I finished the MCITP: Server Administrator a while ago doing both the 70-642 and the 70-646. I stuck to my tried and tested formula of book(s), labs and testing software. I must say I have really enjoyed doing these exams as it's always good to have proof of all your hard work and knowledge gained.
I enjoyed them so much I have decided to go for the Enterprise Administrator MCITP as well, while I am on a roll. I am currently doing the 70-643 Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuring . This one I am enjoying a lot as the main areas are:
WDS
Hyper V
Clustering
Remote Desktop Services
IIS
Windows Media Services
Sharepoint Foundation
I have also read an additional book on Remote Desktop Services as well, which was the resource Kit from Microsoft which I found to be excellent.
There are many projects at work in the pipeline and one of them is setting up an RDS server farm which is covered in this exam. Currently we have one RDS server but I am looking for load balancing and redundancy so I will be implementing a load balanced cluster for this.
I have been using Virtualbox for my labs but could not get Hyper V to run under it. It will however run fine under VMWare and a proper instance of Hyper V.
Not much else to report really, I never had to use any of my second shot vouchers but MS have put the price of the exams up a little but its the first time in 10 years or something, so that's not too bad I suppose!
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Boson ExSim 70-640 Active Directory, Configuring: Exam Prep Software Review
In my last post I talked about my continuation of my quest to get up to date with my Microsoft certification. My method for studying has been developed over time, but I believe it isn't that different from most people who have taken a few exams.
My first port of call for studying is usually a book. Many years ago I would have gone straight to the Microsoft Press books, but they have started to get a reputation as not having a 100% accurate content eg lots of stupid mistakes. You would think this would not be the case from somebody as big as MS but some of these seem to be put together in a hurry with very little proof reading.
These days there are other alternative books to sink your teeth into and at the time I usually have a look around at reviews and opinions on the relevant forums and see if I want to go with the MS book or an alternative. The alternatives can sometimes be a lot better as they tend to be released later and sometimes have a lot more detail. If I am undecided which way to go and I have the cash I will try and buy a MS book and another alternate source. Some people always recommend this approach as the other book tends to fill in the gaps of the other book or explain it better, or in some cases contradict the other book which highlights the mistakes to you.
Buying 2 books is really up to you and your finances as the cost for these exams can really start to add up when you are buying 2 books at £25-40 each and an exam at £88 and some test prep software at £50-100. Some people will also go for videos series from the like of Train Signal or CBT nuggets and these do cost a lot more so in theory you could end up spending £300-400 on one exam!!!!! This is where it is nice to have your employer help with these costs. I personally always fund my own qualifications, that way you don't have to sign any kind of learning agreement that ties you to a particular employer for a set amount of time, as they have funded your training.
After I have read as much as I can, watched what ever videos I can get my hands on, read blogs and articles on the exam requirements I look towards the exam prep software. Over the years I have used Transcender, Measure up and now Boson.
Now I will be honest with you here I had never heard of Boson before I started participating on the forums at www.certforums.co.uk this is probably more down to the fact that I haven't really bothered too much with the certification resources available in the last 6 years or so. The guys from Boson are a great bunch and have the exact right attitude that a company should have, that are participating on a public forum. They participate in all areas of the forum and offer advice on most of the subjects that come up there. There is never a feeling they are there to sell but they do mention their product in a kind of matter of fact way on occasion to help people out. This a refreshing change from the wrong sorts of people from companies I deal with at the extremely popular site Edugeek where I have been a moderator for a long time.
One thing the guys from Boson are very good at is helping us all steer clear of the brain dumping sites and educating all the people new to certification about brain dumping, what it is and why it's no good for you!
Anyway down to the product itself. I was given the opportunity to test the Boson exam environment out so I chose the one that was relevant to the exam I was doing at the time the 70-640 AD Configuring.
Installation:
The installation was as easy most windows apps and was just a next, next finish type install. The bare exam engine is available from their website before you have to make any purchases and you can download some demos to get a feel for it. For the exam content you need to get an activation code which you get when you purchase the product and you just paste this in to the exam activation wizard, which makes it available for download.
Taking the exam:
There are 2 ways to get your exam up and running you can either use the exam wizard or press the choose exam button and select your exam options. If you choose the "Choose Exam" button you do get access to a few more options that using the "Exam Wizard".
Most of the options were fairly standard (standard meaning all the options you would expect) and were the same as what other competitors offered, but the one Boson had that I thought was great was "Enable Smart Mode".
Smart mode is an option that allows you to set the exam content by saying that if you have already answered a question right a user definable amount of times, don't include it. This I think is great as sometime with these things you can do these practice tests too many times and get the same questions in all the time which you end up memorising rather that using your knowledge to answer them. This way you always get a fairly fresh set of questions from the larger question pool.
