Passed 70-680, now MCSA 2003!

Last week I finally took 70-680 and passed it with 875. It took me almost three months of on and off studying because I was so afraid of failing it. I read many times that it's one of the most difficult MS exams. Nah... While there is a lot of stuff to learn and lab, the actual exam wasn't that hard. I had 50 questions, 40 of which I answered without a doubt. I had to go back to the other 10, mostly because be two right answers or none of the books I read ever mentioned what was asked.

My first source was the MS Press 70-680 book (2nd edition, the first one is riddled with typos). I also watched a few professor Messer's videos to learn more about stuff I've never used, such as DirectAccess, BranchCache and like. Along with reading the book, I labbed things that I didn't have enough experience in, using VMWare Workstation with a DC, a member 2008 R2 Server and a couple of Windows 7 clients.

After finishing with MS Press book, I skimmed through Poulton's book in just a week, taking notes of what wasn't covered in the other book. It was less boring, although didn't cover the material as thorough as the MS Press book.

However, I feel that Poulton's book with decent amount of labbing and experience would be more than enough. Most questions were pretty simple. I had about 15 questions on deployment and upgrading, and 3-4 questions on each of the topics covered in the books.

This exam was the last for MCSA 2003. Next are 70-648 and 646. After that... We'll see.