70-643 next Thursday

I've been studying for around one month (27 days to be specific), took three days off last week and went for a vacation which was really a BIG HELP .

I didn't like this course at all and I don't really understand the point of calling it Application Infrastructure and to have exam for it seems like a waste of money/time for me but it seems MS want to get our money at any way.

This is the first exam I took that I use only one book for it The MS Press one because I didn't read positive reviews about Sybex book. I did get Windows 2008 R2 unleached book not a long time ago but I havn't read it thoroughly.

I have to say as well that it's very confusing to read the book which uses all old terms (like Terminal Services) while at lab it's called something else. My lab has 3 machines 2 Windows Server 2008 R2 and one XP machine in addition to my host (Win 7) which I used to test IIS.

I did a good thing by taking 70-646 first because I've already studied 4/9 of the book's chapters so I really recommend every one to take 70-646 first (if you're planning to take MCITP-SA) since it will be very helpful and it will cut study time.

The section I found hardest to study was IIS, I'm very unfamiliar with it and I didn't really use it much. I think it's my weak point. Other chapters were just fine not really that hard to study/lab.

I will finish reading today and tomorrow will do a practice test, well I think I've talked a lot but I'm really bored It wasn't really joyful to study for it unlike 646 which was challenging and fun.

Anyway wish me luck, test next Thursday 1:00 PM @ Beirut. If anyone took this test I appreciate last minute tips

P.S:I will study till 2:30 AM then gonna see Celtics Vs Miami don't know yet how in the world I will wake up to work tomorrow

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earweed

The test also refers to Remote Desktop Services now.
Know IIS really well. It's 25% of the test.
Know about Media Services and look at Sharepoint Foundation 2010.
That's the hardest test I've ever taken.

za3bour

Thanks Man, IIS is really my concern I'm not thinking about failing but I do have a second shot.I think I'm fine with both Media Services and SP I've labbed them a lot.

But IIS, don't know why they have to test you hardly on it ? and gotta say I've never use it other than for a small intranet website and it's really not used that much here in Syria mostly Linux machines will take care of your web content.

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

Thanks Man, IIS is really my concern I'm not thinking about failing but I do have a second shot.I think I'm fine with both Media Services and SP I've labbed them a lot.

But IIS, don't know why they have to test you hardly on it ? and gotta say I've never use it other than for a small intranet website and it's really not used that much here in Syria mostly Linux machines will take care of your web content.

I have only seen IIS used inhouse web applications and our "ghetto" web mail product. (It is so god awful, I will not use it...ever, and while I support it, it is very minimal). The last time I dealt with it, personally, was IIS 5.0/6.0. Not exactly rocket science, but I can see how it's a pain to set up....(and secure). But definitely not rocket science.

za3bour

Yea it's not rocket science but it's just dull actually IIS 7.5 is easier to config IMO than older versions.

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

Yea it's not rocket science but it's just dull actually IIS 7.5 is easier to config IMO than older versions.

Man, you're gonna be fine.

LOL....if you can sit through getting an EE, (I would have been asleep the first 30 minutes of that), you should knock this test out of the park. If I were you, I wouldn't even worry about it.

Hopefully it'll be the same for me.

Jander1023

Good luck on the exam! And good luck with the testing center actually working correctly this time!!!

za3bour

Jander1023 wrote: »

Good luck on the exam! And good luck with the testing center actually working correctly this time!!!

Oh man I don't wanna think about it

, I did send them an Email and they confirmed all is fine so hopefully no issues.

za3bour

erpadmin wrote: »

Man, you're gonna be fine.

LOL....if you can sit through getting an EE, (I would have been asleep the first 30 minutes of that), you should knock this test out of the park. If I were you, I wouldn't even worry about it.

Hopefully it'll be the same for me.

I hope so too

CChilderhose

Good luck as that is my next one after I get past the 646 on my second shot.

za3bour

CChilderhose wrote: »

Good luck as that is my next one after I get past the 646 on my second shot.

Thanks,

It seems we have similar track my plans after EA is to get Exchange too. I'm done reviewing and it's sleep time now gotta walk up at 7AM

za3bour

@Cafe now exam in 45 minutes quickly reading notes

za3bour

woooo hooooo

Passed

890 well to be honest I'm kinda sad I really wanted to get 900+ but what the hell it's a pass and a good mark.

