A Completely Biased Rating of the MCITP Test Difficulties

This is my completely biased review on the difficulty of the tests in the MCITP track, based on nothing but my personal experience and perceptions at the time of testing. Your testing experience will most assuredly vary, so don't take my word for it.

So far, I have yet to fail a single test. So there's that, too.

In the order of easiest to most difficult:

- 686: I do not know if it was the prep material I used (Measureup + Sybex) or the age of the test, but this one was a breeze. Study the Measureup and the Sybex book and you should do fine.

- 647: Yes, 647. I found it easy as well.. probably because a) I'm good at planning and b) I'd been through all of it before on every other test.

- 685: Pretty easy. There was some new material on there, but nothing major.

- 642: I would not call this one easy, but it was not hard either.

- 680: As an all-encompassing OS, it was harder than the other Win 7 tests.

- 640: My first test in Iraq. Testing center issues made the experience harder than it had to be. 6 hour wait to take the test. Ouch.

- 643: One of two tests I thought I might fail. I didn't, but the margin was smaller than I would have liked. Then again, my experience with Sharepoint is nil beyond labs.

- 646: The first 2008 test I took, and by far the hardest. Though being first, I did not have the benefit of having studied the material over and over again.

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marcels

Hi Sabalo,

I found the 70-640 exam difficult because of the broadness of the topics, I'm currently studying to sit the 70-642 exam feels to be a lot easier. I'm looking forward to the 70-643 as the application side of things appears to me more that the networking.

Man, I was just commenting to a colleague on your certs. How long did it take for you to get all of them? Do you see any benefit in having both the MCITP:SA and MCITP:EA certs? We've been discussing doing the same thing and getting both certs, how much is duplicated between the two?

earweed

Hi Sabalo,
Your bias is probably flavored a lot by the amount of experience you have. People with little to no experience (except home labbing) will find most of these tests to be quite a bit more difficult.

You took the 70-646 test first? Do you mean that you took it before having taken the 640/643/643? If that is the case then you must have a greta deal of Server related experience.
Out of the 640/642/643 the 643 has been the most difficult as I had no experience with anything at all in any of the topics. Labbing it all with Hyper-V has helped me to learn quite a bit but actual work experience would have been beneficial.

erpadmin

marcels wrote: »

Hi Sabalo,

I found the 70-640 exam difficult because of the broadness of the topics, I'm currently studying to sit the 70-642 exam feels to be a lot easier. I'm looking forward to the 70-643 as the application side of things appears to me more that the networking.

Man, I was just commenting to a colleague on your certs. How long did it take for you to get all of them? Do you see any benefit in having both the MCITP:SA and MCITP:EA certs? We've been discussing doing the same thing and getting both certs, how much is duplicated between the two?

I have to go for the MCITP:EA for school....so that I have to do. The SA is just one more additional test (the 646). It's basically the equivalent of having the MCSE and the MCSA.

When you put it along those lines (that it's one more exam), it can't hurt to do it.

earweed

If I complete WGU maintaining my "extra" MS voucher I've got (assuming no third tries on an exam) I'm gonna take the 646 after I take the 647.

@Sbalo, How similar were the 646 and 647? Do you think I could take the 646 after the 647 with minimal study?

za3bour

The way I rate what I have finished so far is

1-646 is the hardest it's in fact the hardest exam I've ever had maybe because it did contain some R2 stuff which I wasn't prepared to and the fact that it took me almost 2 months to study it
2-680 is next , it covers a lot of features and technologies
3-642 not a tough exam but you gotta prepare well for it
4-640 was the easiest for me studied it in less than 3 weeks

I'm studying 643 now and thank god I did 646 because it already covers some of 643 topics so I didn't find anything hard yet

I think it's a good idea to take 646 it's only one test that will give you a good cert, yes it's hard but as I said some of it's topics is already covered at other tests.

I'm glad you put 647 as one of the easiest since it's my next exam (after 643)

My big question is though what's after EA and SA certs ?

earweed

za3bour wrote: »

My big question is though what's after EA and SA certs ?

For me, I'm going Cisco (CCNA) for a little while and then either going the Exchange or SQL route. I'm not sure which as both kind of interest me and both or even just one of those paths could be beneficial in your career.
Your already working in IT so what would benefit you to advance at the place you're working at now.

Sabalo

marcels wrote: »

Hi Sabalo,

I found the 70-640 exam difficult because of the broadness of the topics, I'm currently studying to sit the 70-642 exam feels to be a lot easier. I'm looking forward to the 70-643 as the application side of things appears to me more that the networking.

