Where to Begin? The MCSE exams are not easy, as advertised on many websites. The MCSE Certifications are tough, so p lan to put in a lot of time and effort getting ready for the certification exams. Gather all the information you can about the certification exams and then start working towards your goal.

Don't go it alone = it will be extremely helpful to study with co-workers or friends, especially ones with varied experiences in networking. Your study can be enhanced with discussions and help on various training options and tough concepts. It is an invaluable help from a motivational standpoint itself.

Once you have the necessary hands-on experience, use Microsoft Press books to cover the final tricky questions that you will rarely encounter in everyday use. You can also use the Microsoft Official Curriculum or the other recommended study guides for the related exam.

• Proper planning and placement of Global Catalogs (GCs) and Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMOs)
• Forest, domain, and site structures and topologies
• Administrative delegation
• Universal Group (UG) caching
• ADprep.exe
• Dcpromo
• Domain functional levels
• Trust relationships and types
• Utilities for domain controller and domain rename
• Inheritance behavior of Group Policies and the options Block Policy inheritance and No Override
• Managing a forest and domain structure
• Configuring site replication schedules
• Link costs and boundaries
• Monitoring AD and FRS replication
• Authoritative and non-authoritative AD restore operations using Directory Services Restore Mode and ntdsutil.exe
• Administrative tools, such as Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) for domain user and group management, Active Directory Sites and Services (ADSS) for site management, Active Directory Domains and Trusts (ADDT) for domain trust management, Replmon (AD Replication Monitor) for monitoring replication links, and Event Viewer.
• BridgeHead servers
• Active Directory Services Interface (ADSI) Editor
• DCdiag
• Planning a security group and user authentication strategy with password policy
• Planning and implementing an OU structure
• Hierarchy of domains, Organizational Units (OUs), and child OUs
• Planning a Group Policy strategy for users and computers
• Configuring the user environment using Group Policies
• Deploying a computer environment using Group Policies
• Troubleshooting issues related to Group Policies using tools, such as RSoP and GPresult
• Maintaining software using GPs

Get a copy of the test objectives from the Microsoft site since the exam is focused on these topics. Read thoroughly the preparation guide of the exam you plan to take. You should know all the exam objectives covered in the exam preparation guide.

In Windows Server 2003 track exam, 70-294, the focus will be more on questions relating to new technologies, such as forest trusts, universal group caching, and forest and domain functional levels.

• Plan, deploy, and manage Group Policies with GPMC and RSoP. You'll need to download the GPMC add-on for Windows Server 2003 for this.
• Plan, deploy and manage forests, domains and OUs.
• Create and manage inter and intra-forest trust relationships.
• Troubleshoot AD.
• Create and configure Group Policies with the new Group Policy Management Console.
• Configure sites, links, bridgehead servers, and cost.
• Raise the functional level of a forest and domain. Using either the ADUC or ADDT snap-in, right-click the domain and select Raise Domain Functionality.
• Enable universal group caching on a DC. Using the ADSS snap-in, right-click the server's NTDS settings and select Enable Universal Group Membership Caching.
• Explore all the reporting features found in Replmon.
  Understand the modes of RSoP and when they are most useful. Use the planning and logging modes.

Use practice test software packages. Whizlabs Preparation Kits is an example. Practice Exams help to bring together information presented in the Microsoft official textbooks. Study hard, try the practice exams and study the explanations for the incorrect choices. This helps you to learn the concepts that the question is covering. Good exam simulators are an excellent way of measuring whether your knowledge of concepts is sufficient or not. Understand why a particular choice was correct and another incorrect from Microsoft's point of view.

Do NOT use Brain dumps. Brain dumps might help you get the certification, but you will remain deficient in the important practical knowledge about the product. Hence, your prospects of landing in a good IT job will be less. Some brain dumps deliberately mislead you. So BEWARE!

You can participate in any online discussion forum, where you can participate in an ongoing dialogue and even clarify your doubts, if any. You are sure to get the right guidance. Checking the news groups on a daily basis can make you aware of how the experts solve all kinds of problems.

A select-and-place type question tests your ability to synthesize information and assemble a solution to a problem or scenario graphically. This type of exam item can reflect architectural, design, troubleshooting, and component recognition problems more accurately than traditional exam items, because, because the solution is presented in a form that is more familiar to the computer professional.

The case study-based tests are very different from other exam formats, currently in use. You have to become familiar with these new types of questions.

A simulation imitates the functionality of product components or environments along with error messages and dialog boxes. The examinee is given a scenario and one or more tasks to complete by using that simulation.

Exam 70-294 includes a new question type from Microsoft .The screen is split into three areas with the question at the top, pick-and-place items on the bottom left, and configuration screens on the bottom right. Be prepared for facing this type of questions.

These new exams include topics not necessarily on the list of official exam objectives as posted by Microsoft. So, completely relying on exam guides is also not advisable.

The questions include a lot of superfluous information to determine whether you can figure out how much of it you really need. This makes even a simple question look difficult, hence all the questions need to be read properly before answering.

Study resources for Windows Server 2003 can be found within the help and the documentation of the product.

Make Index cards, write down key points and facts, such as subnetting formula or DNS name resolution order. You can use them to review concepts while traveling or waiting in a line.

The instructions for each question are multi-part, and you must read each one very carefully and figure out what is being asked before you answer.

You will have to spend some serious study time to get prepared for this exam and the sooner you get started, the better. Book a certain exam date and then prepare for the exam with complete focus. Leaving it open-ended will make the days slip by easily.

You've learned the details about the Exam, its pattern, objectives etc. Now its time to learn how to master the course and prepare scientifically. You can do that with the help of MCSE Exam Preparation Guide.