70-680 Book Suggestions please!

Hello everyone,

What are the best books to buy in order to pass the 70-680?

This is the main one I plan to buy: Amazon.com: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows 7 (9780735627086): Ian McLean, Orin Thomas: Books

any other suggestions?

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alokin123

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Hello everyone,

What are the best books to buy in order to pass the 70-680?

This is the main one I plan to buy: Amazon.com: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows 7 (9780735627086): Ian McLean, Orin Thomas: Books

any other suggestions?

Thats the only one out at the moment for the exam you just need to look at the errata for the book. I'll let you know how helpful it is as i am taking my exam on Saturday.
The sybex book is coming out next month i believe. If you want extra reading try the Windows 7 Resource Kit

The Sean Odom book should be avoided

veritas_libertas

alokin123 wrote: »

Thats the only one out at the moment for the exam you just need to look at the errata for the book. I'll let you know how helpful it is as i am taking my exam on Saturday.

Thanks, I would like to hear it...

Hyper-Me

Make sure you check the erratta for that MS press book, as others have said. It seems to be way way off on a few chapters.

I would make sure you go through the 70-680 Resource thread thoroughly and do the Windows 7 Deployment portal learning.

You don't need a book to pass the exam or learn the material. It's all there for free with a little searching.

veritas_libertas

Hyper-Me wrote: »

You don't need a book to pass the exam or learn the material. It's all there for free with a little searching.

Thanks Hyper-Me, I will just stick to the Microsoft book that I ordered, the errata, and the 70-680 thread. I only bought Windows 7 a month ago, and I need to learn it better.

[Deleted User]

I'm really not all that impressed with that book. I am gonna pass on the Windows 7 exam until the Sybex book comes out. Other than that the other suggestions here are great, the Resource Kit seems great although very long and TechNet is a phenomenal resource.

ally_uk

Agree with the above post I am also waiting for the Sybex book, The Microsoft Press book is a f**king joke

RouteThisWay

Yeah, it's pretty terrible. Technet + Virtual labs are much better imho.

The MS book that was written is very difficult to read, quite a few errors (I felt pretty good that I could spot the errors before looking them up lol), felt very.. in-cohesive.

Try reading chapter 2, it can be a little frustrating to say the least. I would say the last few chapters are much better than the first 3. The author may know all about Win7 imaging/deployment, but he doesn't do a very good job of presenting the material. I found online resources to be much better.

That's just my opinion of course

alokin123

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Thanks, I would like to hear it...

well i passed yesterday with 875. Overall i was pretty dissapointed with the exam. I was expecting a barrage of questions on the Windows 7 features but it felt like i was doing an xp exam with a few windows 7 questions thrown in. Two questions were exactly the same. I didnt think deployment was covered as much as people say but it might have just been the exam i got.

I thought the mspress book was more than adequate. I know it might not be everyones cup of tea but it had all the info needed. I also used selftest exam which was very good also.
I also used the free 30 day trial from learnkey for this exam. For something that costs $480 i found it didnt go very in depth at all.
These videos here were quite good and for the price i was very impressed: ITDVDS.COM

veritas_libertas

Thanks Alokin, I guess I will just try the book and see if I feel it is enough.

Hyper-Me

alokin123 wrote: »

well i passed yesterday with 875. Overall i was pretty dissapointed with the exam. I was expecting a barrage of questions on the Windows 7 features but it felt like i was doing an xp exam with a few windows 7 questions thrown in. Two questions were exactly the same. I didnt think deployment was covered as much as people say but it might have just been the exam i got.

I thought the mspress book was more than adequate. I know it might not be everyones cup of tea but it had all the info needed. I also used selftest exam which was very good also.
I also used the free 30 day trial from learnkey for this exam. For something that costs $480 i found it didnt go very in depth at all.
These videos here were quite good and for the price i was very impressed: ITDVDS.COM

I only have experience with the 680 in beta but a large portion of the questions were specific to 7 technology. However, there is no assumption that anyone taking the 680 exam has already taken another OS exam, so there naturally will be questions that could theoretically be used in any client OS exam (XP, Vista or 7).

casperz4

I like the Sybex books.
This is the one I am using now
Amazon.com: MCTS Windows 7 Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-680 (9780470568750): William Panek: Books

earweed

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Thanks Hyper-Me, I will just stick to the Microsoft book that I ordered, the errata, and the 70-680 thread. I only bought Windows 7 a month ago, and I need to learn it better.

You can get Windows 7 pro free through MSDNAA, VL. Could have saved you some money.
You also have VMWare as a WGU student so you can start using workstation. They even give us a version of fusion for the mac users.

veritas_libertas

earweed wrote: »

You can get Windows 7 pro free through MSDNAA, VL. Could have saved you some money.
You also have VMWare as a WGU student so you can start using workstation. They even give us a version of fusion for the mac users.

I know this... I wanted Windows 7 on the desktop I bought though. I am going to use the copy from MSDNAA in VMWare. The last thing I want to do is mess around with things on my primary computer.

earweed

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I know this... I wanted Windows 7 on the desktop I bought though. I am going to use the copy from MSDNAA in VMWare. The last thing I want to do is mess around with things on my primary computer.

Cool, thought you had just bought 7 for the class. I kind of did the same thing, upgraded my main comp to Vista Ultimate and used the Vista business from MSDNAA on a Sun Virtual Box (We didn't have VMWare yet) for the client systems class.

veritas_libertas

earweed wrote: »

Cool, thought you had just bought 7 for the class. I kind of did the same thing, upgraded my main comp to Vista Ultimate and used the Vista business from MSDNAA on a Sun Virtual Box (We didn't have VMWare yet) for the client systems class.

Yeah I bought a new PC knowing I was going to need to run VMWare for all my MS classes. So far I really like Win7. It does drive me crazy that they felt the need rename things. Makes it more difficult to study for certifications.

veritas_libertas

alokin123 wrote: »

Thats the only one out at the moment for the exam you just need to look at the errata for the book. I'll let you know how helpful it is as i am taking my exam on Saturday.

How did the test go

[Deleted User]

Maybe I'm mistaken but he said he passed a couple of posts up.

earweed

alokin123 wrote: »

well i passed yesterday with 875. Overall i was pretty dissapointed with the exam. I was expecting a barrage of questions on the Windows 7 features but it felt like i was doing an xp exam with a few windows 7 questions thrown in. Two questions were exactly the same. I didnt think deployment was covered as much as people say but it might have just been the exam i got.

I thought the mspress book was more than adequate. I know it might not be everyones cup of tea but it had all the info needed. I also used selftest exam which was very good also.
I also used the free 30 day trial from learnkey for this exam. For something that costs $480 i found it didnt go very in depth at all.
These videos here were quite good and for the price i was very impressed: ITDVDS.COM

He posted that already here. He did really weel.

veritas_libertas

and I feel like an idiot

earweed

Don't, it was way up there.

MrGranger

When you say "selftest exam", which exactly did you mean?
Thanks.

alokin123

MrGranger wrote: »

When you say "selftest exam", which exactly did you mean?
Thanks.

Microsoft