I've just started mine today, passed 70-270 to get my XP mcp this afternoon. Didn't do the course for this one, just got the exam cram book and the test king practice exams (bought for all 4 exams) as work paid for any material I wanted. I got a score of 810 so happy with that. Already done the courses for 70-290 and 70-291 (this one is a complete b!tch) and have yet to do the exams so will start revising for 290 next week and then do the exam after I have read the exam cram for it before moving onto 291 which i'm dreading. Got the course for 284 later this month and will try and get the exam done before the end of March as my boss wanted me MCSA before April 1st when we get tupe'd across to an outsource company. Avoided doing any certification for the last 6 years but now it seems like its becoming necessary. A colleague is just about to do his 29th certification (not all Microsoft) so I have a lot of catching up to do.

 

Yep second the vmware idea. Have that setup on a standalone PC on my desk at work with 2gb of ram and plenty of hard drive space. Got a dc, couple of member servers and an xp client setup so can play about without having to go to the test lab or risk breaking anything at work.