I have been taking the opportunity to upgrade my Microsoft
certification after letting them elapse. So starting in January I did my
70-410, 411, and 412 exams giving me my MCSA status in late February. Now comes
the elective’s, I have chosen to go down the messaging route since this is the
avenue that interest me the most. I have done a couple of installs of Exchange
2013 and run it in my lab for training purposes so after 3 months of exposure
to the product, felt it was time to take the exam so after 3 weeks of TechNet
articles and trawling the web for articles and blogs (there’s not much out
there at the moment) I finally felt confident enough to take the exam.
So off I went to the test centre and signed my life away
like you do, and within 15 minutes I was sitting in front of the test centre PC
waiting for my exam to load.
Although I cannot tell you any specific details of the exam
due to the Microsoft NDA you agree to when the exam begins, what I can say is
the exam was easier than the Exchange 2010 exams I had sat late last year. Now this
could be because of the simplified roles within Exchange 2013 or because the
exam is in the early stages of production. Whatever the reason a good working
knowledge of the product and decent knowledge of previous versions of Exchange
is necessary to allow you to pass the exam.
Even though the exam is slightly easier, it is by no means a
walk in the park. I struggled on at least 30% of the questions mainly with the
order that PowerShell commands are written. (my biggest weakness) if you thought
that Exchange 2013 would use less PowerShell commands, you will be greatly disappointed,
if anything there are more to learn, PowerShell is here to stay.
By the time I got
to the final question, I really wasn't confident if I had passed or not. Thankfully I passed which now leave me only 1 exam away from
my MSCE status. So now to prepare for my 70-342 exam! If you’re thinking of
going for the exam, I actively encourage you to go for it, you’ll be pleasantly
surprised at the result. Other than the usual TechNet resource, I can highly
recommend the following sites.
PAUL CUNNINGHAM is an Exchange God, recently appointed as a MVP by Microsoft as a result of his contribution to the Exchange community. There isn't much that Paul doesn't know much about Exchange, and his site has a
wealth of information about all things Exchange server.
SIMON BUTLER is another great Exchange God who has helped me
out in the past with his excellent forum post and knowledge of Exchange, Simon
has been specialising in Exchange for the past 10 years. His blogs are legendary, and he is also an MVP so check him out on the site above
Other than the folks above, build yourself an Exchange 2013 server and practice, practice, practice.
Hi. My name is Shawn Truitt been working as Windows System Administrator for about 10 years. Been doing exchange for about 4 yrs now. I recently took the 70-662 Exchange pass so now am MCTS. I have been study for the 70-341 exam for Exchange 2013 took the test last weekend got an 668 very close but not to bad. Wondering if you could give me some advice on how-to research exchange 2013 information on TechNet wanted to make sure that my study and practice test is correct by researching technet. Any help would be great.
ReplyDeleteShawn - shawntruitt@hotmail.com