum

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Asif Dasl

You need to find a different way of studying. A lot of people here are spending a month or so per exam. Some take longer but not close to a year for a single exam. At that rate if you ever wanted to complete the MCSE it would be expired before you got to finish it.

Most people here use a book and maybe a training video like CBT Nuggets or Train Signal. I don't think it's a problem doing 70-685 before 70-680, in fact I think it'll make 70-680 easier for you. But I think you need to forget about you fear of failure and just take the exam. If you keep putting it off then you will never know how close you are to passing it.

And if you fail miserably that's the world telling you what you were doing was the wrong way of doing it - it's feedback. See how you get on with that first before you start thinking college degree cause if you have problems studying for 685 then I think you might have problems with the degree if you go down the route. Maybe you need something more structured to learn like a class.

Welcome to TechExams by the way.

EDIT - forgot to tell you there is a free second shot exam if you register for it over at Microsoft.

sratakhin

I would do 70-685 first. It's more about troubleshooting, whereas 70-680 is about configuring Windows 7 in enterprise environments.
Also, if you don't have a lot of experience, 70-680 will seem very difficult. I'm not sure about the level of difficulty in 70-685, but at least the material is more fun.

edgar2387

Thank you Asif Dasl, and sratakhin, ok so I will take the 70-685 1st and i will still take the 70-680, i guess the more certs the better and i do plan on doing the MCSA for Windows 8 next, i know the more certs the better, oh and no Asif, i no longer plan on getting a degree, i just want to be certified and your right, i need to stop putting the exam off, and i did not know the second shot is free, i just wanted to make sure i had it all down and play catch up to some of you who are already ahead in this field, i finished going through the 70-685 kit last night, im just going to brain storm with this and the MCDST kit again hard and take the exam this month, thank you both again for the info, you both helped me with my dilemma

neathneathneath

edgar2387 wrote: »

70-685 kit last night, im just going to brain storm with this and the MCDST kit again hard and take the exam this month, thank you both again for the info, you both helped me with my dilemma

I would have a go at the practice test that comes with the 70-685 kit and not bother with the MCDST stuff as its for the wrong exam. Personally I found the 685 harder than the 680 but its horses for courses, depend what you are familiar with.

edgar2387

cool, thanks Neath