It's official: The 685 is much harder than the 680

Just failed the 685 for the second time, somehow doing even worse than before despite having done three weeks of additional studying. On my first attempt, I scored a 640. On my second, I scored a 585. Friggin' horrible.

I failed the 680 on my first attempt but passed it on the second. There seems to be a lot more discussion about the 680 around these parts, but I just wanted to create this thread to warn people about the 685. It's mercilessly hard, from my experience.

I'm someone who has never failed a test in my life until taking these MS cert tests. It has been pretty deflating, to be honest. The worst part is not knowing what I missed at the end, so I leave without a clue as to what I really need to improve. Sure, the printout gives me general categories, but I'll never know which mistakes to avoid in future retakes.

After failing the 685 for a second time, I find myself questioning if it's worth risking the $150 to try again. If I pass it, I'll have an MCITP. If I don't, I can at least still list myself as a MCP on my resume. If I do decide to take the chance on another retake, I'd have to do it this coming month because the Second Chance offer expires at the end of May.

I dunno, man. This is mostly just a venting thread for me, but I wanted to warn people about the 685. I was always under the impression that it was somehow easier than the 680, but that assumption couldn't be further from the truth.

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Asif Dasl

What are you using for the exam? I literally eased back at the questions I got on 685 and I think another member neathneathneath had a problem with this one too. I can only speak from my experience that 685 was easier but I had taken the MCDST exams also so maybe that helped too. I used CBT Nuggets and the MS Press book.

neathneathneath

Yes this is indeed an animal of an exam.

I have had several goes at this and got 586

Hoping to try again in June. Took a break from this one to re-group.

The new style of questions, multiple answers don't help the situation.

lsud00d

The MCITP you're going for is either the 680 + 685 or 686 so you're not stuck with the 685 persay.

About7Narwhal

I hate to hear that you failed it again. I just finished the 70-680 and used your notes as a speed review in the car before I took the test. They were very helpful. Don't feel discouraged by the lower score on your second attempt, I had the same thing happen to me on the 680. I can certainly relate to "deflation" when you study and come out worse than you were before.

Keep with it, you would have to hit it soon if you wanted to get your second shot.

edgar2387

Brother, allow me to vent a bit with you, i took the 70-685 today and also failed, i scored a 416, the questions were not near the practice exam, i pass the practice with average of 93%, and i fee like the real exam has some questions that the book does not cover, i was very dissapointed, ive worked so hard for this, countless hours for months, to fail, i am going to reschedule for next week or so, but i agree it should at least let you know what you got wrong, not give answers of course but to at least cover those grounds, i however, have no certifications, i am new to IT, going on a year now, i will go study harder and if anyone knows resources that cover those questions, pleae help a friend out with the links, this is my dream and it felt shot down this morning, to make matters worse my car broke down on the way to test center, i guess that was a sign that today was not my day, i wish i had access to technilogy to at least mess with, but i dont other than internet and book, hope you pass the nxt go round, i hope and pray i do

edgar2387

question, do i have to oay again? ive heard some say i can take it again no charge as long as i take within a certain amount of time

Psoasman

The only way you can take the exam again at no charge would be if you had purchased the 2nd shot voucher. That said, I would give yourself more than a week before rescheduling. This is not an easy exam and you'll want to be well prepared for it.

Did you set up a lab? If not, I'd set up a lab with a domain controller and 2 clients and lab through all the exam objectives.
What book did you use? The MS press book is pretty good, I like Tony Northrup's writing. Darril Gibson's book for the 685/686 is good, too.
What practice exams did you use? It is best to use them a way to gauge what you know and need to work on.

edgar2387

thanks man, i used the 70-685 enterprise book, it came with a CD for practice exam, i would like to setup a lab, but dont have the resources for one, wish i did though

Psoasman

Here's a link to some virtual labs you can use.

Windows

Link for server 2008 R2 evaluation
Download Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1

Link for windows 7 30-day evaluation: I haven't used this site before.
Links To Download Windows 7 With SP1 ISO Directly From Microsoft Servers

You don't need much for a lab. I used Virtual Box by Oracle and loaded some servers and clients using evaluation copies for my labbing.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

edgar2387

Thank you sir!!! I will use these resources for training, and hopefully i pass on round 2.

edgar2387

ScOULaris

Where the questions the same from the 1st time you took the exam? I ask because i did memorize a few that i had trouble with and if so, i can research them and expect those same questions on the next go round for me

bub9001

Wow, you guys are scaring me with all this chatter of how the 70-685 is harder then the 70-680. I took the 70-680 over two years ago and remember failing it on the first try. It was my first failure of any Tech exam, so it was a wake-up call for me. I am currently preparing to take the 70-685 and was thinking a month or so to pass it. But the more I read, I am off thinking that it will be a easier test then 70-680.

This is another reason why I really have issues with Microsoft and how they do their study material. A vendor can make an exam harder then it needs to be. I am all good with difficult tests that all the material is in their study guide. But from what I understand and have experience that isn't the case with Microsoft exams.