Question accuracy and resources
Boson have done a good job here, I could not find any typos or questions with answers, that turned out to be wrong as I have done on occasion with other products. One thing I love about this kind of exam prep software is it reinforces you knowledge and the explanations give you some more depth into the answer as well. You may know the answer to the question but you may be a little vague on detail. This product gives you good explanations to the answers and offerers links for resources on the subject. This way you are enhancing your learning even more.
Conclusion
A great accurate, easy to use product with a company that are very accessible, should you need help. The price is good too and often noticeably cheaper than other popular competitors.
I was impressed enough that I purchased the 70-642 exam when it was on offer before Christmas, to help me with my next exam.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
70-640 Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuring
Well I finally got to sit this exam after one test centre closing permanently and two other doing the "temporary closed" thing to me (2 in 7 days grrrr).
Passed with a score of 820 which was amazing because I wasn't very well so concentrating was very hard.
Resources used:
I opted not to use the MS press book this time. I decided that with my experience I would try one of the Exam Cram books as they are no nonsense straight to the point type of things.
I used lots of online resources to supplement the book as well as building labs to cover the material I was not 100% familiar with (RODCs, certificate services)
Good list here:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts...resources.html
R2 Stuff here:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts...-material.html
I also did one of MS learning plan things and did whatever free bits were on it.
I also used the Boson Exam-Sim Max software for my exam prep, which was excellent and I will do a full review soon. I used the measure up questions from the CD that came with the Exam Cram book as well (only 50 questions though)
I was a little apprehensive about the R2 additions but as far as I can tell (this time at least) it was more a case of Vista has been renamed to Windows 7 and all servers were Server 2008 R2 and not Server 2008. I will probably see some definite R2 questions on the 70-642 as there is a lot of changes to that.
Passed with a score of 820 which was amazing because I wasn't very well so concentrating was very hard.
Resources used:
I opted not to use the MS press book this time. I decided that with my experience I would try one of the Exam Cram books as they are no nonsense straight to the point type of things.
I used lots of online resources to supplement the book as well as building labs to cover the material I was not 100% familiar with (RODCs, certificate services)
Good list here:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts...resources.html
R2 Stuff here:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts...-material.html
I also did one of MS learning plan things and did whatever free bits were on it.
I also used the Boson Exam-Sim Max software for my exam prep, which was excellent and I will do a full review soon. I used the measure up questions from the CD that came with the Exam Cram book as well (only 50 questions though)
I was a little apprehensive about the R2 additions but as far as I can tell (this time at least) it was more a case of Vista has been renamed to Windows 7 and all servers were Server 2008 R2 and not Server 2008. I will probably see some definite R2 questions on the 70-642 as there is a lot of changes to that.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Certification Update MS 70-680 Configuring Windows 7
Well after 7 years I have started to update my Microsoft certifications. I completed my MCSA in 2003 and since then I haven't seen the need to update until now. With the restructure of the Microsoft qualifications and the noticeable difference in the Windows based technologies today, I decided it was time to start updating.
Originally when I did my certificates, I took out a career development loan and paid for some courses with a reputable company since my employer at the time was not interested in paying for or giving me the time off to complete them.
These days with my experience and the fact there are tonnes more resources online, I decided to take the route of self study. One of the best sites available to gain advice and links to resources is http://www.certforums.co.uk/ there are all the major qualifications covered on there, Microsoft, Comptia, Cisco and most others you could think of.
For those of you who are not familiar with the process for taking the exams I will describe it in brief here:
There are 2 main organisations that you will take your tests with, these are Pearson Vue or Prometric . These act as test centres for many different organisations. You can do your MS exams at a Prometric Centre and your Cisco exams at a Pearson Vue Centre. You may find that other organisations will allow you to take their exams at either Vue or Prometric.
Once you have determined which testing organisation you need to use (Vue, Prometric or other), you need to make an account with them and then register for an exam. The general process for this is they will ask you to locate a test centre. The first part of this will be to pick the exam you wish to take. In my case this was the 70-680. You then look through a list of test centres which will be sorted by the town/city they are in.
Once you have found a test centre near you, you will need to find an available time slot at that centre which it will show you all the available ones, once you have clicked on a particular test centre. You then confirm your booking and pay.
The cost for MS exams is generally £88. You can sometimes get special deals on these. There are usually vouchers in the Microsoft Press books which will give you something like 15% off or there are other deals you can find sometimes such as "free second shot". What this means is if you fail your exam you can retake it for free.
Other recent deals that I have taken advantage of are exam bundles. You can pay for a few exams upfront and if depending on the number you purchase you can get a discount and a second shot.
4 & 5 exam pack will get you 20% off
2 & 3 exam pack will get you 15% off
Single exam pack is normal price + 15% if you want the second shot.
The offer can be found here .
Now I have waffled on about the whole booking your exam process, I will talk about the resources I used to prepare for this exam.
These are the two books I used:
The MS press book are the usual first port of call for studying for the exam. You have to be aware though that they have a reputation for errors to creep in to their text so if you purchase this book you also need to read the errors and corrections here .
