Which exam first??

emsrescue · March 2007

HI Guys,

My local college runs various Microssoft courses and I am thinking of enrolling on a couple, later in the year, to work towards the 2003 MCSA.

I have some experience of working with 200o server and 2000pro + XP but I am a little unsure of which course/exam to work on first.

I thought about 70-270 but in the info on the college website it says the pre req's for the 2285 course are completion of 2274, 2275, 2276 & 2277. Does tha mean I ahould really start on 70-290?

Cheers

Jon

sthomas · March 2007

I would do 70-270 first. You also have to do an elective exam so you may want to look into A+/Net+, A+/Server+, Security+, or MCDST. Anyway below is a link to what exams you can take to get MCSA 2003. Hope that helps.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsa/windows2003/default.mspx

emsrescue · March 2007

sthomas wrote:

I would do 70-270 first. You also have to do an elective exam so you may want to look into A+/Net+, A+/Server+, Security+, or MCDST. Anyway below is a link to what exams you can take to get MCSA 2003. Hope that helps.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsa/windows2003/default.mspx

All ready reading up on the Security+

Why would you recomend doing the 70-270 first when Microsoft recomends 70-290, 70-291 and then 70-270?

Just wondering becasue a few posts on here have recomended 270 first.

Thanks

Jon

sthomas · March 2007

Microsoft doesn't recommend 290 first they just list it first. Most people recommend 270 first because it is the easiest exam and each exam builds up on the next. 270 builds up on 290 and 290 builds up on 291. I would only recommend taking 290 or 291 first if you have experience with server 2003.

emsrescue · March 2007

Microsoft doesn't recommend 290 first they just list it first

I should have been a little clearer. Microsoft list various pre req's on their courses for the exams. i.e for 70-270 course 2285:

Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Course 2285: Two days; Instructor-Led

Prerequisites
Before attending this course, students must have:

• CompTIA A+ certification or equivalent knowledge

• CompTIA Network+ certification or equivalent knowledge

And either:

• Completed Course2208, Upgrading Your Skills from Microsoft Windows NT to Microsoft WindowsServer 2003

Or, completed all of the following courses:

• Course2274, Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

• Course2275, Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Jon

royal · March 2007

I always recommend that someone going into any type of networking, to always complete A+ and Network+ prior. A+ and Network+ teaches the fundamentals that will help you transition into a vendor's networking hardware/software. Learning the history of computing, what IRQs even are, what a cpu is, what memory does, what subnetting is, what TCP/IP is, and all that other good stuff will be very relevant and help tremendously when going through Microsoft, Cisco, or other vendor's certifications.

Personally, it seems like you want to go the Microsoft route. If I were you, this is the route I would go:

A+
Network+
70-270 (MCP and you can then transfer your A+ and Network+ to Microsoft as an MCSA elective)
70-290
70-291 (MCSA)
70-293
70-294
70-298
70-284 (MCSE + MCSA:M)

I always recommend to do Exchange as your last exam because the 70-284 exam will be easier if you have knowledge of clustering, Network Load Balancing, PKI, Certificates, and Active Directory. These technoloigies are covered more in depth in the exams proceeding your MCSA. Also, there are other electives you can take other than 70-284. I recommend doing 70-284 though because the majority of Microsoft environments will contain Exchange for their messaging infrastructure. It will always be beneficial to know how a company's messaging infrastructure works.

Hope this helps.

taktsoi · March 2007

I always recommend to do Exchange as your last exam because the 70-284 exam will be easier if you have knowledge of clustering, Network Load Balancing, PKI, Certificates, and Active Directory. These technoloigies are covered more in depth in the exams

hi icroyal:

could you please explain more about this? it is because once I finish writing my 291, I may think about getting 284 to become MCSA:M. Is it PRETTY NECESSARY to have those extensive knowledge you describe to write the 284 exam???

thank you.

tak

emsrescue · March 2007

icroyal wrote:

I always recommend that someone going into any type of networking, to always complete A+ and Network+ prior. A+ and Network+ teaches the fundamentals that will help you transition into a vendor's networking hardware/software. Learning the history of computing, what IRQs even are, what a cpu is, what memory does, what subnetting is, what TCP/IP is, and all that other good stuff will be very relevant and help tremendously when going through Microsoft, Cisco, or other vendor's certifications.

Personally, it seems like you want to go the Microsoft route. If I were you, this is the route I would go:

A+
Network+
70-270 (MCP and you can then transfer your A+ and Network+ to Microsoft as an MCSA elective)
70-290
70-291 (MCSA)
70-293
70-294
70-298
70-284 (MCSE + MCSA:M)

I always recommend to do Exchange as your last exam because the 70-284 exam will be easier if you have knowledge of clustering, Network Load Balancing, PKI, Certificates, and Active Directory. These technoloigies are covered more in depth in the exams proceeding your MCSA. Also, there are other electives you can take other than 70-284. I recommend doing 70-284 though because the majority of Microsoft environments will contain Exchange for their messaging infrastructure. It will always be beneficial to know how a company's messaging infrastructure works.

Hope this helps.

Icroyal,

Thanks for the input.

I am already doing a CCNA course and have passed the INTRO exam and have my ICND exam soon. I then intend to do the security+

I hope to do 290, 291 & 270 but not sure of the order yet although the general consensus seems to be 270

Jon

royal · March 2007

taktsoi wrote:

I always recommend to do Exchange as your last exam because the 70-284 exam will be easier if you have knowledge of clustering, Network Load Balancing, PKI, Certificates, and Active Directory. These technoloigies are covered more in depth in the exams

hi icroyal:

could you please explain more about this? it is because once I finish writing my 291, I may think about getting 284 to become MCSA:M. Is it PRETTY NECESSARY to have those extensive knowledge you describe to write the 284 exam???

thank you.

tak

It is not necessary, but it is more "efficient" to do the 70-284 after the 70-293 and the 70-294. The reason for this is because Exchange ties into Active Directory. Exchange will also do stuff like have you create certificates to enable TLS for your smtp connections, for securing OWA, for RPC over HTTPS, etc... You will also learn about Network Load Balancing front end servers as well as clustering back-end servers. Now you can definitely just follow directions in labs but it will leave you scratching your head on how that technology works. This technology is taught in the 70-293 and 70-294 exams. So again, yes you can do the 70-284 exam before 70-293 and 70-294, but I feel to get the most out of the Exchange experience it is optimal to do the 70-284 after the 70-293 and 70-294 exam.

Which exam first??

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