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Passed 70-411 today!

thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
in MCSA / MCSE on Windows 2012 General
Hello all,

I passed the 70-411 about an hour ago.

By far the hardest cert exam I've taken to date. I squeaked by in the low 700's but a pass is a pass! I am tempted to move right on to Vmware but I think I'd benefit from a break over Thanksgiving.

I have been taking a community college class designed for the 70-411 exam, and they use TestOut. I have found that their exam questions and labs help out a lot. I also used a 50% off Halloween promotion from ITPro.tv and joined up with them. They provided a virtual lab and Transcender practice exams that helped too. I would say that these two were the most beneficial.

I also used CBTNuggets: 70-411 with James Conrad (kinda sucked), and the Ultimate PowerShell course with Don Jones.

Books included: Jeremy Moskowitz's Group Policy, 2nd Edition, Brian Desmond's Active Directory, the MS Press Training Guide and Exam Ref for 70-411, Minasi's Mastering Server 2012 R2, Month of Lunches for Active Directory and PowerShell, and the Sybex MCSA study guide.

And of course, the TechNet articles linked in this forum's sticky for the 70-411 :D
2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    ed_003ed_003 Member Posts: 216
    good work! how often did u study ?
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    thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
    ed_003 wrote: »
    good work! how often did u study ?

    I put in an average of 4-6 hours every day for the past month and a half. During the final 2 weeks of preparation I was getting up to 8 hours daily.
    2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    ed_003ed_003 Member Posts: 216
    o wow ok, what is ur method to studying? reading highlighting? videos and follow along?
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    kriscamaro68kriscamaro68 Member Posts: 1,186 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Congrats on the pass!!!
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    thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
    kriscamaro68 wrote: »
    Congrats on the pass!!!

    Thanks!
    2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
    ed_003 wrote: »
    o wow ok, what is ur method to studying? reading highlighting? videos and follow along?

    I watched the whole ITPro.tv course without taking any notes or trying to lab along. I would read the corresponding chapters out of the various books afterwards. After all of that was done, I'd prepare notes and jot down important commands etc. I had a notebook dedicated to this exam.

    After the notebook was complete, I would go through the course again and then lab along. I would also go through the TestOut modules after each video was complete.

    It was a grueling process because each video on ITPro.tv is around 2 hours along. But it helped a lot.

    The final week, I did nothing but practice exams/flashcards on Transcender, and reviewed TechNet articles.
    2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    gespensterngespenstern Member Posts: 1,243 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Gz! That's an achievement!
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    greg9891greg9891 Member Posts: 1,189 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Congrats Excellent news!icon_cheers.gif
    :
    Upcoming Certs: VCA-DCV 7.0, VCP-DCV 7.0, Oracle Database 1Z0-071, PMP, Server +, CCNP

    Proverbs 6:6-11Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
    When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep, So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler And your need like an armed man.
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    byron66byron66 Member Posts: 169 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Was it Server Pro, I used testout for A+. How much help was it towards the MCSA Server 2012.
    CCNA   A+   N+  Sec+
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    thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
    byron66 wrote: »
    Was it Server Pro, I used testout for A+. How much help was it towards the MCSA Server 2012.

    Actually it was extremely helpful. The questions on TestOut for Server Pro were very similar in difficulty and technical depth as what I encountered on the exam. I was telling my professor how surprised I was.
    2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    nascar_paulnascar_paul Member Posts: 288 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Congratulations! The 411 is a hard test!
    icon_thumright.gif
    2017 Goals: 70-411 [X], 74-409 [X], 70-533 [X], VCP5-DCV [], LX0-103 [], LX0-104 []
    "I PLAN to fail!" - No One Ever
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    Snow.brosSnow.bros Member Posts: 832 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Congrats on the pass and all the best on your VMware studies!!! icon_thumright.gif
    "It's better to try and fail than to fail to try." Unkown

    "Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics." Albert Einstein.

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    knownheroknownhero Member Posts: 450
    ITPRO.tv never seen this before. They worth the monthly fee? I too absolutely hate this James Conrad bloke he just talks utter crap in most cases. I mean he started talking about Twilight movies...
    70-410 [x] 70-411 [x] 70-462[x] 70-331[x] 70-332[x]
    MCSE - SharePoint 2013 :thumbup:

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    techfiendtechfiend Member Posts: 1,481 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Congrats! Ditto on 70-411 being the toughest test so far. I also passed it barely the first time. I ended up just failing CCNA the first time mainly because I ran out of time, then aced it the next week. There's something about the way microsoft asks questions and adds new topics that a lot of material doesn't cover. If you study 70-412 and take the test, you may have a new candidate. Half the 70-412 is convoluted AD security topics. I've never in my life had to jump through so many windows to get something so simple done. It's definitely a work in progress, I hope, at Microsoft.
    2018 AWS Solutions Architect - Associate (Apr) 2017 VCAP6-DCV Deploy (Oct) 2016 Storage+ (Jan)
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    jones551jones551 Member Posts: 154 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Great News ! Well done...
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    thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
    techfiend wrote: »
    Congrats! Ditto on 70-411 being the toughest test so far. I also passed it barely the first time. I ended up just failing CCNA the first time mainly because I ran out of time, then aced it the next week. There's something about the way microsoft asks questions and adds new topics that a lot of material doesn't cover. If you study 70-412 and take the test, you may have a new candidate. Half the 70-412 is convoluted AD security topics. I've never in my life had to jump through so many windows to get something so simple done. It's definitely a work in progress, I hope, at Microsoft.

    Thanks. I barely failed the composite CCNA the first time around. I am relieved the MCSA is done with because I know it's the most painful one. Cisco is a straightforward exam provider.
    2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    thatguy67thatguy67 Member Posts: 344 ■■■■□□□□□□
    knownhero wrote: »
    ITPRO.tv never seen this before. They worth the monthly fee? I too absolutely hate this James Conrad bloke he just talks utter crap in most cases. I mean he started talking about Twilight movies...

    I think it's worth it. I pay $28 a month because I got the half off promotion. The membership includes a virtual lab and two Transcender practice exams per month. The main guy is really good, there is this one young host that is new or something, he's not articulate haha. I got the wrong impression of that site because he introduces the 70-411 course and he didn't even know the title of the exam. He's the only criticism though, everyone else is great and they don't start off each video with a 2 minute random-ass anecdote that somehow segues into the study material (like someone we know).
    2017 Goals: []PCNSE7 []CCNP:Security []CCNP:R&S []LCDE []WCNA
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    Dakinggamer87Dakinggamer87 Member Posts: 4,016 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Congrats well done!! icon_thumright.gif
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    knownheroknownhero Member Posts: 450
    @thatguy67

    Found a 30% off coupon on their site and took the plunge. So far so good, I know what you're talking about with the young lad with the dude who looks like Paul Rudd.

    Thier iOS app could do with some work though. It doesn't keep track of where you were on a video, nor does it allow you to "save" a course to quick link to it.
    70-410 [x] 70-411 [x] 70-462[x] 70-331[x] 70-332[x]
    MCSE - SharePoint 2013 :thumbup:

    Road map 2017: JavaScript and modern web development

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    bohackbohack Member Posts: 114
    Congratulations on the victory!
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    gncsmithgncsmith Member Posts: 459 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Congrats!
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