Exam Burn out

Hi,

Over the last couple of years i've done my MCDST, MCSA and MCITP:SA

I'm now trying to get back into the swing of studying again - last exam was last september.
Just wondering if you have any similar problems motivating yourself.
Its not really for career progression for me more of just learning the technology, but who knows what the future may bring.

I've looked at Hyper-V and Exchange Server 2010 but as we do not use these products extentnsively at work (we on Exchange 2003) I'm finding it difficult to focus and labbing it up seems a bit pointless at present.

I've got the 70-643 MS Training Kit and started reading through that with a view of doing the exam sometime.

Do you think its worth plodding on and going for the EA? I'm 3 exams away.
643, 647 and client exam.

What sort of level of difficulty do you reckon the 643 is compared to say 640.642, 646 ?

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earweed

Having never used most of it the 643 was way more difficult for me. All I can say is lab, lab, lab. If you have exposure to IIS and Terminal Services (now called Remote Desktop Services) then you should be ok.

marcels

I found some of the topic's in this exam very dry, namely IIS and Streaming Media which I have really never needed to use.

Another worry I had was how much has changed with R2 and was not covered within the study material currently available, the Sticky for 70-643 was a great help on this.

In the end I got my lowest pass score to date on this exam, but I can say that I was very happy to pass it and move on.

za3bour

Yes I think its worth talking EA track, I think 643 was a little easier than 646 but that's just my opinion. 647 was not as hard as I expected.

I recommend if you have experience with Win 7 to take this route

680
643
647

Unless you want an easier route you can take Vista exam instead of 7

Essendon

Hey za3bour, how would the 646 and 647 stack up against each other? Is the 647 harder, more design-oriented? The 646 is more planning and the 647 is more design, right?

za3bour

Essendon wrote: »

Hey za3bour, how would the 646 and 647 stack up against each other? Is the 647 harder, more design-oriented? The 646 is more planning and the 647 is more design, right?

Yes you are right, I actually found the 646 to be harder (the exam itself) both though needs some re-read of previous books/tracks.

Povilas

za3bour wrote: »

Yes you are right, I actually found the 646 to be harder (the exam itself) both though needs some re-read of previous books/tracks.

I think that's because you took "old" version of 646 (with testlets), and 647 you took was already "new" version - without testlets. My colleague took 646 and 647 last year and he said that both 646 and 647 had testlets and were very difficult. I took 646 this year and it was without testlets - easiest exam ever.
I'm not sure if it's change in Microsoft exam format, or it depends of country where you take it (i doubt it), but this year 646 and 647 got easier.

neathneathneath

za3bour wrote: »

Yes I think its worth talking EA track, I think 643 was a little easier than 646 but that's just my opinion. 647 was not as hard as I expected.

I recommend if you have experience with Win 7 to take this route

680
643
647

Unless you want an easier route you can take Vista exam instead of 7

Thanks for all the replies.

I've only just started using windows 7, so as i've got my next book started (MS Training Kit 643), I'm going to do that next and maybe as suggested the 680 and 647.

I've come to the conclusion that whichever exam you pick you will always come up against some exam topics that you will never actually use in real life - just need to learn those sections for the exam. A bit annoying but that's life it seems.

Todd Burrell

I'd recommend doing the 643 and 647 exams back to back and then take on the 680 exam. I am upgrading from my MCSE so I have completed 649 and plan on taking 647 Monday - then it's off to 680. I found the 643 material to be a pain with the R2 changes so be sure and cover that material for your exam.

You seem to have a similar plan to what I have done - and I agree with the title of your post (Exam Burn Out). After 8 exams for my MCSE: Security along with a couple of COMPTia and ITIL exams I am VERY ready to complete my MCITP:EA and take a break.

Good luck.

neathneathneath

Todd Burrell wrote: »

I'd recommend doing the 643 and 647 exams back to back and then take on the 680 exam.
Good luck.

Thanks for the reply.

When you say "back to back" do you mean in order or study both together?
I agree about leaving the 680 to the last.

alokin123

Povilas wrote: »

I think that's because you took "old" version of 646 (with testlets), and 647 you took was already "new" version - without testlets. My colleague took 646 and 647 last year and he said that both 646 and 647 had testlets and were very difficult. I took 646 this year and it was without testlets - easiest exam ever.
I'm not sure if it's change in Microsoft exam format, or it depends of country where you take it (i doubt it), but this year 646 and 647 got easier.

Forgive me for my ignorance but what do you mean by "teslets"?

Todd Burrell

I meant to take 643 and then take 647. I'd never recommend working on 2 tests at the same time unless they were VERY closely related.

neathneathneath

Todd Burrell wrote: »

I meant to take 643 and then take 647. I'd never recommend working on 2 tests at the same time unless they were VERY closely related.

Thanks for the clarification

Povilas

alokin123 wrote: »

Forgive me for my ignorance but what do you mean by "teslets"?

My English isn't good so I just give a link to other post explaining this matter:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcsa-mcse-security/23974-what-testlet.html

Mojo_666

Hey NEATH!!

Motivation is tough, I only get motivated when I have trouble finding work lol, currently thinking about exams but not done one for just over a year now.