How do you keep the excitement for learning?

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I'm struggling to keep my excitement levels up for the 70-680 exam. Any members got any tips or advice.

 

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How are you going about your study?
What materials are you currently using?

I'd bore myself to death if I just had the MS Press book to read, so I also use Sybex and a video range of some sort (Trainsignal this time but I have also used CBT Nuggets in the past...)

 

I always bear in mind the Increased earning potential and knowing more than the next person to keep the motivation oh and plus networking is fun.

 

have to admit - it's the money that comes along with a better position. also, i would rather learn the answer myself from studying than ask someone who probably doesn't know or will only know partial information or guess - there's nothing worse than that - learning from someone who doesn't know the real answers... so i guess that fear motivates me to study as well.
money & fear, who knew!

 

Easy
I am excited by LEARNING
not studying, not preparing for an exam
if the books are a bit drab and dry, try reading white papers, case studies, RFCs, read about how stuff works, why it works that way, why it was designed to work that way, deploy it, throw it together in a lab, see it in action
then re-read the boring 'study' guide, realize that 90% stuff is ingrained in your brain already and pass with flying colours
trying to LEARN from a STUDY guide just does not work for most people
Study guys are for studying, not for learning

 

I agree with Phoenix, I study to learn new things - excited to start the next new thing.
Practice and labbing are the best ways I find, especially if you can't get access to actual work with that you are currently studying.

Try, try and try again. Think of new ways to make it more complicated because someone in the real world will probably have thought of something even more complex!

 

Having an interest in the subject really helps. I also think rewarding yourself for achieving your goals is good and it's also important is to take breaks between learning otherwise you burn yourself out easily. I find video training easier to keep the momentum up and then reading a good book afterwards.

 

6 months study got me a 9k pay rise. I don't mind studying.

Having said that; learning as opposed to studying as the guys above mentioned has left me much more confident and at home with IT and anything technical. The 70-680 is a short cert compared to a lot out there.

Just jump on professor messer, other than that make some virtual machines and start screwing around with them, the fact we can virtualise it all really makes it a doddle compared to 10 years ago.

 

I completely agree with this - I made a baseline Server 2003 and XP vm, and but never used them directly, always created a "linked clone" to cut down on disc space used and kept a copy of NewSID on the desktop to change the name and create a new SID in seconds - could roll out from nothing to 3 servers and 2 workstations in the space of 15 mins!

 

10 Years ago I was running GSX 1 with Windows 2000, Stringbean Softwares iSCSI Target for Windows and Exchange 2000 clustered on it all studying for my 2000 MCSE/Exchange certs ;)

Life was good lol
Virtualization has got easier since then at least ;)

 

apparently you are right Dawn