Customer Reviews

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-685): Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (Pro - Certification)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bear in mind, I have several certifications:

I studied this book, forwards, backwards and sideways.

I understand the content, and tested repeatedly high with the enclosed test prep materials.

There is not one concept or item in this book that I do not understand.

None the less, this book did not prepare me for this exam.

The authors did a good job of covering Windows 7 in the enterprise.

There's just one problem, THIS EXAM WHICH I JUST FAILED is weighted heavily in knowledge of Windows Server 2008 R2.

The case scenarios all have at least 25 variables each, and most, if not all of those variables center around the server O.S.

Microsoft should split this exam into 2 parts. 1 part for Windows 7, and one part for Windows server.

I've never felt so cheated in my life.

--Update--

I went through this book cover to cover a second time, did all the exercises and case scenarios.

Just failed the test a second time.

I wonder if there are any stats on the pass rate for this 70-685?

Between the two failed exams and the cost of this book, I'm out about $275.00

After 17 years, I'm finished with Microsoft Press material of any kind.

The 70-680 Microsoft press book was a disaster with the sheer volume of errors. (18 full pages of errata)

This book has no bearing whatever in the actual exam that MS publishes for the 70-685.

I'll stick with Cisco, Novell and CompTIA from now on.

I purchased a copy of this book roughly two months ago and read every chapter and took the chapter reviews and lesson summaries as I went along. Highlighting the answers just to be more thorough and in case I needed to study harder on any one particular subject. So once completing the book and feeling confident enough to start taking the exam in both study mode and certification mode I did just that. There were multiple instances where I took the time to go through all 200 questions that the practice test had to offer.

After AVERAGING 93%+ I decided I was ready to take the 70-685 exam. I felt very good about my odds as this is how I've taken certification exams since high school. Cram, cram, learn the questions (not to a T because I do understand that no ONE exam guide takes questions directly from the test) and learn the answers.

Needless to say my first indicator of something being not quite right would be the fact that instead of '45 questions' as given in what Measureup considers 'certification mode', there were 50. Not too big of a deal, like I said I was familiar with all 200 given from the practice tests. However after the tenth question and having absolutely NO idea if I was even taking the right exam or not it became quite apparent that Microsoft has changed their objectives for the 70-685 test to focus more on the server side of things. One question had even asked which part of a router I should reconfigure to allow for less traffic to be used at a specific time of day. Or how I should route traffic when domain controller three was taken offline from 5pm-12am. There was group policy galore and what I should be changing in the system event viewer to allow for various actions to take place. The certification mode would also have you to believe that the questions are short and two the point when that couldn't be further from the truth. Your overloaded with so many different variables by the time you've read through what 'network 4's DHCP configuration is set to in order to communicate with Jack and Jills HP laptop who recently just purchased a puppy named Spot.' Your are given at least THREE different configurations and I understand that wading through the junk is part of a Microsoft test but it would have been nice to have been prepared for that.

The bottom line being this.. The test I took was nothing like what I was prepared to take. I have found multiple reviews of people having the same problem. Oh yeah, the retake policy is a joke too.. You have to fail it twice in order to get your refund. So let's do the math. $150x2+Money wasted on materials, gas to drive an hour to testing site = $-230.

Cheers to you MeasureUp..too bad I can't give you 0 stars.

I read the book more than twice and passed the exam on my second shot. The book covers a lot of material, yet, it doesn't cover everything I needed for the exam. I seen questions on the exam that I don't recall seeing on the book. Half of the book is appendixes (~200 pages) and I find it a bit useless; at the same time, it repeats itself from the chapters. Overall, the book should be able to get you to pass the exam, but you'll need some outside sources as well. Good Luck on your certifications.

I studied this book after working with most of the technologies for several months in an enterprise. The test is incredibly tricky and I don't believe that I would have passed without also taking a Global Knowledge boot camp. My experience, this book and the boot camp were all necessary and no one part of that preparation would have passed this test for me.

I definitely recommend this book if you are studying; while there are a few typos here and there, the low reviews most people give the book are not warranted. If you want to get a pro level Microsoft certification, you need more than just one method of studying.

When you see a one or two star review and then a five star review on the same book, you have to wonder which person is giving you a contextless and therefore useless opinion and which one is telling you the the likely truth.

I haven't failed an Microsoft test in my career, until this week, when I failed both the 70-686 & 70-685, back to back. I depended solely on the 70-685 & 70-686 Microsoft Press books like I did for the 70-680. Big mistake.

You will learn valuable knowledge reading these, but cannot depend upon them to pass the test. I loved these books for content, for general Windows 7 knowledge, but nearly useless for the exam.

