Well, just got back from the exam site and still a bit shocked.
Passed with a 887.
As for the breakdown, it seems like people on this forum actually got percentages. My printout has bars showing the relative strengths, but no numbers.
If I had to guess, it would be something like this:
Installing, Upgrading 85%
Deploying Windows 7 100%
Configuring Hardware 85%
Configuring Network 100%
Configuring Access to Resources 85%
Configuring Mobile 100%
Monitoring and Maintaining 100%
Configuring Backup 100%
I've gotta say, after reading these forums and taking a few practice exams, I was pretty worried and sure I wasn't going to pass today. Luckily, the exam turned out to be much easier than I expected.
Anyway, It took 4 week of prep and here's what I used to study:
First, CBT Nuggets. Excellent videos. They really helped me get into the material.
Amazon.com: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows 7 (9780735627086): Ian McLean, Orin Thomas: Books
Pretty useful. Some of the typos did frustrate me though.
Meh. I really feel like I could have done without this book.
This was a fantastic resource. Often times I felt like the Training Kit book was just putting together a list of stuff to memorize. The Resource Kit on the other hand went more in depth and gave more of the how and why. This was really useful.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/徹底攻略MCTS-Windows-70-680-徹底攻略シリーズ-ITエンジニアのための徹底攻略/dp/4844328425/
This is just a collection practice questions in Japanese. Thought it would be good to try this, since I need to be competent with the material in both English and Japanese. I felt the explanations were a bit better than the MS Press Training Kit (English). The most frustrating thing with of a lot the English books, was getting to an explanation and being told not to worry about something because it was out of this scope. Ugh. This Japanese book actually was pretty clear and had nice diagrams.
I was a bit concerned though. These practice question seemed WAAAY easier than the English practice tests I had been doing. It wasn't a language thing at all. It's just that the scenarios and breadth of the Self Test and Measure up exams were on a whole other level. That had me worried. So, was MS giving non-English speakers softball exams? In the end, it turns out the real English exam was about on the same level as the questions in this book.
Kaplan Self Test
These were just flat out hard. It's almost like this was for another test. I don't know, maybe for the 70-686. A lot of questions assumed a great deal of familiarity with Win Server 2k8 stuff that wasn't at all covered in 70-680 books.
Also, a few pretty obscure questions and one or two that were flat out cheap. Seriously, I had questions that required knowledge of things no one in their right mind would memorize. No, I'm not talking about command switches, GPO or even registry keys....way worse.
Yeah, this almost gave me an ulcer and was why I was all glum going into the exam center today.
Measure Up iPhone app
Pretty challenging , but there were a few answers that I was sure were flat out wrong.
Seriously, one of their answers said that flash disks, like conventional hard disks still do need to be defragmented. What a joke.
MyWindowsClubFree MCTS Practice Test
I can't believe this is free. Pretty good resource. There are a few bug and typos, but still pretty good.
The level of the practice questions is above the MS exam, but nowhere near as bad as the Kaplan Self Test.
