Failed!

I studied for a few hours a day for about a month, but couldn't cut the mustard today. I scored full-bars in two areas and over 60% in all others except for Monitoring and Maintaining Systems

My advice to others would be to keep a glossary of every .exe, .xml, & .msi file mentioned in the MS Press book as I found myself second-guessing commands and switches for a few questions. I guess I should try labbing without using a mouse for better reinforcement.

For practice exams, I felt MeasureUp was a complete let-down as their questions were really simple. I bought SelfTest software a few days ago and thought that was about the same in terms of difficulty. I'll definitely be using them from now on.

I'll use my second-shot sometime before the end of the year and knock this one out.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

ehnde

Which exam was it?

apena7

Whoops, 70-680

ehnde

Ah yes, I've heard 70-680 is a beast. As you can see from my sig, I'm studying for it. I'm memorizing command line options for DISM and imagex. The deployment section of the microsoft press book is extremely boring, so I try to focus on labbing that deployment stuff and memorizing command line switches with flash cards.

You know what they say, on a Microsoft exam if there is a choice between different utilities to accomplish the same task and they both appear correct, and you're not certain of which one to use go with the newer microsoft utility/program

Z Funk

ehnde wrote: »

The deployment section of the microsoft press book is extremely boring

You can say that again. I bought the Sybex book because I thought it was an easier read. So far so good, even though the Sybex book doesn't go into nearly as much detail which is probably not a good thing.

Psoasman

Sorry to hear you didn't pass. This is a tough exam.

LCA

Bad luck!

As others have said 680 is no walk in the park. IMHO it's just as difficult as the Server 2008 exams.

earweed

Sorry to hear you didn't pass. I've heard from many people on the WGU community that this test is really hard. It requires a lot of studying and labbing, You also need to do a lot of labbing using the Cli as you get tested a lot on that.

za3bour

I'm sorry you have failed, this exam is not easy but it's not impossible make sure you lab a lot and for sure you don't need to use the mouse.

I can't talk about Sybex book I havn't used it but MS Book is full of mistakes especially in the comands so make sure you see the correction list

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7 comments and corrections

DoubleD

what was your score?

krauser

It's a Win7 exam, and you will knock it out with the 2nd shot.

apena7

DoubleD wrote: »

what was your score?

A paltry 566.

Snicker if you must, because it's my own fault for underestimating this exam. But I'll be sure to have my revenge soon!

RobertKaucher

When this test was in beta I took a 786 on it. I had almost no experience with 7 at the time and only studied for about 2 weeks, but still - I tought classes on the 70-270 and had years of experience supporting XP and Vista. I walked in expecting low 800s. Someone with a lot of experience could scrape by with minimal study. But this exam is easily on par with the 70-270. It should not be underestimated!

What score did yoiu get on the 270 and how would you compare your study/prep patterns for both exams?

nevermind

Sorry to hear that my friend. As they say if you fail try and try again. Me too I'm planning to go for that exam next.

Good luck next time....

apena7

RobertKaucher wrote: »

When this test was in beta I took a 786 on it. I had almost no experience with 7 at the time and only studied for about 2 weeks, but still - I tought classes on the 70-270 and had years of experience supporting XP and Vista. I walked in expecting low 800s. Someone with a lot of experience could scrape by with minimal study. But this exam is easily on par with the 70-270. It should not be underestimated!

What score did yoiu get on the 270 and how would you compare your study/prep patterns for both exams?

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I scored a 794 on the 70-270 (had to do some digging to find that score report) in Feb. '09. With Windows XP, I was able to pass with only the MS Press book and MeasureUp. But with Windows 7, I used the MS Press book, MeasureUp, the Windows 7 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, and MS Virtual Labs. I'll definitely have to dig deeper and comb through the TechNet articles as they are much more comprehensive than the MS Press book.

Failing the exam has just given me more motivation to study harder and eventually crush it!

QHalo

I've been slowly trudging through this material for almost 2 weeks now and I'm only through Chapter 5 of the MS Press book. I was reading the Sybex book in conjunction but found it quite lacking in detail. I've been supplementing with the links that Claymoore has so graciously put in the sticky in this forum. As I've been going along I've been making up an outline of possible lab scenarios as I read through the book that include both the GUI and the CLI methods of performing the tasks. I'm hoping the labs inside the book, the practice questions they have and my own made up labs will be enough to pass this monster. I've never done an MS exam before and if this is any indication of what's to come it's going to be a long 2011.

Good luck, I haven't failed the test but I certainly understand your pain in studying the material. All in all I've actually enjoyed learning about Windows 7.

SteveLord

I had a feeling it is similar to 70-270. Unlike the Vista version, these are pretty much Enterprise environments. And might even go over a lot of things you'll NEVER use.

I was hoping for a more real world exam myself. Oh well. I plan to take it eventually. Got the MS Press book and access to Skillsoft thanks to the military.

apena7

SteveLord wrote: »

I had a feeling it is similar to 70-270. Unlike the Vista version, these are pretty much Enterprise environments. And might even go over a lot of things you'll NEVER use.

I was hoping for a more real world exam myself. Oh well. I plan to take it eventually. Got the MS Press book and access to Skillsoft thanks to the military.

Welcome to the forums SteveLord.

You'll also want to download a trial version of Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to configuring Windows 7, you need to be able to configure certain services for Server 2008 R2.

SteveLord

apena7 wrote: »

Welcome to the forums SteveLord.

You'll also want to download a trial version of Windows Server 2008 R2. In addition to configuring Windows 7, you need to be able to configure certain services for Server 2008 R2.

That's also on my list. I actually have a $14k server sitting here collecting dust that is to be setup by one of the senior guys sometime (after they perform an assessment of our assets) and it will run R2. Even if I wanted to do it myself, I'm better off waiting until sometime after this assessment is done anyway. Have the Admin pocket consultants for Win7, 2008R2 and the 2008R2 Unleashed book.

I just got my last staffmember transitioned to Windows 7 this week. I've been using Enterprise for the last year myself.