Frustrated with the 70-642 material

veritas_libertas

Am I the only one who thinks MS Press books are horribly written? :P I'm currently reading the MS Press 70-642 R2 book. I'm finding it frustrating. In some cases a term is used that is not explained until the next chapter. In fact, it sometimes does not say that it won't be further investigated until the next chapter. Ugh... LOL

veritas_libertas

Does anyone have any advice on the best new resources for this exam that support R2?

sratakhin

I think that the MS Press is fine, but it won't be enough alone to prepare you for the exam. I failed this exam once and it was the only exam I've ever failed. I could also recommend Darril's book on command line stuff. I wouldn't have passed the test the second time I took without this book.
Also, read Technet articles and do labbing. A lot of labbing.

By the way, didn't you read Lammle's books when preparing for CCNA? "This stuff is _this_, but we'll get to it later, I promise!"

veritas_libertas

Yes, but it felt like it was much better written and IT DID NOT SAY WHEN IT WOULD BE COVERED. I don't mind googling, but good grief... Not trying to flame, just saying...

So you are saying that the MS Press book for the 642 does not cover all the command line? I'm wondering why would say you wouldn't have passed it without Darril's command line book. I'm looking for more material. I have looked through TECHNET and have already been labbing with VirtualBox + 2008R2.

sratakhin

I only spent about two weeks preparing for the exam because I figured I already know this stuff from passing 70-291 and experience. Well, I was wrong Darril's book covers some details that aren't even mentioned in the MS Press book. And yes, you do need to know a lot of command line stuff.

veritas_libertas

I don't mind command line. I was asking if the MS Press book did not teach enough of the commands. I guess I will have to grab Darril's book as well

Essendon

Most MS Press books arent enough, the one for the 642 aint any different. I'd highly recommend you read TechNet as your primary resource, lab as much as you can. Supplement with the Unleashed/Mastering books and the Nuggets (if you have access to them, of course) and you should be set.

Just saying, the last MS Press book I used was the one for the 291 many many moons ago. Never picked up a text book again after that. The above method helped me pass about 11 exams.

MrBigglesworth

Is it unreasonable to expect that if a book is out about a specific test that it should cover the material sufficiently? I failed 500 on 70-642 with the "MS Official" course 6421B book and Transcender tests. Im thinking of getting the Poulton book to study on the side.

Essendon

There's nothing "official" about these "Official" books! I mean they are published by Microsoft, but like most other books they arent enough to go through and pass these exams. The Poulton book isnt bad from what I hear, but I wouldnt bet any money on it being the only resource you'd need. You just HAVE to supplement with more material.

iBrokeIT

sratakhin wrote: »

Also, read Technet articles and do labbing. A lot of labbing.

This. There is a sticky with all the Technet articles relating to each M$ exam. Read and understand them.

I stopped using Microsoft Press books because I felt they didn't prepare me well enough. Switched to the year sub of CBT Nuggets + Transcender practice exams along with reading the Technet articles and setting up a practice lab in VMware workstation.

veritas_libertas

Yikes. That is kind of sad. You would think the OCG would have everything you need. I was thinking the sticky was out of date, but moving further down I found suggested links to the R2 material. Okay, well this answers my questions. Thanks guys. Any recommendation of practice exams? I know I used Transcender when I was studying for the W7 exam a few years back. Is that still considered the best?

chief120

I used Transcenders for 70-640, 70-642, and 70-646, the latter of which I have successfully passed. I feel the test questions are good in the sense that they make you think a bit but they are very different in style than Microsoft's test questions. Transcender questions can be 100-200 words long and give you a fair picture of a situation. Microsoft test questions can be 20-50 words long. When I looked at the possible answers I was left thinking "the question didn't say they did steps 1, 2, and 3 so the answer could be A. But it they assume they did those steps then the answer is B. But if they did steps 1 and 3 but skipped 2 then the answer is E."

If anyone has advice on how to approach the Microsoft test questions as far as assumptions I'm all ears.