Passed 70-680, some advice.....

I passed today with a score of 940!

I thought the exam was very easy but I can see how this exam could be perceived as difficult if you hadn't already passed the 640, 642 and 643. Almost every question I got was command line with extremely esoteric questions relating to branchcache, netsh and dism. Typical MS trickery on other topics like backup and restore. Telling me for example that a shared file is on a public network is irrelevant and just there to throw you off.

If anyone is trying to do their MCITP: EA or MCITP: EDA the hard way, start with this one. The easy way is to knock out the monsters of Enterprise Admin first or get your MCSA: Server Admin then get the 680 out of the way.

Anyway, on to 70-647. I only have a month!

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Comments

MCITBound

Congrats on the pass!

sratakhin

Congratulations!
Honestly, I found 70-680 much easier than 70-640.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats on pass!!

Carpe Porcus

Congratulations, what did you use for revision and study if you don't mind me asking?

MeatCatalogue

Carpe Porcus wrote: »

Congratulations, what did you use for revision and study if you don't mind me asking?

Just cbt nuggets and the MS press book. I had about 7 pages of review notes in word format but most of these were context command line stuff like netsh, dism and diskpart. Didn't really need to know the local group policies in much detail, just know they existed. Honestly, if you've used win7 as an admin for the last 3.5 years (since release ?) some of the question will be very obvious and easy.

Carpe Porcus

Thank you for taking the time to reply and very well done on the pass. Currently working on my CCNA update and Windows 7 followed by 8 are the next exams.

Above all else, I've found that administrator experience and support in a live environment is better than any official guide!

Congratulation once again. What are your plans now?

Mike-Mike

well, I work in a NOC, so most of this wasn't relevant to my career path.. I hated this test, failed it several times and barely passed with a 720 when I did.. I probably will not take another MS test

MeatCatalogue

Mike-Mike wrote: »

well, I work in a NOC, so most of this wasn't relevant to my career path.. I hated this test, failed it several times and barely passed with a 720 when I did.. I probably will not take another MS test

I hear you. Microsoft exams are the most difficult exams in the IT (without cheating). MS asks lots of very esoteric questions and tried to trick you. Contrast this to say the CCNA exam where you better know how to subnet, load a config into a router, bring up and down interfaces, configure VPNs, etc - all stuff you'd really need to know in the real world.

srabiee

MeatCatalogue wrote: »

Microsoft exams are the most difficult exams in the IT (without cheating). MS asks lots of very esoteric questions and tried to trick you.

I agree that Microsoft exams are overly difficult. I heard that Microsoft wanted to make their certs prestigious again when Vista was released, but I think they went overboard. An entry-level MCTS cert (70-680) should NOT be that damn difficult to pass. It isn't unusual to get questions asking about things that you've never heard of or seen before, and that's AFTER reading multiple official press books and study guides. IMO that's unacceptable on Microsoft's part.

ITMonkey

srabiee wrote: »

MS asks lots of very esoteric questions and tried to trick you. Contrast this to say the CCNA exam where you better know how to subnet, load a config into a router, bring up and down interfaces, configure VPNs, etc - all stuff you'd really need to know in the real world.

Absolutely agree! The Cisco exams are not easy either, but at least the Cisco Academy books (and Packet Tracer) do a good job of preparing on for the exam. Microsoft exam preparation pretty much requires in depth use of TechNet articles and blogs, as well as repeated use of labs.

DavidHoffmanJr

@MeatCatalogue Congratulations of your pass!

duttyfoot

It isn't unusual to get questions asking about things that you've never heard of or seen before, and that's AFTER reading multiple official press books and study guides. IMO that's unacceptable on Microsoft's part.

now that is what really upset me when taking this test.