Man, I was just commenting to a colleague on your certs. How long did it take for you to get all of them? Do you see any benefit in having both the MCITP:SA and MCITP:EA certs? We've been discussing doing the same thing and getting both certs, how much is duplicated between the two?

Are we talking real time?

I got the 646 back in February and had to put off studying for a while. Between Feb and July, I ran my own enterprise test network in real time, dealing with user issues and whatnot. When I got to Iraq I picked up the books, started reading every day, and finished the remainder off in a couple of months. So depending on how you look at it, it took me the better part of the year or a couple of months.

I have a bit of a bug for completeness, honestly. That's why I did the SA and the EA; I just wanted to have both. When I took the 680, I felt the same way about the "lower tier" support tests. Honestly, taking them helped me understand the Windows 7 level stuff a lot better than I would have if I'd just stayed at the SA / EA level.

There's a lot of repeat between the tests, conceptwise. The least "repeated" was, IMO, the 643.

You took the 70-646 test first? Do you mean that you took it before having taken the 640/643/643? If that is the case then you must have a greta deal of Server related experience.

Choosing the 646 first was a matter of not realizing how the tests were structured. I would have saved it for last had I known! But I squeaked by, mainly through using Measureup practice tests, identifying things that I'd never heard or, and going back through to research.

Which reminds me... the official Academic Courses are garbage. Utter trash. They cover maybe 20% of the material.

@Sbalo, How similar were the 646 and 647? Do you think I could take the 646 after the 647 with minimal study?

I would say no. the 646 was very much a "how do you" sort of study, whereas 647 was more "plan the overall structure" sort of study.

My big question is though what's after EA and SA certs ?

For me, I am going to go back and fill in the MCSE: Security stuff. My real goal is the CISSP by the time I leave here, so I want to build a good base of knowledge.

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

For me, I'm going Cisco (CCNA) for a little while and then either going the Exchange or SQL route. I'm not sure which as both kind of interest me and both or even just one of those paths could be beneficial in your career.
Your already working in IT so what would benefit you to advance at the place you're working at now.

I'm not an SQL kinda guy at all so I think I will pickup Exchange, but not sure which version 2007 or 2010. I have live experience though only with 2007.

earweed

It might be best to go with what you have experience with. I've heard it's really hard to try labbing the exchange certs so it's best to study and test on what you have experience with.

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

It might be best to go with what you have experience with. I've heard it's really hard to try labbing the exchange certs so it's best to study and test on what you have experience with.

This is what I heard as well, I've just checked and to get MCITP using 2007 you need three exams :S while it's only two to get the 2010

Back to labbing issue I think I will only finish one exam which is configuring/deploying and leave the second till I have some live experience with 2010.

Claymoore

Interesting thread. How do you determine the relative difficulty level? Is it the topic, the questions themselves, your score, your experience level, the availability of study material, or the amount of time spent studying?

First, I'll put in a little disclaimer. I test well. I used to compete academically in high school and college where we would take tests, answer questions or perform labs in a competitive environment. I have taken far more challenging exams outside of IT than inside. I don't struggle with the test-taking process, and I know that gives me an edge.

I have failed IT exams, and I'll list those so you can judge my MCITP difficulty rankings a little more objectively:

067 Implementing NT Server 4.0. Underprepared due to work schedule and false sense of security after breezing through NT Workstation a month earlier. Second exam I ever failed, probably missed it by one question, barely passed it a couple weeks later.

297 2003 AD Design. Poorly designed test and equally bad study material. Failed it in the 500s but passed with a 700 a few days later.

284 Implementing Exchange 2003. It's a tough test, and I rushed the scheduling to sqeeze this and 285 in before one of the second shot periods expired. Easily passed it a few weeks later.

Now for the MCTS/MCITP rankings. This is from easiest to most challenging, although I only considered one of them difficult:

686 Win 7 EDA. Didn't study for it. Relied on experience and study efforts for the 681 beta that I took the same day.

620 Vista. Parental Controls topic on an enterprise client exam? Really?

403 SCVMM. Challenge was finding enough topics for test questions. Thankfully there was a good book from Sybex for learning SCVMM, as I passed the test on a Monday and did my first install at a client site that Wednesday.

624 Deploying Vista. Easy exam that I had to take as a partner requirement, the only challenge was finding study material.

652 Server Virtualization. I hear the 659 R2 exam is more challenging.

237 Exchange 2007 Design. I stopped studying a week before the scheduled exam and started working on the Win7 beta.

680 Win7, Configuring. Passed it in beta a week after I took 237, finally installed the RC version 2 months after I took the exam.

