This examination was comparatively difficult because of the scarcity of targeted certification study materials and administrators coming from any of the prior versions of Exchange properly got shocked by architectural changes made in 2013 and not many have the opportunity to really hands-on that long to prepare for this examination. Well, since my learning is to equip one-self by the knowledge needed to withstand technological environment risks and integration hassles, I guess it should be even harder for me, right? LOL

Anyway, behold while I list down my study materials.

* Virtual Lab
* Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
* Exchange Server 2013 Unleashed
* TechNet
* Articles



I need to admit that some of the books are not for the light-hearted whom sole purpose is just to get the certification or simply looking for introductory materials but having read through any of the books will set you the right expectation about the product and administration role of managing the product infrastructure.
Oh well, passing it with 899 is not so bad for me I think. :)




And by the way, Prometric website nowadays seems unreliable. Page error popped up after I made payment and no email notification on anything even though the support replied and said they did, Grrr. And yes, I did check my spam folder. LOL

More exams to come :)

 

MCTS 70-178 Microsoft Project 2010, Managing Projects

Suddenly I became nostalgic.

You know, Microsoft Project is one of some early batch of software that I used during tertiary education time besides the obvious DOS, Windows operating system, VB (Not .NET you young people!) and et cetera.

I remembered times when being instructed to present my project schedules which ended up with printing of few ten pages of "partial" gantt charts and stitched them together using double sided tapes or glues. Guess not easy to be a project manager during those times. :D

Anyway, transition from the yawning old version of Microsoft Project to the state of the art version of 2010 (2013 on its way) is phenomenal. Number of users grow into millions and with some quarter of them with a chartered PMP qualification. Still, more projects failed in this decade than the total of few previous decades added up. Microsoft Project is just a tool, and it really can't help if you don't understand the essential of managing a project.

Anyway, back to the story of 70-178.

You see, to me, this examination is nothing but just a milestome to tell people that I'm more proficient in using this tool than others. Technically, it's not a tough one either. I have passed various other exams, which I personally think at a different playing field than this exam.

So, don't worry too much if you are taking this exam anytime soon.

What you really need to prepare are:

• Download the trial version/buy the licensed copy of Microsoft Project 2010
• Use the software alot, and explore various of its features
• Understand the basics of project management (If you are a PMP, congrats that you are on a faster track to pass this)
• Read one or more books on Microsoft Project 2010. I scanned through most of them and I think "Microsoft Project" title from Sybex is short and concise (about 400 pages) whereby "Microsoft Project In Depth" from QuantumPM is indeed, in depth (about 1000 pages).

Well, my passing rate of 962/1000 should indicate to you that the preparation materials above are sufficient. Right?

Can't get the damned "Gangnam style" out from my head. Geez.

83-640 TS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring

This test is the first virtual lab based certification exam from Microsoft, therefore Nerdy Eddy must go and try it out. That's reason #1. Reason #2 is the demand for me to acquire the proper overall understanding about Active Directory and its configuration thingy and thus to be able to talk to those nasty IT Administrators, especially those bank customers of ours. You might be a vendor like us and if you're dealing with enough customers with relatively large directory-based network infrastructure, you do understand the fact that without a knowledge of the standard operating procedures and configurations (hardening and stuffs) of IT systems, your project might get into troubles, well "preferably" at the end of the testing phase and the start of migration phase. Surprises such as services suddenly went down, network became inaccessible and some weird blockage of program execution can turn your world upside down and when you found out the root of cause, most of the time it's all about subtle policy settings. Lolx. If you're telling me that all these hassles form the experiences of a seasoned technical person, well, wake up and tell yourself that it is all caused by your incapability, insufficient knowledge, unwillingness to learn formally and unable to read a book from cover to index. LOLX.

About 83-640. It's quite a fun testing experience. The test program started one or more virtual machines for you and ask you to perform a series of tasks within timed duration. I guess the step by step process is not important but the end result. You can do the entire tasks in command prompt if you're well verse in it than GUI based tools. Of course, some tasks must be perform using GUI tools.

For my case, there were so called performance labs, each one must be completd within 65 minutes and consists of roughly 7 to 9 tasks. Nonetheless, my task scopes are quite limited to the use of ntdsutil, dnsmgmt.msc, dsa.msc, domain.msc and schmmgmt. I didn't use compmgmtlauncher.exe at all. No tasks for me that're related to monitoring and ADCS, ADFS, ADLDS, ADRMS.

Then after completed the labs, you need to settle a traditional question-based test (30 questions).

I've passed the test with 933 score, not sure it is a good score or not because this is my first MS certification exposure :p

My preparation materials were:


Que MCTS: 70-640 Exam Cram (As main study material)
Windows 2008 Bible (As ad-hoc reference book)
Microsoft Site and TechNet
Some Windows 2008 VM to play with

I'm not sure I want to proceed now to complete MCITP track, unless my work desires more knowledge on network and more MS environment stuffs.