90 Days to MCSA Challenge

lmoworld

pepper311 wrote: »

Congratulations Man!

How many days total did you study for the 410 and what was your final score on the exam?

I failed back in December and passed recently. I would have to say 14 days of repeating labs over and over again. Every morning I would wake up early to build two servers. One server Gui. One Server Core. I make the Gui the DC. I add Server Core to the Domain. I may add a few users. I have a Windows 8 Client to join to the domain. On average it takes 30 to 40 minutes. Enough time for me to eat Breakfast and watch King of the Hill on the cartoon network. I found out the first time that reading the content is not enough. You need to build some experience by doing it yourself over and over again. I have a treasure of index cards I randomly create during the day to test myself on the material. People tend to say they don't have the time to study, but like I stated before I have 2 kids both under the age of 2 and work full-time. It's tough, but I want this cert more than anything. The OneNote document in a way forces me to keep up with the material and study.

lmoworld

Download and save. Open with OneNote. You can update and add your own material.

Note: Last update to the material in this link is 21 Jan 2015

OneNote Google Drive

gorebrush

Hmmm I'm an MCSE on 2003 and was a Windows admin for a good long while.

Tempted to pick this challenge up at some point!

ed_003

lmoworld wrote: »

I failed back in December and passed recently. I would have to say 14 days of repeating labs over and over again. Every morning I would wake up early to build two servers. One server Gui. One Server Core. I make the Gui the DC. I add Server Core to the Domain. I may add a few users. I have a Windows 8 Client to join to the domain. On average it takes 30 to 40 minutes. Enough time for me to eat Breakfast and watch King of the Hill on the cartoon network. I found out the first time that reading the content is not enough. You need to build some experience by doing it yourself over and over again. I have a treasure of index cards I randomly create during the day to test myself on the material. People tend to say they don't have the time to study, but like I stated before I have 2 kids both under the age of 2 and work full-time. It's tough, but I want this cert more than anything. The OneNote document in a way forces me to keep up with the material and study.

lmoworld.... how do u stay on track like me for example im a week on a week off, im mad at my self because im not consistent. How do u it?

pjd007

lmoworld wrote: »

I failed back in December and passed recently. I would have to say 14 days of repeating labs over and over again. Every morning I would wake up early to build two servers. One server Gui. One Server Core. I make the Gui the DC. I add Server Core to the Domain. I may add a few users. I have a Windows 8 Client to join to the domain. On average it takes 30 to 40 minutes. Enough time for me to eat Breakfast and watch King of the Hill on the cartoon network. I found out the first time that reading the content is not enough. You need to build some experience by doing it yourself over and over again. I have a treasure of index cards I randomly create during the day to test myself on the material. People tend to say they don't have the time to study, but like I stated before I have 2 kids both under the age of 2 and work full-time. It's tough, but I want this cert more than anything. The OneNote document in a way forces me to keep up with the material and study.

IMO the process of rebuilding a small environment like that on a daily basis would be a lot of time wasted for most people when essentially you'd only be familiarising yourself with the install process, a couple of wizards and a few powershell commands which aren't covered in much depth in the exam, I'd suggest spending more time on DHCP, DNS, IPv4, IPv6, group policy, NTFS permissions, powershell etc.

If you're already familiar with a lot of the concepts then the important thing is to know the relevant consoles inside out as the exam questions will often ask you on which tab you would configure an option etc.

lmoworld

ed_003 wrote: »

lmoworld.... how do u stay on track like me for example im a week on a week off, im mad at my self because im not consistent. How do u it?

Timelines are great. I schedule my exam. I put the date in places as a reminder. One is by my TV. A sticky note is on my desktop, and one is by my fridge. People tend to say that free time doesn't exist. I know that I am able to study right before I go to work, in my car (listen to youtube/cbtnuggets), during lunch, and right after dinner. Some days I spend more time studying than others. My theory is that 10 to 15 minutes of reading over study notes or skimming through a chapter is better than doing nothing at all.

lmoworld

pjd007 wrote: »

IMO the process of rebuilding a small environment like that on a daily basis would be a lot of time wasted for most people when essentially you'd only be familiarising yourself with the install process, a couple of wizards and a few powershell commands which aren't covered in much depth in the exam, I'd suggest spending more time on DHCP, DNS, IPv4, IPv6, group policy, NTFS permissions, powershell etc.