I found the test software that came with the book to be very good and using it allowed me to learn as much as reading the book in some areas as well as reinforce the knowledge gained through reading the book.
As always there are plenty of areas in the book which suggests futher reading on certain subjects. In some cases this is essential as the book doesn't always cover all the material on the exam.
Although I had access to this book I didn't read it that much as I thought it tended to go on a bit about certain subjects, but after sitting the exam I wish I had read more of it as it may have had me better prepared for some of the exam content that I came across.
The test questions that came with the book were also good but were a completely different style to the "Measure Up" test that were with the MS Press book. I would say that the tests with this book gave you a good working knowledge of Windows 7 but the Measure up tests were more in the style of the proper exam questions.
I would say a combination of these 2 books would be the best to prepare for the exam. Each one filling in some of the gaps that the other leaves.
There are plenty of other resources I used online as well. A great list of resources can be found here .
Some of the best resources are the Windows 7 Virtual Labs . These allow you to log onto a virtual machine through your we browser and complete the lab.
There are some great videos here for some of earlier subjects that you find in the books.
People find that chapter 2 & 3 in the MS press to be hard going as it it deals with configuring and deploying system images. If this is a subject you are new to, it will be very hard going but very valuable once you have got your head round it all. I will blog later about some of these processes as they are easy enough once you break them down into smaller chunks.
For a good listing of the MS exams and their requirements please have a good look here .
Originally when I did my certificates, I took out a career development loan and paid for some courses with a reputable company since my employer at the time was not interested in paying for or giving me the time off to complete them.
These days with my experience and the fact there are tonnes more resources online, I decided to take the route of self study. One of the best sites available to gain advice and links to resources is http://www.certforums.co.uk/ there are all the major qualifications covered on there, Microsoft, Comptia, Cisco and most others you could think of.
For those of you who are not familiar with the process for taking the exams I will describe it in brief here:
There are 2 main organisations that you will take your tests with, these are Pearson Vue or Prometric . These act as test centres for many different organisations. You can do your MS exams at a Prometric Centre and your Cisco exams at a Pearson Vue Centre. You may find that other organisations will allow you to take their exams at either Vue or Prometric.
Once you have determined which testing organisation you need to use (Vue, Prometric or other), you need to make an account with them and then register for an exam. The general process for this is they will ask you to locate a test centre. The first part of this will be to pick the exam you wish to take. In my case this was the 70-680. You then look through a list of test centres which will be sorted by the town/city they are in.
Once you have found a test centre near you, you will need to find an available time slot at that centre which it will show you all the available ones, once you have clicked on a particular test centre. You then confirm your booking and pay.
The cost for MS exams is generally £88. You can sometimes get special deals on these. There are usually vouchers in the Microsoft Press books which will give you something like 15% off or there are other deals you can find sometimes such as "free second shot". What this means is if you fail your exam you can retake it for free.
Other recent deals that I have taken advantage of are exam bundles. You can pay for a few exams upfront and if depending on the number you purchase you can get a discount and a second shot.
4 & 5 exam pack will get you 20% off
2 & 3 exam pack will get you 15% off
Single exam pack is normal price + 15% if you want the second shot.
The offer can be found here .
Now I have waffled on about the whole booking your exam process, I will talk about the resources I used to prepare for this exam.
These are the two books I used:
The MS press book are the usual first port of call for studying for the exam. You have to be aware though that they have a reputation for errors to creep in to their text so if you purchase this book you also need to read the errors and corrections here .
I found the test software that came with the book to be very good and using it allowed me to learn as much as reading the book in some areas as well as reinforce the knowledge gained through reading the book.
As always there are plenty of areas in the book which suggests futher reading on certain subjects. In some cases this is essential as the book doesn't always cover all the material on the exam.
Although I had access to this book I didn't read it that much as I thought it tended to go on a bit about certain subjects, but after sitting the exam I wish I had read more of it as it may have had me better prepared for some of the exam content that I came across.
The test questions that came with the book were also good but were a completely different style to the "Measure Up" test that were with the MS Press book. I would say that the tests with this book gave you a good working knowledge of Windows 7 but the Measure up tests were more in the style of the proper exam questions.
I would say a combination of these 2 books would be the best to prepare for the exam. Each one filling in some of the gaps that the other leaves.
There are plenty of other resources I used online as well. A great list of resources can be found here .
Some of the best resources are the Windows 7 Virtual Labs . These allow you to log onto a virtual machine through your we browser and complete the lab.
There are some great videos here for some of earlier subjects that you find in the books.
People find that chapter 2 & 3 in the MS press to be hard going as it it deals with configuring and deploying system images. If this is a subject you are new to, it will be very hard going but very valuable once you have got your head round it all. I will blog later about some of these processes as they are easy enough once you break them down into smaller chunks.
For a good listing of the MS exams and their requirements please have a good look here .
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