On Monday I got a question from York about how to study for a beta exam. I told him that our formal training materials usually aren't ready yet when the beta is realeased, and referred him to TechNet and MSDN, etc. However, it got me thinking. Most people who take a beta probably know two or three really good resources. What if we just gave you a way to share those great resources with each other?
Yesterday I put together a little experiment on the MSL Subject Matter Experts site. Those of you who have completed a SME profile with work experience in virtualization should be able to participate in it (though you'll have to log in with your WLID first). In short, I set up the Feedback system to enable you to provide a link to a learning resource that maps to an objective on exam 71-669. Then I e-mailed a handful of my favorite virtualization SMEs and asked them to submit a few great resources. It appears to be working great.
A couple of the SMEs informed me that they often create their own list of resources and post it to their blog. Liberty, in her infinite wisdom, suggested that maybe it would be easier just to post links to these blogs rather than create another list. This would also reward those Fine Upstanding Community Members by driving traffic to their own blogs.
So here's the question: which would you prefer? Do you want to participate in community-created list of beta prep resources? Or would you rather just have links to the lists that other community members have created? Or do you think that anyone who takes a beta should be able to find their own materials? Or maybe you have an even better idea.
I'm all ears. I can't promise that we'll implement the solution you vote for, but I want to hear your opinion. Rock the vote.
I think a combination of the central place and the link's to members' beta prep lists would be a nice one :)
Krista,
There is a great community at Techexams.net that gathers resources for Beta exams into singular threads to help those who are studying for them. Its worked well for several past betas and the members of that site seem to enjoy it.
Here is one for 669
www.techexams.net/.../51260-70-669-resources.html
I believe all three points are valid.
1) Those who take Beta exams should be skilled enough to know how to "dig" for the information they require.
2) Those who have professional blogs and share their knowledge deserve credit (and viewer traffic).
3) If given the choice, I'd prefer to save myself the time it takes to dig for information and have all of it in one central repository.
I also think it betters the team if each individual is bettered, hence I tend to freely share with others any knowledge/tips/information which I learn. This would seem true of those who have blogs which provide access to such information.
I would prefer to see the information culminated in one place, but giving credit where due, and providing URLs to the originating sources.
Whatever you decide, thank you for thinking of others. Your idea is a good one, whatever form it materializes as.
John K. Weaver
York is a great place, and great questions come from the UK!
As for preparation, I use the beta products and become pretty familiar with it. For the exam, I read the product specification sheet - ie "what is new" and this helps in the exam.
What happend to day is not helping much:
I'm prepairing for 71-669, so I was pleased that a download called MicrosoftEnterpriseDesktopVirtualizationDeploymentGuide.pdf showed up on the Microsoft download center(Read on before you download)
When I dowloaded the 59 kB download, it turned out to contain only what seems to be the frontpage of the final document, with the addedtext : This document will be available soon
This document will be available soon
No futher pages what so ever.
Maybe someones idea of a somewhat early Aprils Fools joke ?
Rob.
I' ve also made a little post on my blog about some resources for the 71-669: http://jeffwouters.nl/
But http://www.techexams.net/ does it way better!
Thanks for the feedback and for the votes. Looks like we're running neck-and-neck between having a blog that links to community member lists vs. a central location where everyone can submit resources.
Here are the results of my little 669 experiment so far. Special thanks to Ryan, Helmer, Slavko, Jean-Benoit, and Kent for reviewing this and helping me try it out! I'll be closing the experiment now as we move into beta for this exam. If you think this list rates a blog post on the front page, let me know.
Hello,
The link to the
Download Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization Deployment Guide - by Jeanb
Download is still a dead end, If you download this you get a single page PDF with just one line of text: This documentation will be available soon
@ Rob: it is super annoying to think you're actually going to get something, you open the download and it's nothing. My gut tells me that they had something up there and took it down last week (after Jean-Benoit submitted the link) to fix something or update the file. Let's leave it in for now, I suspect it will be replaced shortly.
@ Andrew: York is the guy's name who had the question. Though I've been to York myself several times and think it's lovely. About now I would bet that the flowers just outside the city wall are starting to bloom?
I like the combination idea for beta. I'm studying for the 515 beta now and I'd love to see something like this:
http://www.certsandprogs.com/2009/09/exam-tips-70-562-mcts-aspnet-35.html#axzz0icsulUQQ
A central repository is a great idea also.
Hi Sean,
Your wish is my command. Check out this post today: borntolearn.mslearn.net/.../preparing-for-the-visual-studio-2010-beta-exams.aspx
Krista
I started a new set of posts for the 70-515 exam and if I get time, I will also do the other MCTS exams
www.certsandprogs.com/.../70-515
Thanks Krista. This is an awesome idea!
Thanks Niall. That is perfect.
I've had a stab at doing the links for 70-511:
www.mattdowning.com/Prep70-511.htm
Matt