MCITP Books and Training Materials

Dashik

Dashik

Dashik

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OK, as a follow up to my post on server hardware.

I'm doing my training myself at home with appropriate hardware and Virtualisation. Its significantly cheaper and I get more for my money than some cookie cutter production line course. I also get to control what I learn and can spend as much or as little time as required to gain a solid understanding of the topics required.

I'm thinking of buying the Microsoft Press MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-640, 70-642, 70-643, 70-647): Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Adminstrator Core Requirements Book/CD/DVD ... Core Requirements (PRO-Certification)

and adding the MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-646): Windows Server 2008 Administration so I can do Server Administrator first.

The Enterprise bundle has 2 books from the Server Administrator bundle and represents a better way of buying the books then getting the Server Administrator kit and then the Enterprise bundle and having 2 duplicate books.

So I gather that the books are ok but that I will need the ebook updates to cover R2. Has anyone any used the Microsoft press books for their MCIPT Server Administrator/Enterprise Administrator certifications? If so can you comment on how good they were? Or can you recommend any alternative/additional materials that may be useful?

Thanks for your time :D

James.
 
Ok thanks for that guys. Looks like best value is to buy the Enterprise Admin kit and then the kits for 70-646 and 70-680. You get the lot for £155 delivered and that covers both the Enterprise Administrator and the Server Administrator exams.

I'll go look into the CBT Video's :)
 
Going to order the books tomorrow :D So yes I'll certainty be using the vouchers.

Its just a pity that I need them now lol, The new 2nd editions are out in a month or so. Still I'm more of a hands on guy than a just read the books learner, so 2008R2 and a VM Server will solve that in conjunction with the pdf updates.
 
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Ok well I bought the following.

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-640, 70-642, 70-643, 70-647)
MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-646)
MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680)

So that covers the Server Administrator and Enterprise Administrator exams :D

Buying hardware tomorrow.

Call me a Geek but I'm actually quite excited at the prospect of these arriving and getting started :D
 
Ok Amazon have shipped the books :D so tomorrow or Friday hopefully which will tie in nicely with rearranging my computer set up now that the Server is here :D
 
OK so amazingly the Books arrived about 5pm this evening D: Looks like a fair bit of reading ;)

Got vouchers for 15% off each exam and evaluation copies of the 2008R2 server software.

Start properly on Monday once I find a home for all the crap I cleared out of my computer corner :D
 
I suspect I will need to do the Win 7 stuff as well. But getting the server setup and started on the basics of the server admin then see where I go from there :D
 
Indeed it is, I looked into it before I bought the hardware and books. And this is just the start of the project. I reckon I'll need some CCNA stuff as well and then there's the VCP program later on.

So all in a huge project :D

Like I said I need to certify to consolidate old skills and once I've got the first few of these I'm going to try and see if there's a few contracts setting up new pc's and new servers on a role out to gain current experiance and then go from there. Almost would do it for free initially to get current lol.


I'd love to end up doing virtualisation in some form or other. I suspect that practicalities of the local job environment will mean I'll end up in server Admin, Exchange with VOIP, but thats ok too :D. I think the key is to stay flexible :D
 
its a pain, It seems that companies can register and set up as test centres then not actually do any tests apart from there own. That's all ok but Prometric lists them as available on the website. It's not until you try and book an exam that you find that instead of travelling 2 miles to a test centre you have to go 40 to Edinburgh in my case..... Not good.

I don't think they should be listed if their private test centres.
 
I'm going to have another chat with the guy at the local private place and see if he will fit me in when there at the centre doing other stuff like training. Failing that there's a private place in Dunfermline but tbh that's probably more awkward to get to than the Edinbugh one which is 5 min walk from Waverly station.

I believe the exams are still adaptive? I.e they ask a question and if you get it right you get a harder one and if wrong an easier one. So if your really clued up you get less questions than someone scraping along?
 
m4cc45 said:
They're not adaptive. They choose x questions from a pool. The questions are assigned randomly and the entire lot make up 1000 points. If you think about it you get more points for certain questions so it limits the amount of, for example, simulations you could have.


M.
Click to expand...

Ok thats fine :) Was just wondering :)
 
Decide on the exams you want to do. Then get what you need for the first exam, Say 70-680 and any additional material for that one, Say a book on IPv6. then do the same for next exam etc.

Or ofc just buy for the exams :D either way you have the enviable position of having a choice :D
 
Mr-White said:
Passed my 70-680 on Thurs, then went to book 70-284 Exchange 2003 and they retired it last month :(

MW
Click to expand...

That's harsh. Still nothing you can do but crack on with the next one.......

Well done on the 70-680 pass btw :D currently working my way through it myself trying to avoid the 'I know that already' syndrome and pay attention to stuff and make sure I really do know it all ;)

I'm doing the same route it looks like, SA then EA :D
 
I'm using the MS book, my VM server and anything else I can lay my hands on, looking to get it done now in the next few weeks.

The OS exam is not hard I don't think, just feels like there's a lot to it :D also it has overlaps with windows server 2008. We'll see how I get on soon enough!
 
Ok so after an enforced pause due to my partners illness 'm back to getting this done :D I'm right in thinking the MS 70-680 Windows book is still current its just the big MCITP:EA bundle that's been revised to V2 for 2008R2 yes?
 
Thanks, Pretty much what I thought from what I could find :D Ill get the revised set in a week or two after I do 70-680
 
Ok well this has lit a fire under my ass :D

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-private-cloud.aspx

Turns out if you have either the SA or EA qualification you get upgraded to MCSA:Windows Server 2008 and the additional 2 exams takes you right back to an MCSE.......

Theres a fair amount of traffic being generated by this on the certification forums as you can probably imagine lol.

In any case I'm now in full on sweat and study mode to get the Win 7 and MCITP System Admin at least done and out of the way asap before they change anything else lol. If I can I'm still planning on finishing the additional exams for the Enterprise Admin and then the Hyper V stuff. All depends on the content of exams 246 and 247.

Expect significantly more frequent updates of my progress........

Im trying to get 70-680 by the end of this month. Only hold up is were expecting my partner's Breast Cancer op around then so I will have to work around that (obviously).

Back to the books/labs/videos......
 
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