70-649 syllabus...PASSED :-)

Hi Folks,

The arrival of Windows 2k8 forced me to finally complete my MCSE 2k3 last year, and while it's all pretty fresh, I thought I'd go for the 649 exam. Can those who've taken it already let me know if the syllabus listed at

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-649.mspx

...is relatively accurate? I've been working with a 2k8 VM and the McGraw Hill Windows Server 2008 Administration book, which seems to cover most bases.

Thanks

Nick

In light of this earlier post, I've just passed the above exam - I found it challenging to say the least...It's split into three parts - the first part being 20 questions mainly on IIS and Terminal Services with a smidgeon of WDS. The middle section was 9 questions on AD design - I was surprised this wasn't longer. ADFS and AD LDS featured here. The last section was a bit more generalised, and if you have good 2003 knowledge, you could probably make some educated guesses in this area. It covered RRAS, VPN, Authentication, Performance and monitoring &etc. Irritatingly, I had no questions in IPv6!

So to answer my own question, yes, the syllabus does cover all the areas. I used "Network Professional's Library - Windows 2008 Server Administration" by Steve Seguis and a good old virtual machine.

[RANT]Having seen the breadth of the questions in the exam, I'd be rather suspicious of anyone claiming 1000/1000 on this one - I only mention this, as I found another forum which offers ****, and there's a lot of willy waving going on over there, one guy claims to have completed it in 10 minutes! It bites my backside that this qualification is getting devalued by these chumps, and they might prevent non-cheaters from getting the interviews that their hardwork deserves.[/RANT]

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Comments

nicktf

[bump] as I've just done an extensive edit

hetty

First off, congrats on the pass! Did you read up on any of the step-by-step guides or are they a waste of time? Are the questions long winded or more straight-forward than the 2k3 questions?

nicktf wrote:

I'd be rather suspicious of anyone claiming 1000/1000 on this one

Sorry to say but Id be suspicious of anyone passing with 1000/1000 generally. Not that there arent smart people who might have over studied but it seems its best to ask what study material they used. If the dont reply, hmmm. I wonder.

I think you meant Wiley waving BTW, its their books

RobertKaucher

nicktf wrote:

[RANT]Having seen the breadth of the questions in the exam, I'd be rather suspicious of anyone claiming 1000/1000 on this one - I only mention this, as I found another forum which offers ****, and there's a lot of willy waving going on over there, one guy claims to have completed it in 10 minutes! It bites my backside that this qualification is getting devalued by these chumps, and they might prevent non-cheaters from getting the interviews that their hardwork deserves.[/RANT]

I totally agree with this. I thought I had prepared well, at least touching on everything in 2008. But there were a few questions I had no idea what they were talking about. Hard but fair is how I described it.

dave_ne1

nicktf wrote:

Hi Folks,

The arrival of Windows 2k8 forced me to finally complete my MCSE 2k3 last year, and while it's all pretty fresh, I thought I'd go for the 649 exam. Can those who've taken it already let me know if the syllabus listed at

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-649.mspx

...is relatively accurate? I've been working with a 2k8 VM and the McGraw Hill Windows Server 2008 Administration book, which seems to cover most bases.

Thanks

Nick

In light of this earlier post, I've just passed the above exam - I found it challenging to say the least...It's split into three parts - the first part being 20 questions mainly on IIS and Terminal Services with a smidgeon of WDS. The middle section was 9 questions on AD design - I was surprised this wasn't longer. ADFS and AD LDS featured here. The last section was a bit more generalised, and if you have good 2003 knowledge, you could probably make some educated guesses in this area. It covered RRAS, VPN, Authentication, Performance and monitoring &etc. Irritatingly, I had no questions in IPv6!

So to answer my own question, yes, the syllabus does cover all the areas. I used "Network Professional's Library - Windows 2008 Server Administration" by Steve Seguis and a good old virtual machine.

[RANT]Having seen the breadth of the questions in the exam, I'd be rather suspicious of anyone claiming 1000/1000 on this one - I only mention this, as I found another forum which offers ****, and there's a lot of willy waving going on over there, one guy claims to have completed it in 10 minutes! It bites my backside that this qualification is getting devalued by these chumps, and they might prevent non-cheaters from getting the interviews that their hardwork deserves.[/RANT]

Congrats on the Pass! What you onto next, 70-646 or 70-647?

With regards to that forum with people boasting about 1000/1000 in 10 mins, i have to agree with you, it totally devalues the certs and without wanting to sound discrimitory in any way - the people all posting on that forum scoring 1000/1000 seem to come from a certain region of the world and when having to deal with them in work like i have to, you can tell these people with MCSE's and all sorts of other certs have absolutly no idea how anything works, and have basically cheated to gain a job they cant do....although there are the odd one or two that you come across who you know have studied hard to gain their certs, like people on this site
[rant over]

nicktf

Thanks!

It's the 70-647 next for me, I felt the syllabus was slightly closer to to the day job. The only way I can motivate myself to do these things is to book them, so it's scheduled for early June. Better start doing some work, I suppose...