Failed 70-410 again. Not sure what to do at this point.

FullTilt151

I'm really at a loss for what to do now. Going into the first one, I figured I won't pass, but I had a 2nd shot, so I wanted to see what the test was like and where I stood. My weakest areas where Core Network, Group Policy and HyperV. So I focused on those really hard.
I used the Exam Ref R2 book by Craig Zacker, the training curriculum a friend let me use after going to the class (not R2 though) and I even downloaded some **** for practice questions. (None were on the actual test).

2nd test I did really well in the areas and I focused on but dropped way down in the areas I did well in the 1st time (Configuring servers, Installing Roles, AD admin)

So, 150 bucks down the drain. The questions on the tests are NOTHING like anything I've studied so far. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I really down want to keep flushing money away.


What do you guys think? Bootcamps? etc???

kriscamaro68

First off ditch the ****. They don't help anyone including yourself as you saw and are technically illegal. They can also land you with no certs if its found out you are using them. Second. The exam ref looks to be all but useless for this test so I would bypass that and pick up this: Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2: Mark Minasi, Kevin Greene, Christian Booth, Robert Butler, John McCabe, Robert Panek, Michael Rice, Stefan Roth: 9781118289426: Amazon.com: Books

Check out CBT IT Training Videos Online, Certification and Education | CBT Nuggets and maybe pay for a month and also Coming Soon

Also make sure to grab the eval copies of server 2012R2 and lab.

atari37

Did you run any labs? Unless you are great at picking stuff up FAST, I'd save that money for a bootcamp and build a nice lab. You'll be better off taking a 30 to 60 day class or doing self study again but this time, run labs and read better books until you feel confident in the material.

FullTilt151

Yea, I do have a lab setup. It's just hard to figure out what to actually practice. It seems that there's so much to grasp, it's hard to do everything. In my lab, I've been doing what I thought I'd need: installing roles, dns, dhcp, setting up hyperV for VMs.

I'll def pick up that Mastering windows book. Thanks.

atari37

This is what I do for every certification I take. Watch CBT (Cbtnuggets or Trainsignal (now part of pluralsight), or Udemy). I watch all of it and follow everything the instructor is doing in my lab environment. On my downtime at work, I read the chapters on the topics I'm working on in the lab. This makes it easy for me to retain the stuff I watch, read and do (lab). You want to be an expert at something, rip it all down and rebuild it without the videos. That's what I did with my Cisco stuff.

I wouldn't skip any topics in the lab unless you do that topic on a daily basis at work. If you skip stuff, you might run into problems with questions that ask "On which tab will you configure this?". Also don't forget to take notes whilst you're watching videos or doing labs. Microsoft OneNote is great for this. Read your notes on your computer at home, work, tab and phone.

FullTilt151

Thanks. I just ordered the Mastering R2 book. I'm going to revert my lab back to the base snapshots and begin again. I was pretty bummed this morning when I posted, but after thinking about it for a while, the upside is, I'm learning a lot of new stuff, so there's that.

I think it's harder if you don't work with the subject you're studying on a daily basis....

J.Tot

how long are you studying for before taking an exam. don't wait months as you tend to forget prior learned content.

pjd007

I'm in a similar boat, I failed my first attempt a couple of months ago and I wanted to have another go with my 2nd shot within a month but due to other commitments I wasn't able to study for a few weeks, I've been back at it for about 3 weeks now but I don't seem to be making much progress in terms of my test score on the measureup exam.

I'm going to do a load of labs on the MS Virtual labs, I think they're good as they give you things to do which I can't easily replicate with my lab setup and I'm hoping in doing these along with a couple more weeks study I'll be ready.

I'm not currently in an IT job but have 10yrs+ experience so I'm relying purely on my labbing and study but with the amount of material covered it is hard to know where to start sometimes.

FullTilt151

I laid off this past week from studying. I'm in Kentucky and during the derby, the whole city is a madhouse. I got the Mastering R2 book in the mail. 1700 pages oof. I'm in the process of rebuilding my lab. My plan is to take a week to study for each section of the exam. Are there any practice exams available online?