There are few things I wanna say about this exam hopefully someone else will find them useful

Exam is not that hard if you study well and labbed a lot, I found it easier than 680/646 and maybe in same rank with 640/642.
I studied using MS Press self study book and technet stuff in addition to reading some of Windows 2008 R2 Unleached which I only got last week
I labbed using only Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise addition which I highly recommend
Make sure you study IIS really really well I can't emphasize this enough in addition to TS (RD now)
Make sure to learn all the new terminology , there is nothing called TS now so get yourself a book about Windows 2008 R2 the book i got has many charts which say new/old names and it's really helpful
I got only 40 questions, no additional 25 like 646 but it's not a rule you could get more
All the questions I got were not R2 specific but again this is not a rule but all the terms were R2
I finished in about 45 minutes and spent another 15 reviewing

Now i'm in a break for two days then back to study on Sunday, hopefully 70-647 is my last exam for 2010.

I do have the Sybex book in addition to MS book for it so I'll be studying both in addition to Unleached book.

Jander1023

Congrats! As always, I very much appreciate your feedback on the exams. Finishing up the year with the 647 would be very nice. Good luck!

If you don't mind, how would you compare this exam to the 646? Was the 646 more deployment questions and the 643 more technical questions?

za3bour

Jander1023 wrote: »

Congrats! As always, I very much appreciate your feedback on the exams. Finishing up the year with the 647 would be very nice. Good luck!

If you don't mind, how would you compare this exam to the 646? Was the 646 more deployment questions and the 643 more technical questions?

Thanks man, hopefully it's gonna be a nice end, I decided to go back into exams at the beginning of 2010 and it was definitely a BIG year for me.

Back to your question, yes it's more technical more direct questions that doesn't really need a lot of thinking it's either you do know the answer or not while in 646 you really need to think deeper and compare possibilities. 643 is easier, out of 4 answers 2 are way wrong and you might hesitate on one at least this is what I got today.

646 is much harder, but doing it before 643 is a HUGE advantage since they share a lot so I really recommend doing it first.

Jander1023

I was thinking about doing the Win7 686 after finishing the 646. Now you got me thinking about hitting the 643 soon after I pass the 646. I was also thinking about doing Exchange 2010 in January, especially if I can get work to pay for it!

I guess I'll remember most of the 646 by Feb.

earweed

Congrats on knocking this one out of the park!

CChilderhose

Congrats. Good points to know after I get past the 646. I will be sure to study up on IIS.

Which Sybex books are you using for these exams? Is it one specific book or one for each exam? I mainly interested in the one you used for 646.

LCA

Great going za3bour, and with a top score!

Thanks for your list of 8 bullet points, they're very helpful as I'm currently studying this exam and plan to do it in December.

za3bour

CChilderhose wrote: »

Congrats. Good points to know after I get past the 646. I will be sure to study up on IIS.

Which Sybex books are you using for these exams? Is it one specific book or one for each exam? I mainly interested in the one you used for 646.

Thanks, Yea focus on IIS and RDS. As for the book it's one book for each exam they do cover all exams and I like their books they're kinda complete what's missing in MS books. This is the only exam so far that I didn't use Sybex book for it though.

za3bour

LCA wrote: »

Great going za3bour, and with a top score!

Thanks for your list of 8 bullet points, they're very helpful as I'm currently studying this exam and plan to do it in December.

Thanks a lot, Good Luck for you.

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

Congrats on knocking this one out of the park!

Thanks Man, Good Luck for you, you will do great this time I'm pretty sure.

za3bour

Jander1023 wrote: »

I was thinking about doing the Win7 686 after finishing the 646. Now you got me thinking about hitting the 643 soon after I pass the 646. I was also thinking about doing Exchange 2010 in January, especially if I can get work to pay for it!

I guess I'll remember most of the 646 by Feb.

Well Exchange as I heard is not easy so I would do 643 then 686 and worry later about Exchange exams (you will do the 2010 right ?)

If you want get the book for 643 and see if it does make sense to take it right after 646.

Jander1023

za3bour wrote: »

Well Exchange as I heard is not easy so I would do 643 then 686 and worry later about Exchange exams (you will do the 2010 right ?)

If you want get the book for 643 and see if it does make sense to take it right after 646.

I already have the book for the 643, 647 and the brand new 686 book. I think I am leaning towards the 643 now, then do the 686 after that.

I would def want to do 2010 exchange. I may put that on the back burner until after I finish the MCITP track and the 686. Unless I can get my work to pay for Exchange 2010 training. Hard to pass up a weeks worth of training paid and the entire week off work, as well.