If you're already familiar with a lot of the concepts then the important thing is to know the relevant consoles inside out as the exam questions will often ask you on which tab you would configure an option etc.

I do build labs that go into greater depth. The labs I do in the morning require no second guessing. Rename computer, set static ip, add Active Directory, DHCP, DNS server. Make computer domain controller, create DHCP scope, create DNS zone. Join Server and Client to the domain. I wanted to make these step feel like second nature. Pretty sure what I do is overkill, but it works for me.

pjd007

lmoworld wrote: »

I do build labs that go into greater depth. The labs I do in the morning require no second guessing. Rename computer, set static ip, add Active Directory, DHCP, DNS server. Make computer domain controller, create DHCP scope, create DNS zone. Join Server and Client to the domain. I wanted to make these step feel like second nature. Pretty sure what I do is overkill, but it works for me.

That's the detail you missed off the other post !

Yep you gotta find what method works for you but labbing is key and most people will have to do lots of it to pass an exam also agree that booking the exam pushes you to make time to study.

barberj66

Just a trivial thing but if you can't get motivated to get the study you could always set yourself a treat at the end if you pass the exam.

Maybe go out for a meal to celebrate or buy a new videogame etc as an incentive to carry on.

gorebrush

What should I treat myself with if I pass my CCIE in 2 weeks?

Wagnaard

A corvette. 1963 Cherry Red.

Skelly

gorebrush wrote: »

What should I treat myself with if I pass my CCIE in 2 weeks?

A trip to Vegas...

markulous

This will be my goal once I'm done with WGU in a few months. I think I may be able to do it in 90 days. Going to be challenging since I only do limited tasks on Server 2012, but it'll be fun.

lmoworld

Sorry for not updating OneNote for the last few days. Been studying but slacking on sharing knowledge. If anyone has anything they would like to see updated in link let me know.

John-John

Sign me up for this one. Just found out about the second shot thing with Microsoft. I already have the 70-410 done. I'm going to give this a shot now. Thing is, I was kind of in the middle of studying for the CCENT. Cisco Academy starts this week. Oh well, can't pass up a deal.

Sirah8499

I am following along with your notes, please keep updating them, thank you!

lmoworld

Sorry about that. I thought they were syncing online. Apparently not. LOL. When I get home from work I will make sure it connects

lmoworld

I'm slotted to take the 70-411 exam on the 14. Hoping for a first time go. Hoping to here some success stories. I have been searching online for additional study material for this exam and I'm starting to feel like it doesn't exist. If anyone manage to find anything let me know.

Piers

Don't rush, you have more time than that to use the second shot! You've got a very agressive schedule going, what are you using as a lab / textbook study routine?

Louie1277

Don't give up just keep trying ... Trust me you're doing better then me. I failed it twice.. ugh score getting better but still trying.

pjd007

pepper311 wrote: »

Well I think that was the issue: I only spent 10% of my time in labs and that is probably one of the major problems.

As far as the time, I am too far behind....I wasted too much time goofing off over the holidays< I should have been more disciplined and used the vacation time to study instead of idle socializing and watching Television

I got tripped up when they asked me something along the lines of "Which command would you use to install a new DC?"

Install-ADDSDomainController or
Install-ADDSDomain

And with my bad luck there was actually 3 questions asking pretty much the same thing which do you use for a new DC? And which to add a DC to an existing forest and I decided to answer all 3 questions with Install-ADDSDomain

Because I got confused between with cmdlet does what so I just answered all 3 with Install-ADDSDomain

And the "coin flip" worked against me because I chose the wrong one! Dang it, and the worst thing is that I had originally gone with Install-ADDSDomainController and I CHANGED MY ANSWER. (at the last moment, Just over-analyzed)

and boy was I mad on the drive home realizing that I flipped the coin and said "tails" and it came up "heads" and just that bad fortune was the difference between a pass and a fail.

