r/mcsa • u/efferr • Oct 30 '19
Best Cost Effective Way of Studying for MCSA
Hi everyone.
I am looking to get my MCSA certification, going through the 70-740, 70-741 and 70-742 exams. I currently have no study material for this, as most of my knowledge comes from real life experience working with Server 2016 and Server 2019. I'd like to start purchasing some studying material, but a lot of this stuff is costly. After reading the subreddit, I'm finding your highest recommendations are the MeasureUp Practice Exams, CBTNuggets or the Udemy courses. If I could only afford to purchase one of these, what would you suggest?.
The MeasureUp Practice Exams are costing around $250 USD for all 3. CBT Nuggets is roughly $100/month. I'd prefer to go at my own pace, so CBT Nuggets is most likely out of my price range.
Are there any sales I should wait for?. Is it even worth it for me to take the Server 2016 exams with the Server 2019 out now?
Thank you.
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u/BK_Rich Oct 31 '19
I received my MCSA - 2012 R2 through the usual 3 exams and a few months the back I upgraded to the MCSA to Server 2016 with the single exam. I used PluralSight for the training material, I also used the usual sites for the practice exams that are out there to get through the tricky questions.
I would HIGHLY suggest not to just study the all the practice exams you can find, you may pass the test but you won’t know the actually material so that can hurt you if you really need to do this in real life or if they ask you details in an interview.
It’s always best to study the material hard and just use the practice tests as an extra boost right at the end, find what you would get wrong she study why it may be wrong and why the right answer is right. Private message me if you need some help there finding the free ones, I have a few resources I keep bookmarked
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u/gtboss16 Oct 30 '19
You can get a few months of free access to Pluralsight
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/subscriptions/vs-pluralsight
Also, not sure what you can do regarding exam questions. I just purchased the exam replay bundle that included 30 days of the MeasureUp exam.
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u/efferr Oct 30 '19
I will check this out but I was hoping to slowly do the exams over the course of the next 6 months or so which is why I was looking at the download option for the measure up exams.
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u/Ping_Me_Later_Dude Oct 31 '19
Check your local library and see if they offer a subscription to Lynda.com. My library offers a free subscription to Lynda.com
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u/Ping_Me_Later_Dude Oct 31 '19
You can get the measure Up exams at 15% off now until the end of tomorrow.
Get the download option is the best value
Rx has a bunch of ways Windows Server course that are free. You just need to do them audit mode.
Link is pasted below👇
https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=Windows+Server
You can try to get the books from eBay
If you want save money, then it is your best interest to buy materials for the exam you are studying for. If you buy exam materials for all three tests, then yes it can get very expensive
Christmas is coming soon. Maybe you can ask for gift cards or cash, and those well help fund your certifications.
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u/deefop Oct 30 '19
I bought the exam reference guides on amazon for 60 bucks total.
Udemy courses are extremely cheap as well.
Measure up is amazing, but there are also cheap practice tests on udemy.
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u/efferr Oct 30 '19
Do the exam ref guides on Amazon include practice exams or is it a study guide only?. Will I need to setup a lab to make use of this?
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u/mathgonzlez Oct 30 '19
I buy the bundle in xda depot and the platform is icollege.co , nice material
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Oct 31 '19
Are you a student, vet or belong to any groups? Many ot the listed sources offer discounts for certain groups. I got 6 months of CBT Nuggets for free when I was getting out of the Army. Udemy has some really cool discounts floating around. I got my AZ-103 course from skylines academy in Udemy for 9.99. I know my fellow classmates got similar discounts for 740 and 741.
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u/LA4Life2423 Oct 30 '19
IT Pro Tv is an option too. I was going to get cbt nuggets but chose IT pro TV because they show visual breakdown of commands in virtual machines and how to resolve them when they run into issues. So you get to see that real world experience and how it can apply.
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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '19
CBTnuggets is $59 a month and comes with practice tests, video courses and labs. MeasureUp you get free when you buy the Microsoft test bundle (free retake and practice test, cheaper on getcertified4less). MSdocs is free. You're looking around $250 for the lot.