70-680 help please

Hello all,

This is such a great wealth of knowledge on this site - thank you in advance for hopefully helping a new guy out.

A little background - I have been in IT for about 5 years as a Junior administrator - however I have never gone and gotten any of my certs. Anyway - I have decided to begin pursuing them, better late than never, and the 680 has been the test I have been focusing on since it seems to be so useful and applicable to so many different certification paths I can take.

Anyway - I am obviously very nervous - I have been diligently studying for this examination using technet rescources, some of the links above in that useful thread, and also after browsing the microsoft learning site - they indicated "Measureup" as a great site to use to study to take this test. So - I have been using the measureup practice tests and am consistently getting in the 70%-85% range - on the questions I get wrong, I am sure to read and understand the explanations, since studying the questions and answers is not of any use if you dont understand the theorizing behind it - and I am a firm believer in this. So far I am finding it to be useful and some of the questions very challenging.

Here is my issue, however - do you folks feel this is enough? If I am getting consistent scores like this, should I take the plunge and go take the test? If not, what other resources would you recc? As I said, ive never taken a cert test before and am nervous, I dont test very well - so I am hoping to get some info from some of you vets that might be of some use, or you can tell me im crazy and should go for it, I dont know, any info would be useful and I thank you in advance, sorry for rambling.

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forkvoid

nyjohnny wrote: »

Hello all,

This is such a great wealth of knowledge on this site - thank you in advance for hopefully helping a new guy out.

A little background - I have been in IT for about 5 years as a Junior administrator - however I have never gone and gotten any of my certs. Anyway - I have decided to begin pursuing them, better late than never, and the 680 has been the test I have been focusing on since it seems to be so useful and applicable to so many different certification paths I can take.

Anyway - I am obviously very nervous - I have been diligently studying for this examination using technet rescources, some of the links above in that useful thread, and also after browsing the microsoft learning site - they indicated "Measureup" as a great site to use to study to take this test. So - I have been using the measureup practice tests and am consistently getting in the 70%-85% range - on the questions I get wrong, I am sure to read and understand the explanations, since studying the questions and answers is not of any use if you dont understand the theorizing behind it - and I am a firm believer in this. So far I am finding it to be useful and some of the questions very challenging.

Here is my issue, however - do you folks feel this is enough? If I am getting consistent scores like this, should I take the plunge and go take the test? If not, what other resources would you recc? As I said, ive never taken a cert test before and am nervous, I dont test very well - so I am hoping to get some info from some of you vets that might be of some use, or you can tell me im crazy and should go for it, I dont know, any info would be useful and I thank you in advance, sorry for rambling.

Someone on this forum, I can't recall who, had a great method that I like: during study on practice exams, instead of picking out right answers, explain why the other answers are wrong.

I find that teaching the material is a great way for me to learn. I have a friend who soaks up knowledge like I do... on a topic that I'm not 100% sure about, I'll call him over and explain how it works. He always picks it apart just for his own sake, but having to answer someone else's questions really cements your understanding of it.

After a while, you have to just stop studying and take the plunge. After your first successful test, your confidence in your own study skills and retention will increase, making that next plunge easier.

nyjohnny

Thanks for that - i appreciate the information.

Anything on the measureup specifically? I was wondering if anyone can vouch for it in reference to the 680 test.....

zetback@gmail.com

IDK if this will help but.

I have zero experience in IT althou bout 15 years working on computers ect, on my own ect, I owned win 7 for about 3 months, and really only maybe 1 month of actually thinkering with it, I took the examn in 3 weeks notice and i also had to separate time for work and network + exam which i was going to take that same week in reality i did about 1 week of solid stuyding

I used the 70 680 book from ms press, downloaded the WAIK and practiced a few things like VHD, and a few of the migration scenarios but nothing

sometime some of the chapter quizes i was getting 50 % on some of course i kept retaking them and reading up,

anyhow I did pass it, not with a huge mark or anything, but i actually got all questions correct for the migration part, but if you know the material and you are doing ok in the book exams ( try all questions and keep trying them ect ) you should do fine no worries.

my tip for the exam version i got, loadstate and scanstate were mentioned in about 5 questions, what order they are used, the majority of the questions are situational, " if you have x number of this what tool would you use for this " to me the book exam was harder.

zetback@gmail.com

forkvoid wrote: »

Someone on this forum, I can't recall who, had a great method that I like: during study on practice exams, instead of picking out right answers, explain why the other answers are wrong.

I find that teaching the material is a great way for me to learn. I have a friend who soaks up knowledge like I do... on a topic that I'm not 100% sure about, I'll call him over and explain how it works. He always picks it apart just for his own sake, but having to answer someone else's questions really cements your understanding of it.

After a while, you have to just stop studying and take the plunge. After your first successful test, your confidence in your own study skills and retention will increase, making that next plunge easier.

what he said, i had my father who is a very educated man read up the material and discuss it with me even when half the time he didnt know what it was about it helped me retain information.