Like all other Microsoft Press books I've read, this one is chocked full of errors. One can find errata on the Internet to get the truth but it's irritating to have to do that.

There's no point in trying to make exams like this hard. If one doesn't know the material, it's already hard. If one knows the material it should be easy, but it should not be that one knows the material and then it's still too hard to pass.

Inserting "testlets" (new words Microsoft loves to make up) into the exam with scenarios that one cannot possibly read through and still finish the test in time, are only done to make sure you fail, because one cannot read it all. A trap. And who wants to pay $50.00 for this book, then $150.00 for the Prometric test, and perhaps more for study exams, only to fail? Want to pay for it again? No. Especially not in this Depression economy. Maybe I'd fight very hard over and over to get something worth the effort, such as a CISSP or a CCNA, but this exam is like a stamp on one's effort, for personal satisfaction on having learned the material. One shouldn't have to feel like one is studying for a CISSP just to pass these two tests.

When one is taking tests, one typically has a sense through the test how it's going and if one will pass. Of course, I knew I wasn't going to pass either one after half way through the first exam (686). Microsoft has really jacked with their test well enough to cause people to not want to waste money taking them again. What's the point? One either knows the material or doesn't. And if Windows server and other material is on the exam, it should be in this book.

I gave this book a one-star for passing the exam but it is a three star for Windows 7 and troubleshooting information. And yes, my title is accurate. Microsoft - WAKE UP ! And give us our money back in the meantime.

I went through this book and did all the exam questions and knew the material very well. I took my exam today and failed, there were some things on the test i had never seen before, I have several MS certifications but this exam was ridiculous. spend your time and money on another certification other than MS. i dont fault the book although it is a MS press book. I dont know what to study now to pass this exam.

I've already passed exam 70-680 and am working on 70-685. I've read this book and a couple of others. I'm a strong believer in covering all of the bases and making sure I have a well-rounded knowledge of the subject before I attempt any test. This book does a good job of making sure all of the objectives are covered. I know this because I teach 70-680 at my local community college, and understand what's required of students and what's on each test.

This book is a good place for anyone to start. My suggestion is to read this book, work through the exercises, answer the questions, memorize the various charts and such, and finally, work through the 200 exam questions on the CD. Couple that by reading one more book and doing a little online research to see what others have said about the tests, and you'll be good to go. Then, just before you think you're ready, review all of the hands-on exercises, study materials, and definitions and terms one last time.

I highly recommend this book for anyone studyng for the Enterprise Desktop Support Technician.

The book 'MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-685): Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (Pro - Certification)' is a nice overview for those looking to get ready for exam 70-685. Content is full and spans 600+ pages. My only gripe with this book is that nearly half the book is appendixes and the content is not presented in an exciting way to the reader.

Having said that, it's a decent purchase and will help get you ready for the exam.

**** RECOMMENDED

As a reference book, there were a lot of useful things I learned reading this book cover to cover. Most of the book wasn't dry, but the format they used to list relevant GPOs and steps to complete a task were a little difficult to get through at times. They seemed jumbled and not logically typed out.

I also didn't like that there were 9 chapters in the book and then 6 appendices at the end on everything from Windows Firewall to a more in-depth coverage of topics in the first part of the book. I would have liked to have seen like topics grouped together better.

As for the test...I read this book cover to cover and I barely passed my test (this was my first MS test; I've only taken CompTIA in the past). There were many technologies covered on the test which this book hadn't even mentioned. I understand that you can't be perfectly prepared from just reading a book, but I thought the tests I'd taken in the past had much better study books. I thought since this was a Microsoft book, the least it could do was make sure I was well prepared for the material the test would cover.

In short, it wouldn't be a bad book, as long as it was only a part of the study materials used. Which for an expensive MS book, I was disappointed.

I bought this book to take the Microsoft Exam 70-685, The first I received the accompanying CD was warped (it would not play in any of the drive I tried (Five in total) so I returned it to Amazon with no issue ( One thing I can say is I have NEVER had a problem with amazon in this manor. The second book I received I had the same exact issue with the CD it is warped, this time I decided just to suck it up and keep the book I got it for free with my Amazon points. The book it self is a good buy very informative, gives you a LOT of hands on practice labs ( as long as you can get your hands on server 2008) the only issue is you need scripts from the CD to do some of the Labs (so at this time I'am trying to find them on the net a bit of a pain, no luck so far) also the questions for the chapter review are on the CD also so there is no real way to see how well you have learned the materiel. I hope it was just my bad luck, over all the materiel is very good.