I'm currently studying with a goal of taking the test on May 24th depending on how the sybex practice test goes decides whether I scrap the idea/put it on the backburner & look at 70-432 first instead.

I'm currently just under half way through the book you mentioned (skipped 3NF etc & other basic stuff + how useless are the videos? -_).

Before this I watched the CBT Nuggets videos for 70-450 and the VTC ones. I've also watched MS's SQL videos for Oracle DBAs although not in anticpiation for this certification. So far of the 3 I found the CBT Nuggets to be most useful because the amount of detail was OK & e.g. by the end of one 45 minute video I had working setups of both replication and mirroring. The VTC videos aren't so detailed but provide some limitations within SQL Server (max DBs, instances, users) which may/may not be used as a piece of useless trivia in the exam (you'd have a better idea of this having sat it already). The thing I'm most interested about is the Sybex flashcards which seemed quite useful (only glanced at a couple).

My advice (probably not the best to give it since this will be my first MS exam) is use your book + pocket guide + CBT Nuggets. Some of the more sysadmin stuff (NUMA/RAID etc) isn't in CBT Nuggets & so far it seems like it isn't in the book so for those I would just search the MS docs and/or google "numa sql server" or something which is what I'll be doing (maybe its in the pocket guide?).

Have you tried the practice test for "Real World Skills For MCITP Certification And Beyond"? How accurate is the difficulty level vs the actual exam? Just so I can get an idea of my bearing~ The Oracle equivalent felt significantly easier than the actual exams.