Passed 70-681!

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Can't believe I got it first time!

For my (gruelling) home study I used a combination of the free Technet downloadable PDF (from the Windows 7 Resource Kit) on deployment here:

Download: Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine - Microsoft Download Center - Confirmation

...and the brilliant Trainsignal course by Rhonda Layfield here:

Windows 7 Deployment Training, 70-681 Exam, MCITP and MCTS Certifications | Train Signal - definitely couldn't have done it without this.

Also very useful was the learning plan posted in a different thread by kevicho:

Learning Plan Details

Setting up your own test environments for the various tools (ACT, MAP, MDT, WDS, SCCM etc) you learn about is a must to have any chance of taking it in, I have my own server set up with my own domain with various server VMs and client VMs which is relatively inexpensive - you just need an average desktop with decent RAM really for VMware to be usable and you can get test versions of Server 2008 R2 (featured heavily) and Windows 7 to build & mess with. Well worth investing in a physical machine you can set up as a base server for this in my opinion and it will come in handy for future certs too. You do need multiple server installations to play with as some apps you use aren't compatible with a domain controller, some require it etc.

Actually performing what you see in the videos really helps as you come across all sorts of issues which you'll need to troubleshoot along the way and again will provide handy practice - although I was following along with the videos, an hour long video would often take me 2-3 hours thanks to the troubleshooting I had to perform at my end to get things working as they should, but I'm glad that was the case as in the real world it definitely isn't going to be as simple as you see in the videos.

For the exam, tips I'd offer are that knowledge of Group Policy is useful, as is AD & generally knowing your way round Server 2008 R2, and there was plenty of stuff on the various commands you will use with different packages. They call this a client exam but it's largely server really.

Good luck to anyone else taking this (noticed at least one other person here was in the position I was of being asked to do it for their employer's Partner status)