71-686 beta taken

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Hi All,

Well just taken the 71-686 beta exam, and this is my experience without breaking the NDA:

Total Time: 240 minutes
Exam time: 180 minutes
Questions: 77

This will change once the exam goes live.

Advice:

1. Study everything on the objectives, and I mean everything.

2. Do not underestimate this exam just because it is aimed at the client OS instead of the Server OS. This exam is a tier 3/level 3 for a very good reason.

I failed the 71-680 by 20 points, I believe my failure on this exam will be greater.

Do not think that you'll pass this exam if you have previous experience with XP & Vista, there is alot of specific questions to Windows 7.

-Ken

 

At the end of the exam it says 8 weeks after the beta period ends, but can be longer in some cases... So I'll have to wait and see

-ken

 

Got both my W7 Pro exams in 3 weeks. My bottle has gone already! Fingers crossed for your results mate. Jim

 

On the old track (MCP, MCDST, MCSA, MCSE), Microsoft tried to get it by job role, however imo failed. It was more technology based, eg Tier 1 was Desktop, Tier 2 was Servers and Tier 3 was Network (including design).

However on the new MCTS/MCITP track it is different, the MCTS certs are the technology based ones, while the MCITP are job/role based.

Without beaking the NDA, just check out the Skills Measured. A tier 2 support person most likely would not have to deal with the following (let alone a Tier 1) and more:

1. Licensing (and I don't mean for a single PC either)
2. Designing an update strategy
3. Analyzing existing hardware environment; determining which systems meet minimum requirements; tradeoffs of physical vs. VDI environment; network load considerations; disk space; direct connection vs. brokered connection; determining a VHD strategy; choosing 32 bit vs. 64 bit
4. Identify and resolve Group Policy issues
5. Etc, etc, etc...

So as you can see the MCITP: EDA is a Tier 3 qualification.

-Ken

 

I wouldn't say that, I was ill-prepared for the exam...

-Ken