90 Days to MCSA Challenge

Any Takers? This is not a new years resolution. This is a Challenge from one IT Professional to another. 90 days from today you will either have or be close to obtaining your MCSA. What do you really have to lose except for one hour a day. One hour a day in labbing, reading and watching in order to gain a certification. I can't promise you a instant pass, but what I can promise you is that within 90 days you will be know more than what you know now. In this forum I plan to post lab setup, notes, book recommendation, and YouTube Video links I have been using.

90 Day Challenge OneNote

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falcons8893

Sounds cool

xocity

Sounds Awesome, Wish I had the extra time but with WGU and a VCP class im starting in a few weeks, cant do this now. If you complete it , i might try myself in the future!

Good Luck!

lsud00d

Good luck but IMO that's a very advantageous schedule depending on your starting point.

thatguy67

Yeah, I am going to do that.

NetworkingStudent

What books are you using to study for the 70-410? The Don Poulton book looks good

lmoworld

I have access to all the ebooks through Safari Books Online, but I have a physical copy of Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2. Not here to try and sway anyone to purchase anything. Majority of my information is directly from Microsoft Virtual Academy, Technet, and YouTube. I plan to add to the OneNote link daily. I put a lot of useful information into the notebook as well to include where to download ISO, free and paid training videos, and book information. Current information is only listing 70-410 exam objectives.

jfmcaninch

Thanks for posting I will be taking the challenge, even though I have a headstart. I am currently finalizing my review for the 410 exam but will be reviewing all my notes as a final run thru, including your one note. I have being using my companies subscription to Safari online and have been reviewing the relevant lab books, the Savill videos and the Mastering Book. I have also purchased a 180 day access to selftestsoftware's 410 practice exam questions as well.

James

pjd007

I've completed 410 and my aim is to get MCSA done by the end of Feb though I think this will be fairly challenging.

brilowe88

Nothing like a peer challenge to get this thing going again. Should be fun!

lmoworld

After 3 days I realize that 90 days is more than enough time to complete this challenge. The daily tab is articles and websites that I used for the day. If anyone have any other recommendations just put it in the post.

pjd007

lmoworld wrote: »

After 3 days I realize that 90 days is more than enough time to complete this challenge. The daily tab is articles and websites that I used for the day. If anyone have any other recommendations just put it in the post.

How many hours per day are you studying ?

I'm not trying to piss on your fire but many people have taken more than 90 days to complete just the 410 exam so completing all three exams in that time will be a tall order for most people.

I'm currently studying for 411 and there's plenty of content to cover, I'm doing around 3-4hrs study per day and I hope to be ready for the test in 2wks by which time I'd have done 4-6wks of study.

lmoworld

pjd007 wrote: »

How many hours per day are you studying ?

I'm not trying to piss on your fire but many people have taken more than 90 days to complete just the 410 exam so completing all three exams in that time will be a tall order for most people.

I'm currently studying for 411 and there's plenty of content to cover, I'm doing around 3-4hrs study per day and I hope to be ready for the test in 2wks by which time I'd have done 4-6wks of study.

One complete hour toward studying without any interruptions. I have 2 kids under two, so pushing for more would be too much. I periodically may look at some study material during the day. This morning I woke up a few minutes earlier to lab and switch core to full.

tekman2011

what are you guys using to pre test?

pjd007

lmoworld wrote: »

One complete hour toward studying without any interruptions. I have 2 kids under two, so pushing for more would be too much. I periodically may look at some study material during the day. This morning I woke up a few minutes earlier to lab and switch core to full.

So 7-12hrs per wk ?

Honestly I wouldn't feel like I'd done much if I just did 1hr per day and when labbing I've had issues which have taken longer to resolve than that.

I'd be surprised if you (or many other people) can nail an exam after around 48hrs of study broken down into short study periods, plenty of people on here who have many years experience have struggled with 410 but when you think you're ready I'd suggest trying a measureup exam and see where you are as that'll give you a good indication.

At the beginning of last year I wanted the MCSE done by the summer but I wasn't able to commit enough time to study until the end of the year and it took me 3 attempts to pass, I now hope I can complete each of the remaining exams in 4-6wks but it'll be more like 8-10wks if I fail any of the exams and have to re-take a test which I will !

