Your Advice Please

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Hey everyone,i am current prepairing for an MCP exam,i wana take in a few month,and im using MS Press self paced books to self study.Now im studieng 70-270,but i also have this book from Sybex too,i started with MS Press and now im in Sybex wich seemed very different to me,what attracted me the most where the review questions of each chapter which are presented in the official exam manner,in order to get more familiar.Whats helping me is my hands on experiance (Formatting,Intalling,Configuring,Maintainging) Win xp,but ive been kinda weak in networking exept for the basic things like (IP configurations,Workgroup etc).
Now to clarify what i need advice with,which book should i go for,ms press or sybex? (rest of the books r ms press),and how long do u think i should study to apply for the MCP exam?i have drawn an imaginary deadline to myself in order not to get lazy and keep skipping days,cos if u keep saying tomorrow i'll study more,u'll end up with nothing.So i was thinking to do it in mid June,lets say 15-6-2008.Are 2.5 month enough if i study around 2 hrs a day?

All replies,advices and specially extended advices are greatly apriciated.And excuse my post because i know i mixed too much toughts into one subject.

 

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Both MS Press and Sybex are good study guides normally. If you've got both, then that is good news.

As to how long you should wait before taking the exam, that depends on how comfortable you feel with how your studying is going, how well you score in the tests, and the experience you already have of the subjects you're studying.

All the best.

 

why not get both, two good books is better than one good book

 

The current round of MS Press books are very good and Sybex have always been good. If you have the chance to use both then get both. I'd also advise getting at least 2 books for each exam topic anyway.

If you are also having a lot of problems with the networking area I'd also suggest doing the CompTIA Network+ before doing any Microsoft exams. The Network+ will give you a good grounding in the networking area which is very important as you go up the MCSE ladder.

 

I'd also recommend two solid references. Sybex and MSPress are both great for MS exams.

 

for the books i wont comment, i have not read either, i was given a n&s book, which was crap but i also had classroom training and MS Technet website so i got through.

what i would like to add is the hands on experience you need, learning from a book wont get you through easily anymore, get a half decent computer and install MS virtual PC (its free online) download the free server 2003 trial and install and get some real hands on practice experience.

 

Actually i just got back from a small internet cafe i used to work at about 5 years ago,and i asked that if he gets a free position in the morning shift,i wud take it and will handle all the maintanence plus i wud apply security policies using some of the local and group policies,but the thing is i cant turn the server into a domain,but this will still get me hands on experiance,i wud study down there and have a network of about 25 pcs to do with as i wish..now all i gotta hope for is the position gets free,i dont even care how much hes gonna pay me,i have a laptop and a desktop,but those arent enuff and neither do i wana mess with the laptop.so how is this so far?i'll be using sybex and ms press together.