681 Win7, Deploying. Passed it in beta the same day I took 686, and this one has more in-depth deployment questions.

647 Server 2008 EA. Took a practice test the afternoon after I passed 649 and scored in the 800s. Had to wait 2 weeks for an available exam slot and passed it in the 900s.

662 Exchange 2010 Configuring. The 237 is the only truly easy Exchange exam, but this one wasn't much more challenging.

656 MS Desktop Optimization Pack. No experience + no official study material = challenge. This was also a surprising long exam - as long as the 669 beta I took right after it.

669 Desktop Virtualization. Passed it in beta the same day I took 656. Struggled in some of the same areas as 656.

238 Deploying Exchange 2007. Perhaps the best MS test I have ever taken. Good questions that required a good depth of knowledge. Tough but fair.

649 MCSE Upgrade to 2008. The Terminal Services questions on the 643 were the real struggle for me. The test itself wasn't difficult (except for TS) but the sheer scope of the exam combined with no official study material at the time I took it made it seem more daunting. I spent a few months reading chapters from several Resource Kits and general 2008 books to prepare. That approach set me up nicely for the 647.

236 Configuring Exchange 2007. The only one I consider difficult. There is a lot of Exchange information to cover for this exam, and when you throw PowerShell in on top that really ups the challenge. I barely had enough experience with 2007 when I took this exam because I barely passed it. Had I taken it a couple months later after I completed my first enterprise implementation and migration, this test would have been easier.

za3bour

662 Exchange 2010 Configuring. The 237 is the only truly easy Exchange exam, but this one wasn't much more challenging.

That's good news for me

I'm planning of doing this exam after I finish the EA track, did you take 663 as well ?

Thanks a lot for the useful info you've put about your exams (quite few indeed)

Interesting thread. How do you determine the relative difficulty level? Is it the topic, the questions themselves, your score, your experience level, the availability of study material, or the amount of time spent studying?

I think it's a combination of all these factors.

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

3-640 not a tough exam but you gotta prepare well for it
4-640 was the easiest for me studied it in less than 3 weeks
My big question is though what's after EA and SA certs ?

Is 3 642?

za3bour

erpadmin wrote: »

Is 3 642?

Yea it is my bad I've just changed it thanks for the correction

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

Yea it is my bad I've just changed it thanks for the correction

Not a problem, just making sure for me and others.

Mojo_666

I agree with earweed, it is hard to gauge the exams based on a common level of experience. I have sat and passd 13 MS exams without a fail, the first I sat I had been working with 2003/XP for 3 years at a senior level, the rest after 6-7 years hands on senior/3rd line. I upgraded to 2008 just short of 2 years after release and after deploying 2 domains and 40+ servers. However I do not think they are easy exams at all and I still have to study lots and I still forget lots, I also still learn things most days which I never knew.

it_consultant

I thought 70-647 was the hardest, and the rest were kind of elementary. I cleared the Exchange exam without much problem too. I think I work better on fact based tests like CCNA and Exchange then I am with the traditional track MCITP / MCSE tests.

Sabalo

Interesting thread. How do you determine the relative difficulty level? Is it the topic, the questions themselves, your score, your experience level, the availability of study material, or the amount of time spent studying?

A bit of all of them, coupled with the "OMFG" factor while sitting the test and the mental fatigue after the test.

Michael.J.Palmer

My personal list ranked on difficulty.

1. 640: I actually failed this one the first time I took it. After failing it I just went back, looked over everything once more and passed it with a 900 the second time, not hard once you concrete it all in.

2. 680: This is by far the hardest OS exam I've taken period, really not to be taken lightly, though I will say if you study everything for the 680 it'll actually make connecting the dots easier when you get to the Server 2008 stuff. I can't remember my score, but it wasn't over 900, I think it was an 813 (I'm too lazy to check).

3. 642: Last on my list the 642, to be honest with you I found this one to be extremely easy. I probably spent no more than a week and a half actually preparing for it and even after that I realized the only thing I hadn't already prepared for prior to it when I took the 640 was subnetting (easy stuff) and remote security policies, all of which I was able to learn in just a few days. Crushed it with a 900 on my first try.

That's my first MCTS exams, I'll be hitting up the 646 in a couple of weeks (probably sooner since I'm on a roll with these 2008 exams right now) and after that I'll be gearing to get a couple of CompTIA stuff out of the way before the end of the year and gear up for my CCNA... After that, possibly next year I'll start working on getting my EA so I'll be hitting the MCITP books again.