Anyways, I am confident, I am devoting 10 -12 hours per day Sat and Sunday and will know my stuff on the Exam.

The thing is with questions like that it's easy to get in a muddle but if you think about it normally there's only one logical answer, Install-ADDSDomain will probably only be used in a very specific situation and the question would normally prompt the answer ie. you're installing a new domain controller into a new child domain, which cmdlet would you run first ?

I think with powershell the thing to do is focus on these sort of cmdlets which look similar but obviously do different things like Set-ADUser, Set-ADAccountPassword, Set-ADAccountExpiration etc.

I've said in other posts, with these exams you kind of need to keep your head and accept that you might not have all the answers but sometimes you can logically work out which ones are definitely not correct to narrow it down.

Also I would say it's important to be familiar with the consoles ie. DHCP, DNS etc. because if you don't know where to set a particular option/setting then there's no real logic you can apply to that, you'll either know it or you won't !

lmoworld

Sorry for being quite for awhile. I currently have a lot on my plate going on. I am still focused on getting my MCSA completed within the next 58 days. Hopefully the notes are helpful. Second shot ends in May. Not to say I plan to fail my exam, but things happen. Don't let your Second Shot opportunity pass by. Using my notes will not guarantee you a passing score. My notes are available to prove that it is possible to complete this certification in 90 days. All of the information I have in OneNote is nothing more than a few Google searches away.

Xenomeow

Well this seems right up my alley. My books should arrive in 2-3 days, untill then I will follow the one drive. Thanks for posting this, with any luck we will all be MCSE's in three months time.

aBlackPerson

This looks petty interesting, especially since iv'e decided to begin studying for the MCSA. How long will the link be up and available. Hopefully forever :P

jgbroad03

I WANT TO JOIN THIS CHALLENGE TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where can I find the labs and other info you are going to post? @IMOWorld

lmoworld

Here is the link to the Google Drive that contains a download copy. The updated copy is found in the first post. Had to postpone testing last week due to work requirements. I still try to post helpful links daily and I continue to ask for others input. Hoping to see success by the end. I do not plan to take the link down.

lmoworld wrote: »

Download and save. Open with OneNote. You can update and add your own material.

Note: Last update to the material in this link is 21 Jan 2015

OneNote Google Drive

lmoworld

OneNote Updated Version

lmoworld wrote: »

Any Takers? This is not a new years resolution. This is a Challenge from one IT Professional to another. 90 days from today you will either have or be close to obtaining your MCSA. What do you really have to lose except for one hour a day. One hour a day in labbing, reading and watching in order to gain a certification. I can't promise you a instant pass, but what I can promise you is that within 90 days you will be know more than what you know now. In this forum I plan to post lab setup, notes, book recommendation, and YouTube Video links I have been using.

90 Day Challenge OneNote

GForce75

Thank you

lmoworld

70-411 study material has been kicking my butt.

Rocket-sG

lmoworld wrote: »

70-411 study material has been kicking my butt.

I agree with you, It is very esoteric and I read an entire paragraph and then forget what I just finished reading! I just got finished passing the 70-410 but from what I read the 70-410 seems to have a higher failure rate. Perhaps it is because people just give up after failing it once.

I may have to read the textbook twice. I am reading it cover to cover and then will read it cover to cover again.

I read until I can no longer bear it and then I sit on the sofa and watch plural sight on my laptop and then back to the book again.

By the way I am using [h=1]Exam Ref 70-411 Administering Windows Server 2012 R2 (MCSA) by Charlie Russel.[/h]
I got the book used for $10 USD.

I would like to use [h=2]MCSA Windows Server 2012 R2 Complete Study Guide: Exams 70-410, 70-411, 70-412, and 70-417[/h][COLOR=#555555 !important]Jan 27, 2015 by William Panek

But unfortunately it costs $58 and I cant afford it this month
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