Study material: Another thread, great...

Went through all the active threads and I'm more... unsure about which study material I want to delve into.

Givens
I have 3 weeks (21days) to prepare for this test.
I have set aside 6 hours a day for the next 3 weeks to study.
I have intermediate technical experience with Xp sp2/3.

Dont tell me its impossible, flame the next guy. Its doable, now tell me
where to stick my nose.. I hit the ground running today!
---

If possible, provide links where I can get ISBN#'s and/or download links.
Thanks guys!!

EDIT: Going through the CBT Nuggets 70-270 videos at the moment.

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line

Reading Material, in your opinion, which is most effective?

1
Exam Cram 2 Windows XP Professional, Second Edition, Exam Cram 2 Series, Dan Balter, Book - Barnes & Noble

2
MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270), Walter Glenn, Book - Barnes & Noble

3
MCSA/MCSE, Lisa Donald, Book - Barnes & Noble

4
MCSE Training Guide (70-270), Training Guide Ser., Gord Barker, Book - Barnes & Noble

5
MCSA/MCSE, Lisa Donald, Book - Barnes & Noble

bwcarty

MS Press, CBT Nuggets, & Transcender are what I used. Just order the 30 day online access for Transcender...save yourself some money over the full download. If money is an issue, you can go with Self Test Software, which is much cheaper but doesn't include quite as many practice questions.

Amazon.com: MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270): Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, Second Edition (Pro-Certification) (9780735621527): Walter Glenn, Anthony Northrup: Books

Microsoft 70-270 Practice Exam - Transcender MCSE/MCSA 70-270 Certification Training Products

Self Test Software Microsoft 70-270 Training Products - Practice tests and Online Courses - 70-270

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bwcarty wrote: »

MS Press, CBT Nuggets, & Transcender are what I used. Just order the 30 day online access for Transcender...save yourself some money over the full download. If money is an issue, you can go with Self Test Software, which is much cheaper but doesn't include quite as many practice questions.

Amazon.com: MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270): Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, Second Edition (Pro-Certification) (9780735621527): Walter Glenn, Anthony Northrup: Books

Microsoft 70-270 Practice Exam - Transcender MCSE/MCSA 70-270 Certification Training Products

Self Test Software Microsoft 70-270 Training Products - Practice tests and Online Courses - 70-270

Thanks Bwcarty, I'll see if I can grab a copy of the MS Press book.

I noticed it was 3 times the read of the ExamCram2. Is there more information in the MS Press title, or just more redundant?
I'm not contesting it being a good choice, just wondering if I need to plan more time to get through it.

line

Picked up the MS Press 70-270 book today. Im well into chapter 2 and its a very easy read. Not too redundant and the concepts are pretty simple to wrap the noggin around.

I think this is a good choice, especially paired with CBT nuggets to "follow along" and add some muscle memory to what I'm reading.

Barnes and noble had it listed for $59.95, members got $12.00 off.
I think their website had it for just at $40.00

EDIT: I was concerned that getting through a 1400page book in reasonable time would be difficult. But I've knocked out almost 80 pages between a couple cups of coffee tonight. Not too taxing on the brain, concepts are well presented and explained.

bwcarty

The MS Press books are generally pretty good at covering the material you'll see on the exam, but they are not designed solely to get you through the exam. Some of the details they cover are not on the exams, and a lot of the stuff is review for anybody with a moderate degree of experience.

The only exception I've heard about MS Press is for the 70-293 exam. I went ahead and picked up the highly recommended Syngress book for that one, and combined with CBT Nuggets, Transcender, and plenty of hands on experience, I got one of my best scores ever on that one.

undomiel

Don't forget to check your local library and see what they have available. It could save you a bit of cash. For a good overview I thought the Mike Meyer's Passport book was decent. It was well suited for jump around to your weak areas. Don't forget to check some things out in a lab as well that you normally wouldn't get experience with i.e. RIS.

line

Passed with an 810.

To be completely honest, this test was a joke. I read the first 4 chapters of the MS Press book, and about the same of the ExamCram book.

I was discouraged I had not allotted more time to my studies and I was going to cancel and reschedule....

But for some reason I got up and drove 1.5 hours to Atlanta and took the test.

I sit down at the assigned computer and the machine crashes after I accept the waiver and contract. So the proctor moves me to another computer and i swear to god it took 10 seconds for each question to load after answering them.

The test was stupid simple.. Any halfwit that can read the problem can instantly rule out 2 of the solutions as bogus if they know ANYTHING about how windows Xp works.

So, that leaves you with a 50/50 shot on 50 questions.

I thought it was terribly easy, Im going to try and return my books since I didnt even use them. So frustrating as I was discouraged and was going to reschedule and study my arse off.. What a joke.

Super99

For this exam, I'd say. Transcender and MSPress book.
I used a few others for this exam and they were a waste of time and money.
Transcender was the closest for this exam.

Todd Burrell

I am currently studying for this test and I agree that it seems that this should be an easy test - but with Microsoft tests I never take anything for granted.

I am very glad I took the 70-290, 291, 293, and 294 tests first. The stuff in the 270 book about AD, DNS, DHCP, and TCP/IP seems very easy now that I have passed the Server 2003 core tests.

I ALWAYS like to get the MS Press book CD's and use those study questions. Once I can pass their tests I always know I'm ready for my exam. The MS Press questions always seem tricky and very hard.

Congrats on the pass.

Lamini

heheh

i just started reading the 70-270 mspress book. chapter 3 and so far (just started today and it hasnt told me anything I didnt already know, and im a noob. and this is the "beast"? lol... now watch, i'll fail the exam hahaha

line

I don't want to pass off this elitist techier than thou frame of mind but this test was a joke. I had a ton of questions on networking and very little on OS management and administration. AND, the questions I did have about the OS were about the task bar and MMC.

If I could go back knowing what I know now, I would have just studied the ExamCram test bank and watched a few CBT Nuggets on the subject matter that I was weak on.

What sucks is now I have this laughable first impression of MS Exams and I'm getting ready to take the 70-290. Hope I get lucky again

Lamini

the thoughts of people after taking the 70-270 differ so greatly, "its so easy" vs "its the beast!", but one thing ive noticed and I have yet to not change... all you have to do is look at peoples certifications prior to the 70-270. I noticed that people with nearly no certs fail far more often(sometimes several times!) and the ones with multiple certs not so much. I think people get the wrong idea and think that the 270 is the cert to start with (!!!).

im not going to blow the test off and think its easy as its my $$$ to be spent, but seeing that we got identical certs, my confidence just went up. i been going through the TestOut CBTs and 90% of it (and im 90% through) is stuff already known (again, enterprise stuff kills me, ie RIS, setting up VPN, maybe more). however, i do not have real server experience, so i know that will let me down on the 290/291/284; thats my path. however, i do build these systems ground up (s2k3/e2k7), many times ( thanks to trial and error and no certs!), so i have no real enterprise experience (which kills me at the interviews every time).

winky51

I failed my 1st time, waiting to take my 2nd chance. Ive been asking around different people in the IT profession and most have told me that you basically do "practice tests" and wala you pass. If you do enough of them you see the test questions.

One of the IT pros I know paid $6k to get his MCSE training and he was quite dissapointed with the class. They ran through huge books in 1 week and basically told him how to ****, without actually telling him to ****, take "go to X locations for some GOOD practice exams" He did and most of the questions were on the test. All he had to do was memorize the answers. Thats BS if thats how these tests are run now.