70-341 and 70-342 Questions

cknapp78

All,

Quick question for you. Where on earth can I find some decent books and training for MS Exchange 2013? Trying to get these two tests done for an upcoming job ASAP.

I see that Trainsignal at 49/month has some training for 70-341. Don't know if it is any good or not. Any opinions?

In addition there are not many books at all out there for Exchange 2013. Looking into the Safari Books subscription to grab the few that are out there. I've got about 15 years of experience in the Exchange sector just no certs to speak of. Not to mention, absolutely no labbing environment handy

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,

Corey

cknapp78

And a related question...anyone know where I can find information on renting or building an online lab for simming Exchage 2013? Don't really have the finances available right now to build one out locally even though I could probably build it in an hour Took a look at the Azure pricing model and just seems way too overpriced.

Corey

armandsss

I am having the same problem as you. Recently finished my MCSA and were thinking to jump on MCSE Messaging, but right now I think I will pause that idea for a while.

I watched a few starting episodes from Trainsignal 70-341 and already can say that it is lacking the depth for the exam. It will give overview, but nothing else.

So far there are no MeasureUp, Kaplan, Transcender exam prep questions available... so thats also a big minus.
And that "Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Unleashed" book what is available.... so many bad reviews, that I even didn't considered to spend money on it.

Overall, Technet is the only possibilty to cover all topics necessary for the exam.

Asif Dasl

I'm interesting in going down this route as well, I'm waiting for the Mastering Exchange 2013 book. I just checked now and it has been put back from September to November which is a bit of a bummer. I don't think that Exchange 2013 Unleashed book is enough for the exams going by the reviews but at the moment it's all there is book-wise.

As regards using Amazon Web Services or Azure I don't think it's as good as a home lab IMO.

cknapp78

Just what I was afraid of. Guess I will review the Trainsignal stuff and proceed with reading everything I can find. Was hoping that something had come out that I just wasn't aware of for training. No such luck I guess.

Corey

cknapp78

Well the good news is that I got a early birthday present from the family and they bought me a lab to work with to study up for my 70-341 and 70-342 exams. Take a look at let me know what you think. I think this should be sufficient to start with. Plan on eventually added a SSD for the boot HDD but for now I am in a lo better shape than I was before.

1 x ($169.99) AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
$169.99

2 x ($69.99) Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX
$139.98

1 x ($64.99) Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
$64.99

1 x ($64.99) ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G HDMI USB 3.0 uATX AMD Motherboard
$64.99

1 x ($44.99) Rosewill R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 350W 20+4 pin connector Power Supply
$44.99

1 x ($29.99) SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5450 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card ( 100292DDR3L)
$29.99

1 x ($-34.96) DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #1270987
$-34.96

Any other advice for 70-342 other than hitting TechNet? I have used TechNet for year and while I find it invaluable for research, I have always found it lacking any kind of cohesiveness for studying.

Corey

gbdavidx

Are you on gmail (or skype/instant messenger)? I am studying for exchange and could use someone to bounce ideas on back and forth

i bought a domain name from godaddy and trying to setup a full functional exchange on 2010

Claymoore

One thing you should both do is sign up for an Office 365 Enterprise trial. I was surprised by the number of Exchange Online questions in the 2010 exam I took 2.5 years ago before Office 365 was even released to the public. I can't remember the question mix on the 2013 beta exams I took last year, but since I had completed several Office 365 migrations at that point the questions would have been easy and thus not memorable.

If you have a fully functioning lab, you could even set up DirSync/ADFS/Single SignOn or DirSync/Same SignOn. It would be a good practice for setting up Exchange Federation and Organization Relationships with the Hybrid Configuration Wizard, or you could set up federation between your Exchange orgs.

gbdavidx

Dual core definitely doesn't it cut it, i don't think my motherboard supports 8 otherwise that looks like the cpu to get right now