MCSE Electives - which ones?

[Viscount]

Morning All,

I have decided to go for my MCSE and my dilema is which elective to go for.

The ones that appeal to me are:

70-282 (Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business)

70-284 (Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003)

70-297 (Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure)

The reasons are as follows...

70-282 - I quite fancy the idea on going self employed in the future working with Small Businesses doing training and networking

70-284 - The exam was included in some literature that I have from a trainer and it is course that can be used for the MCSA. Also more and more firms are now using Exchange as their primary communication tool.

70-297 - I do not know much about Active Directories but I understand that they will be used much more in my current workplace so I think that it could bea good knowledge to have.

I am not paying for these but I will be doing self study - roll on 5am starts!

Any advice from seasoned sages out there would be very welcome.

Thanks for any help

Vis

 

[aftertaf]

Viscount:

Have you sat any of the exams yet that give you credit to MCSE?

"70-297 - I do not know much about Active Directories"....

You'll need to know a fair bit to pass the MCSE 2000/2003
and you are right, it IS good knowledge to have.
What have you decided to sit for the other 6 exams?

Aftertaf
________
Regain control of your PC, at

http://www.debian.org

If you break your hard drive, it'll be DPlank's fault

 

[Wishdiak]

Viscount,

Two of the above elective choices would serve you well if you were planning to go for MCSE with a specialization in Messaging, which can be very marketable.

On the other hand, if you were planning to go for vanilla MCSE or the Security specialization, you could use the CompTIA Security+ as your elective.

Like you, I didn't have to pay for my exams, so the more expensive Security+ was no concern. After a series of MS exams which took anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to complete, the Security+ exam was a pleasant change. I was in and out in 12 minutes and scored somewhere around 870 (out of 900).

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[SimonDavies]

I guess it really depends on what you want to do, if you are going to spend time being an Exchange admin then go down the route of the 70-284 route but if you are going to just be a desktop\networks guy then the 297 would be better off.

It really depends on YOUR needs rather than any one elses.

 

[Viscount]

Thanks for your replies. I cna see that this is going to be a very useful part of Tek-Tips.!

The other exams that I was going to do were...

70-270
70-290
70-291
70-293
70-294
70-297

I have just realised that 70-297 was one of the subjects that I was planning on doing anyway! (I have not even started and I am confused!)

So that now leaves 2 to choose from MS Exchange or Small Business.

There seems to be fair bit of info on the MS Exchange (70-284) but not really much on the Small Business (70-282). Is there a reason for this - anyone taken it..?

cheers

Vis

 

[SimonDavies]

I would suggest that rather than taking 297 as your design elective you take 298 instead, it would appear to be an easier exam. I also don't know anyone who has done the 282 exam at all whereas there are a few people who have done 284.

 

[Wishdiak]

Viscount,

Building on SimonDavies example above, you may want to consider that if you take the Security+ as your elective, and 70-298 instead of 70-297 as your design exam, you'll be 1 exam away from MCSE: Security.

Of course, if you want to go the MCSE: Messaging route, you could take what you've listed above, 70-284 and 70-285.

It all depends on what postion you see yourself working in after you complete your MCSE.

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com