Preparing for the 70-698

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I'm new to the site and I just have to say the content is great! I really enjoy the TechTV "The Screensavers" style format.

(TL;DR at the bottom)

Now, on to my question. I started preparing for the 70-697 just before it was announced that MS was adding a second exam to the Windows 10 MCSA certification. I used CBTNuggets' course to prepare and when I went into the exam I found I was WOEFULLY unprepared. The exam covered a lot of specifics I did not have knowledge of due to a lack of experience with enterprise environments (I'm sysadmin for a small company and we've not had a need for that level of solution) and that were not covered in the course I took and as expected bombed the test.

Following that, I read through the entire MS Press exam ref and spent a few weeks drilling the MeasureUp practice test until I was getting passing grades every time, and then sat for 70-697 a second time and passed. Although I passed, I still felt as though I was not as prepared as I could have been. At the same time, I'm not sure what more I could have done to prepare myself other than working with the specific technologies covered in the exam, in their entirety, for several months.

I've noticed there aren't any practice tests or labs for the 70-698 ( I assume because it's such a new exam), so I wonder if the course alone will be enough to prepare one for the exam in your opinion? Has any of the ITproTV staff sat for the 70-698?

TLDR: The 70-697 was hard, so the 698 will probably be just as hard. Will the course here be enough to prepare me?

Hey John,

We appreciate your question John. When it comes to this exam I would recommend studying from the shows as well as personal study. It can be difficult to learn about technologies that you do not have hands on practice with so to combat this you can download free trial copies the software such as Window 10 Enterprise here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-10-enterprise

This will give you access to an enterprise level edition of Windows which will be essential to your success. I would recommend downloading the enterprise level management software for Windows:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-10-deployment-and-management-lab-kit

This link will give you access to the following:

Windows 10 Deployment and Management Lab Kit

Windows 10 Enterprise, Version 1511
Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows 10
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 Update 2
Microsoft Application Virtualization 5.1
Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring 2.5 SP1

The kit will give you the ability to practice the following:

In-Place Upgrade
Image Creation
Lite-Touch Deployment
Zero-Touch Deployment
Managing Windows 10 with Configuration Manager
Code Integrity
Windows 10 Provisioning
Application Compatibility
Application Virtualization
Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring
Credential Guard

I have to caution you as not every topic here will be on the exam but Microsoft has been known to throw in topics no expressly called out in the list of objectives. In preparing for this exam on these topics you can use Microsoft's Technet as well to help you gain additional understanding for example:

In-Place upgrade
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/deploy/windows-10-deployment-scenarios

Image Creation
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/deploy/create-a-windows-10-reference-image

Credential Guard
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/windows/keep-secure/credential-guard

These are just some examples and I hope this helps point you in the right direction. You can always ask questions in the forum when you come across a topic you are struggling with, please let us help you!

Best Regards,
Wes Bryan

Wes,

Thanks so much for this! It's more than I could have hoped for. I'll definitely make use of these resources when prepping for the exam.

John