MCSA - 70-680, 70-685 and beyond

Discussion in 'General Microsoft Certifications' started by dstorey, Jul 22, 2014.

  1. dstorey

    dstorey Bit Poster

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    Hello all,

    I have posted a couple of times and thought I would share my certification path and career so far information.

    IT Support Trainee is my current role and have only been at it for 3 months. My main duties are First Line Support, preparing ipads, apps and troubleshooting ipads where needed. Maintenance of the AV equipment on sight, handling any desktop support queries that may come through and escalating where appropriate.

    In my current role I am offered the chance to progress as I see fit within the IT industry. So it means certification tests, courses, learning materials are mostly of my choosing.

    I attend my first 'course' on Tuesday with a company called QA(Never heard of them before now) for the 70-680, which runs for 4 days. Unfortunately, they haven't sent me the study material which was meant to be included (Self Paced Paced Training Kit), so I feel very uneasy. Alas I have done some reading and watched the Professor Messer videos.

    I will later attend the 70-685 with the same company as part of the deal my employer has struck with the company, but will aim to be better prepared even with it being a 'course'.

    In-between learning these subject areas I will be venturing toward the CompTIA Network+ and A+ certifications to gain some non vendor specific insight into certifications.

    My goal is to become an Infrastructure Engineer and become very well versed in VMware.

    Any and all tips, tricks and advice is more than welcome. Also, those with experience and knowledge who have a good understanding of these subject areas and the best way to get there through certification and work experience. Please don't hesitate to PM me.

    Kind regards,

    Darren
     
  2. monobrow

    monobrow Nibble Poster

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    Could you report back to us about your 70-680 course, please? I'm thinking about doing 70-685, but I struggled with the '680, so something instructor-lead might suit me better
     
    Certifications: MOS Outlook 2010, MOS Word 2010, MCTS Windows 7, ITIL v3 Foundations, MCDST
  3. ade1982

    ade1982 Megabyte Poster

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    I did both courses in Cardiff. They told me a lot about the various things, but in itself it was nowhere near enough to pass the exam.
     
  4. dstorey

    dstorey Bit Poster

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    I will try to update the weekend or the evening the course ends.

    After emailing the training provider, I was told the certification exam is taken whenever I choose to take it, there has been a voucher paid for and they will also deliver the 70-680 self paced training kit to work. So what I am planning to do for the next few weeks after the exam, is reacreate the lab in the book, and work through that, maybe twice depending on how much of the course sticks.

    Personally,the idea of having the exam of the 70-680 right at the end of the course was a bit daunting, so now I can just focus on are the study.

    If you would like me to pass on some of the tips I get from the course, depending on how useful it is, I am certainly happy to do so.

    I think it depends on how best you learn. I like instructor led courses, but I also like reading. Having a good mix of the 2 is best for me I think.

    Kind regards,

    Darren
     
  5. glenn1986

    glenn1986 New Member

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    I took a course as well when I went for the 70-680. I found it to be a good overview, but wasn't enough in-depth detail for the exam. My recommendation is to Study TechNet along with your course. The study guide from MSexamguides.com may be helpful as it references a lot of TechNet and whitepapers
     
  6. dstorey

    dstorey Bit Poster

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    I am on the train on the return journey from Manchester after completing the 60-780 exam with a brilliant instructor by the name of Simon.

    glenn1986 is right. The tutor also agreed, the course was a great overview, the labs were good and the material was good. The trouble I had was the size of module 1. It took up the entire first day of the course and the sheer amount of tools involved and trying to grasp the understanding of their functions etc was quite a leap for me.

    I still have a lot of learning to do, but if you wish to get a head start and feel as though you benefit from courses, i would certainly recommend attending. I don't think the company you use will make too much of a difference, as the material they are given and what most of they will teach you, is supplied by Microsoft.

    It is great to have the environment where you can engage the tutor and ask questions. But be prepared to take lots of notes. It was definitely worth the time and I feel much better for attending. But I am now going to do some further learning at my own pace.

    This is a course where, if you don't have the experience, or previous knowledge of Microsoft, you NEED to do your homework and a lot of it. I still have to do more before attempting the exam.

    Darren
     

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