advice on books

dhenderson

Hi

Im looking to go for the MCTS in exchange 2010 or the MCSE in exchange 2013 to broaden my skillset. Ive decided i dont have time to do the MCITP on 2010 as it retires in July. At the moment im an MCITP:EA on server 2008 and an MCSA on 2012.

It seems after looking at reviews there arent any decent books for 2010 and there arw virtually none for 2013 (yet)

Can anyone recommend a good book for 2010? I think 2010 will be a good starting point, weve got 2010 at work so i do use it a bit.

Will 5 months be enough to knock out the MCTS too as it retires in july is it difficult?

Thanks

powerfool

Really, the best books on Exchange are written by Tony Redmond and Paul Robichaux... Exchange 2010 Inside Out (one book) and Exchange 2013 Inside Out (two books). Do you have any experience with any version(s) of Exchange? If so, five months is plenty of time... You should really be tracking towards an exam per month, if you have experience and enough time to study. When I am in crunch time, I can knock out an exam in a week, cradle-to-grave, if I have enough time to cram, but everyone is different, and I am not sure that I can even do that anymore... my attention span has turned to nothing as I am heavily focused on learning German right now.

dhenderson

Thanks, i made the decision to go for 70-662 (Exchange 2010) first.

Ive watched the CBT nuggets videos by Greg Shields which were quite informative for the exam (although old).

Ive done a few practice tests on the MCTS self paced training kit and done ok, was going to watch the SP2 video whats new on pluralsight. I cant find any videos on SP3 but im guessing theres not much difference between SP2 and SP3?

I use exchange 2010 and 2007 at work. I can do the basics like delete a mailbox, add one, disable OWA for a user , message tracking etc but i feel im getting there.

Is there much point doing the 70-663? I plan to look at Exchange 2013 after, i thought passing the 2010 first would give me the foundation for 2013.

powerfool

The big differences for Exchange 2010 came with SP1; command changed. Things like that haven't really happened that much since then. Since you deal with it at work, it gives you something to understand. You can review your environment. And the good thing about PowerShell is that you can run the "Get" commands all day long and not disrupt service (assuming you don't do something odd that creates an endless loop).