Lab, Lab, Lab ??

gbeer7

Hi Everyone,

Just stumbled onto this website today and wow what a wealth of resource !!

I'm studying for the 70-640 exam. Have the CBT nuggets the 2008 book, my own HP Pro 350 G5 server with a bunch of windows 2008 servers and R2. So i'm setup to go !
When i read though the posts people say do the labs alot. What do you mean ? Labs from the books or another resource ? Sorry if this is a daft question, but it sounds useful. I'm not sure if how i'm studying is right, watching the CBT nugget labs and making notes, then hopping on a server and practicing. Any advice/tips ?

Thank you all.

cruwl

There are quite a few posts here about this.

My strategy for the 640 was read a chapter, watch CBT nuggets video on that chapter, If I didnt get it I read the same chapter in a different book.
Then do the labs in the book. Eventually you should get to the point where you can make up your own labs, even string multiple chapters and labs together. I posted a few times on idea for this for DNS.

Some simple examples: write down a make up company, an HQ and some branch offices. Draw out what you need for DCs, DNS ect. Figure out how many sites you want all on paper. Then go build all of it in your lab. now tweak it add some secondary DNS servers or another company ect.

If there seems to be a major topic in a chapter not covered in the practice labs go back and figure out how to do that major topic. some times its pretty simple other times its not. Either way that's how I did it.

Welcome to TE.

Crikey

Set it up. Make it work. Break it. Fix it. Tear it down. Set it up...

Repeat until you can do it in your sleep.

You can do the step by step exercises in the MS books, but if you just go line by line in a daze you won't learn much, imo. This will get you started - but I always did the Suggested Practices instead, and created my own environments. I got tired of having everything contoso.com after a few days

sratakhin

Contoso.com... I saw it in my nightmares a few times
I just read chapters in the MS Press book and follow everything. With labs, try reading the instructions first and then do them without looking at individual steps. This way you'll remember at least something.

Lexluethar

I agree with what Crikey said, doing the labs in the MS books step by step isn't enough. While you learn how to setup certain roles / features, you don't get a true understanding for them. You can use the book as a stepping point but branch out.

I've just gotten in the habit of setting up the first few labs by the books, then I just start creating my own - seeing what i can break / fix and taking note of what works and what doesn't.