I do hope to get better at these exams so I can move into MCSE later down the road, but if I have it my way I will be moving into a different direction and away from Microsoft exams.

daviddws

I just started studying for the 685 after passing the 680. Microsoft tests for some reason include questions that you would almost NEVER see when troubleshooting a computer. I'm sure they have their reasons, but from my perspective it takes away from learning the essentials of troubleshooting. Also many of the questions cannot be found in study materials, or you need several books on the subject. This makes learning problematic and frustrating. If both my master degrees were setup in this way, it would have taken twice as long to complete them.

About7Narwhal

I agree with david. Some of the questions on my 680 were difficult because they were non-realistic. Beyond that, it becomes very difficult to study for an exam when the Vendor created study material has an errata as long as the book its self.

ScOULaris

edgar2387 wrote: »

ScOULaris

Where the questions the same from the 1st time you took the exam? I ask because i did memorize a few that i had trouble with and if so, i can research them and expect those same questions on the next go round for me

They were almost all new questions. I only noticed maybe 1 or 2 in total that may have also appeared on my first attempt at the 685. My second attempt was definitely a harder selection of questions too. I had far more questions that weren't standard multiple-choice selections. On my second attempt, I had quite a few of the re-ordering steps questions as well as a ton of "select all that apply" multiple-choice questions.

The "select all that apply" ones are brutal. You have no idea how many of the possible 7-10 answers can be accepted as correct, and you have to nail it perfectly or else you lose all credit for the question. The harder style of questions on my second attempt definitely played a large role in my scoring lower on the second shot that I did on the first.

Honestly, I don't think there's any more I can study for this test, at least not for now. So I am taking a break. I already went through dozens of TechNet articles and virtual labs, shared notes on this forum, relevant Professor Messor videos, the entire friggin' MS Press Book for the 685. I fully understand all of the objectives and yet I simply can't pass this test.

It really is the style of questions that makes this test so hard. If it were just standard multiple-choice, it wouldn't be nearly as tough. I also really wish that I could see what I got wrong after the test is over and done with. Otherwise, I leave every time not knowing where I went wrong. The general categories given on my results sheet simply don't cut it.

Asif Dasl

ScOULaris wrote: »

The "select all that apply" ones are brutal. You have no idea how many of the possible 7-10 answers can be accepted as correct, and you have to nail it perfectly or else you lose all credit for the question. The harder style of questions on my second attempt definitely played a large role in my scoring lower on the second shot that I did on the first.

Yeah I didn't have any of those harder "Select all that apply" questions that I can remember. In my opinion the longer an exam is around the harder it gets - it gives Microsoft time to get devious with the way they ask the questions. It seems unfair to get so many "Select all that apply" questions because they are the hardest to judge compared to multiple choice single answer questions or even "Choose 2" type questions. The format has changed since I've taken it.

They did the same thing with 70-647 and I failed that 4 times for various reasons but changing the entire format of the exam was one of them. My lesson learned, do the exams when they first come out before R2 comes out!! I think the Windows 8 exam will be fun when Windows 8.1 comes out in August - they brought back the Start Menu amongst other features.. 70-687 is going to be fun!

eLs

Passed the 70-680 not to long ago with a 800 on my first try but it was thanks to some of the advice and notes you guys made here which I'm thankful for. This test aint no joke like i thought it would be and now im studying for the 70-685 and i dont know why someone said it was easier than 70-680 it will probably take me about the same time to study for it.

Good luck on it

About7Narwhal

@eLs

I have been looking at the material and I believe it to be easier to learn. It isn't that the material is less difficult overall, but the material builds a lot on the 680. Because of that, I can see why some people take the opinion that it is easier simply because we should already know the basics of the material vs going in blind on the 680.

TechieComedian

word of advice

visual cert+the latest gillbeast vce, and youll do fine

Psoasman

gillbeast is related to exam collection, which is a braindump.

Tech Exams is not a site for cheaters. Verified on certguard, which is where you should verify any certification materials.

olaHalo

Just signed up to take this one.
Crossing my fingers...

About7Narwhal

I too expect to take this one in the next month.. I hate to take an exam outside of the second shot opportunity, but I also don't want to wait around for it to come back.

Budzy

Good luck to all of you taking the 685. It seems all the 'pro' exams are pretty tough these days and require a vast pool of knowledge. I took this exam via the 682 upgrade exam and noticed a huge jump in difficulty between the 680 section and 685 section.

olaHalo

Sat this one this morning.
I found it much easier than the 680.
I scored a 825 on it while I got a 720 on the 70-680.
Good luck to everyone else taking this exam. Make sure you lab.

About7Narwhal

Awesome news. Congratulations on the pass.

djordan94

Going to take this soon, i have the book by Tony Northrup and JC Mackin, shall i do all the lab tests they recommend at the end of each section yea?? or is there a site to run through lab tests.

mjdbb1

@olaHalo: I find myself in almost the same situation...passed the 680 with 740 (not as comfortable as I would have liked). Any materials you'd recommend for the 685?