After about 6 weeks of watching ITProTV videos almost every night in addition to labs and general studying, I passed my 70-412 exam today and am now an MCSA. Three tests in four weeks was pretty rough, but I got through it. I just wanted to give a big thanks to Don, Mike, Nate and Ronnie for their excellent and informative training throughout all of the courses. In addition to helping me learn all the content as a whole, on more than one occasion during the tests a question would come up and I remembered a specific thing one of you mentioned which helped me pass the exams with pretty high scores.
I'm looking forward to the upcoming 70-413/414 videos so I can work on those exams as well to get the MCSE. Fortunately they are just beginning production now so I can take a month or so off. Which is a good thing since my wife is ready to kill me :D. After that I'll probably be looking at the SSCP and SQL Server stuff. I recently upgraded to an annual plan and am sure I'll make good use of that.
So thanks again -- I have no doubt that I wouldn't have been able to knock them out so quickly without ITProTV. I've used many different training methods over the years, and I can honestly say that this is the only one I actually enjoyed watching.
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MCSA Server 2012 - Achievement Unlocked!
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Congradulations!!!! What a big achievement!!! I just started my MCSA studying. ItproTV is really showing me the way. I have built a server and am reading MS Presses. Can you suggest any good practice exams??
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Thanks James!
Honestly, I've never been a big fan of practice exams. I did use the MeasureUp ones that ITProTV offers with your membership, but I've always been reluctant to use them as a studying guide. More often than not, the questions are nothing like what you will see on the exam, which in itself doesn't help much, plus it also can give a false sense of readiness for a particular objective or test.
For the MCSA, I would offer the following general advice:- Make sure you know each objective backwards and forwards. That kind of goes without saying, but pay close attention to the sub-objectives and don't skip anything. While the tests are focused on 2012R2, you need to know what features aren't available in prior versions and the limitations they may or may not have.
- Don't just know how to do something. You need to know EVERY way to do it, as well as the pros and cons of each method.
- Microsoft is big on asking a question with more than one seemingly possible valid answer, but only one is going to be correct. So you need to read the questions very carefully. I wouldn't go so far as to say they have 'trick questions'. More that they are giving you precise instructions and want to make sure you choose the proper answer based on exactly what they asked. Be careful not to always pick the obvious one.
- You need to know how to do pretty much everything through the command line (especially PowerShell). All the possible commands/cmdlets, options, syntax, etc. You could very easily be an expert in the GUI, but fail the test if you don't have experience using PowerShell. If possible, your best bet would be to setup a Server Core install in a lab and do all of the objectives strictly from the CLI to reinforce this.
- Regarding the GUI, make sure you know where everything is. Not just which program to use to accomplish a particular task, but where every option is along the way. Which tabs handle which functions, etc. Know all the available fields/selections in each tab or window and what they do or don't do.
- I did not see any simple questions (e.g. true/false). Almost every one gave a detailed scenario (some of which may or may not be applicable to the question), followed by a scenario based question. They didn't ask questions like "What type of tool would you use to put a nail into a piece of wood?" The questions are more like "You have 17 pieces of wood of varying sizes and 32 nails. You need to construct a bird house. The bird house needs to be red with yellow trimming. The temperature is 74F. You have two hours to put everything together. What steps would you take to attach the pieces of wood together to build the frame in the quickest amount of time?".
Sorry I can't be too specific, but I have to keep kosher with the NDA :).
But if you watch all the videos and do a lot of lab work and/or practical work experience I'm sure you'll do fine.
Good luck!