Good luck.

spongeym

I'm certainly interested in this and will be taking an indepth look at the OneNote file this evening. I've recently failed the 70-410, I had put off other exams in the past and wanted to ensure I took the exam by booking it. I'm certainly now committed to passing this exam and pushing my way to the MCSA/E I'm a family man too with other commitments, so dedicating even an hour a day isn't easy, however getting support from my Mrs really helped. I set aside between either 8 - 9 or 9 - 10pm for study and told her not to interrupt me, my skill level is certainly much higher despite not passing.

I certainly that 3 months to pass is achievable if you're also working on server currently (recently changed positions so doing a lot more server work) to make the labs and book detail more relevant.

lmoworld

tekman2011 wrote: »

what are you guys using to pre test?

I have access to Transcender exams through CBTNuggets. The books offer some example questions as well. Someone previously mention MeasureUp as well.

shawn_mclaren

That would be awesome, But I'm setting to do it in April along with server+

Louie1277

This would be perfect for me since I fail twice already. I need that extra push . I am taking the exam again hopefully in march. This would be perfect for me to force myself to study more. i have a busy life at work and home. So i kind of stay up pretty late reading and labbing from the book. I get about 2 to 3 hours of studying . But it's late a night until about 12am then off to bed to get at least 5 hours of sleep.

I will have to checkout the one note.

brainreboot

I will do this with you.

Anyone used Trainsignal/Pluralsight? I cant stand James Conrad so CBT is out of the question

Snow.bros

This sounds like a great idea, do you have any good lab guides that I can use for the 70-412 exam?

lmoworld

Snow.bros wrote: »

This sounds like a great idea, do you have any good lab guides that I can use for the 70-412 exam?

I'll do some researching today to see if I can find anything that would be helpful for you.

Sirah8499

I accept this challenge, I'm a few days behind since I just found out about this two days ago but no problem I'll catch up.

I love the OneNote link please keep on updating the notes to it I use it as a review after doing my own notes to make sure I'm on par with the information I'm getting down. It's refreshing to see someone else's organization other than my own.

This thread is very motivating

I'm using the exam-ref and taking notes, checking your notes here and the resources posted, and watching the CBT nuggets series.

Snow.bros

I would appreciate that thanks!!!

lmoworld

Snow.bros wrote: »

I would appreciate that thanks!!!

Found this on YouTube. CBTNuggets has virtual labs for 70-412. Not a lot of lab material on 70-412. I'm still on 70-410, but I plan to mix 70-411 and 70-412 within the next week or so.

nachodba

Just stepping in to let you guys know that this is a doable timeline. I had 5 years of systems administration experience when my boss told me to get the cert within 90 days. Just be sure to lab out everything and you guys should be good.

EspiOne

With a Epic Fail last year on 417/415/416, I will be focused on 417 only and expect to get myself organized by the end of this week, re build my lab and get going, one objective set at a time. Projected test date. April 30th or sooner (week sooner), but with the whole year ahead of me, I actually have the whole year. Thanks for the information. Any way to get a copy to my onedrive??

lmoworld

EspiOne wrote: »

With a Epic Fail last year on 417/415/416, I will be focused on 417 only and expect to get myself organized by the end of this week, re build my lab and get going, one objective set at a time. Projected test date. April 30th or sooner (week sooner), but with the whole year ahead of me, I actually have the whole year. Thanks for the information. Any way to get a copy to my onedrive??

PM email. i can send copy

--chris--

Found a great article describing a lab setup for this as well as study methods...

https://benofthecloud.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/dual-mcse-certification-in-90-days/

NetworkingStudent

--chris-- wrote: »

Found a great article describing a lab setup for this as well as study methods...

https://benofthecloud.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/dual-mcse-certification-in-90-days/

I will add REP Chris
Great find!!!!!!

I like how he describes his process. It's more about understanding the concepts and less about memorizing terms commands, ect.

Reading

I then turn to the books available, if there is any, and will read through the book (my first time not using the printed books and using the Kindle versions). I don’t study the book in depth and work off of it, but I simply read it through and make simple notes in my OneNote as something catches my attention. This works with theses exams because it is not simply memorizing the information and tables as much as it is understanding the concepts and principles, and being able to actually do what you learn. So, the value I find in reading the books is getting the overview.

lmoworld

--chris-- wrote: »

Found a great article describing a lab setup for this as well as study methods...

https://benofthecloud.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/dual-mcse-certification-in-90-days/

This is actually where I got the idea from, but I decided to go strickly for MCSA instead of MCSE. I will add link to this site in document as well. Thanks.