Passed 70-410

YetAnotherITGuy

After 6 months of procrastination, finally took the exam today and passed it. I was bit stressed at the start of the exam as I don't test well. Plus, it has been a good 4 years since I have undertaken any exam. Was easier than I thought in some ways and harder in other ways. I spent way too much time reading the questions - Think my reading comprehension skills have taken a dive - haha. Either that or it was the stress.

Lots of Powershell questions (about 40%) and some questions in DNS which I think were from 70-411. What I liked in the new MS exam - the questions where you had to choose multiple answers told me how many choices I had to pick. The academy version of 2008 was traumatic since it had questions that required me to 'select all that is correct'. Not sure whether this is the new direction - I remember that, few years ago, Cisco started specifying the number of correct answers you have to choose in their exams.

Preparation: I have been working on server 2012 since it came out and completed 2008 server academy 4 years ago. I just needed books that would tell me the 'Microsoft answer' to some questions and what to expect. In this context, I think the Craig Zacker book is not bad preparatory material, if you read every line carefully. Mark Minasi's book helped immensely in getting a deeper understanding and in learning scenarios which are not covered by certification - I read this for pure pleasure.

I did not prepare with certification in mind - I read everything and have followed Petri, 4Sysops, redmondmag, technet blogs etc for years & have been early adopter of products.

If you are preparing for certification, there's some good stuff in Microsoft online lab exercises. But hands-on experience and understanding MS best practices will help. Try to setup everything at home. Work with server core and powershell and learn to do everything that you do with a GUI using commandline tools. Do this and not only will you be fine in the exam, but also you will be able to succeed well in your jobs. Learning for certification has really made me feel very excited and fond of some topics, which I have not deal with in the real-world in years. This has made me to rethink some of my work. I am very keen to continue this further.

I wish you all luck in your endeavors! I am off to celebrate for a bit & maybe think about the next exam!

Snow.bros

YetAnotherITGuy wrote: »

After 6 months of procrastination, finally took the exam today and passed it.

Lol that's me right there, I have been trying to beat procrastination by being strict on myself and it's slowly working out, now not another day goes by without hitting the books.

Any way man, congratulations on the pass and good luck with your next exam studies!!!

YetAnotherITGuy

Thanks! I have just had a look at 70-411 - Many topics look familiar. Just have to look at direct access. The rest seem like routine stuff.

Itrimble

Good luck, I'm taking the 70-411 in 2 weeks.

YetAnotherITGuy

Thanks! Good luck to you too!

I'm gonna take mine at the end of the month. I plan to get my MCSA before Christmas.

What's your reading plan?

Is the MS book for 70-411 any good? I looked at Amazon and it has lots of negative reviews. Whereas, the borntolearn Wiki seems very comprehensive.

I am watching CBT nuggets and will be reading Mastering server 2012 R2, which I bought for 70-410. After that I plan to hit the technet labs and work on my home lab for the scenarios and test stuff to satisfy my paranoia.

Louie1277

I know what you mean. The first time I took the exam i failed it but not to bad since it was my very first time taking any exam at a center. I just scheduled my online exam in nov... SO i'm getting kind of worried that I am not processing to well.. I guess I just have to keep on reading and trying to figure out what my weak points are.... Just need to work on my lab stuff or find a good tutorial on finding a good lab to build.

But congrats on the passing it.

YetAnotherITGuy

Thanks Louie.

It's not you - We had people take the test from my company and those with 10 years of experience that failed and I know that they are better engineers than me. I just had a leg up due to my experience at MS Academy - I have done 4 MS Academy courses on server 2003 and 2008 in the past. Despite such experience with exam format, I found server 2012 exam very hard. I was unsure about 20% of the questions.

If you are already not using these resources - I'd recommend the borntolearn wiki, John Savill's (Infinite Skills) and Mark Minasi's book. I would buy online labs or use windows 8 and use Hyper-V to build a lab. You need hands-on experience and a lot of time to read and digest the information for the exam.

lsud00d

Congrats YetAnotherITGuy! That MCSA will be yours soon enough

Louie1277

YetAnotherITGuy wrote: »

Thanks Louie.

It's not you - We had people take the test from my company and those with 10 years of experience that failed and I know that they are better engineers than me. I just had a leg up due to my experience at MS Academy - I have done 4 MS Academy courses on server 2003 and 2008 in the past. Despite such experience with exam format, I found server 2012 exam very hard. I was unsure about 20% of the questions.

If you are already not using these resources - I'd recommend the borntolearn wiki, John Savill's (Infinite Skills) and Mark Minasi's book. I would buy online labs or use windows 8 and use Hyper-V to build a lab. You need hands-on experience and a lot of time to read and digest the information for the exam.

Thank you for the advice... if you don't mind me asking but which chapters did you read off Mark Minasi book? "Mastering Server windows 2012 r2"

It's a awesome book but way to big to read just for this exam. I tried to find a outline for it but it's hard...

YetAnotherITGuy

Thanks, lsud00d!

@Louie : I read chapters 1-9,12-14,16-17,27-28
You can probably skip things like Clean migration, FRS -> DFS-R, IPAM etc. If you look at borntolearn, you can use it to eliminate sections from 2012 R2 book which are not relevant for 70-410. You can create study plan and keep track of progress.

IMO, this exam cannot be passed without work experience. You need vast amount of lab time and a lot of study (I'm talking 3-4 hours everyday for a month) if you do not have experience, depending on how quickly you learn.

Louie1277

YetAnotherITGuy wrote: »

Thanks, lsud00d!

@Louie : I read chapters 1-9,12-14,16-17,27-28
You can probably skip things like Clean migration, FRS -> DFS-R, IPAM etc. If you look at borntolearn, you can use it to eliminate sections from 2012 R2 book which are not relevant for 70-410. You can create study plan and keep track of progress.

IMO, this exam cannot be passed without work experience. You need vast amount of lab time and a lot of study (I'm talking 3-4 hours everyday for a month) if you do not have experience, depending on how quickly you learn.

Well thank you ... I'm on the right track then. Im on chapter 5 right now. I will follow your exam of chapter for the book. I do have cbtnugget access since work bought it for me.

Thanks once again for helping me with the chapters that's all I really needed. I learn better when I have structure in place.

Ugly-051

Dakinggamer87

Congrats YetAnotherITGuy!!

Dojiscalper

Congratulations, I keep putting off taking the exam as well. I just keep on labbing and studying, and hoping its easier than I imagine, LOL.