New to the site, just wanted to say hi and...

SconnieInShorts · November 2015

State my goals to keep myself accountable :P First off, Hi! Been lurking here for a few weeks and decided to register today after seeing a few things I wanted to give my $0.02 on. Lots of good information here, hoping this helps and keeps me on track.

A little about me: In a previous life I was a programmer, and switched to the System Engineer team a couple of years ago. I've done quite well for myself on the SE team, but I still feel I have more to prove as a reformed programmer

Eventually I want to get my MCSE in Private Cloud and probably Server Infrastructure, but I've got to get the MCSA first :P

Now, on to the good stuff! I tried earlier this year to study for the 70-410 exam, blocking off 4 hours a week on Friday mornings at work, but that soon fell by the wayside as time got sparse for other things. It completely disappeared after taking a practice test at Ignite in May and failing miserably due to the ticky-tack nature of some of the questions. I realized it was going to take a lot more effort and practice to get the cert, and it was time I just didn't have at work or home with a new baby in the house.

Anyway, the baby is now 1 and a little bit less dependent on us, and the work schedule is slowing down slightly, so I figure I can do this again and maybe learn from my mistake(s) a bit... I'm thinking of spreading the study time out this time, like an hour each day and then maybe 2 on Fridays for labs and stuff, with time at home for reading and whatnot as well. I'm going to have my workplace pay for practice tests from MeasuredUp (this is the provider Microsoft used at Ignite in their practice test room) and use those on Fridays as well.

I work with most everything Server 2012R2 every day, especially Hyper-V and SCVMM. About the only thing I don't deal with a lot is AD because we have a dedicated team for AD management where I work. I'm fairly good with powershell, but my recall for the exact commands is not exactly the best (and I found that the practice tests really hammer on that perfect recall; seems silly in today's google-driven world). My only fear is that I will study and lab and practice test until I'm blue in the face and still will get nailed on the Powershell "Is it Get-ABC or is it Get-ACB" type questions, small variations that make a big difference that I would usually look up on Google/MSDN to know what I needed for sure.

From those of you that have taken the tests, are there a lot of questions like that? Very nearly the same answer, but with only a slight variation in parameter sent in or name of the cmdlet? And how does the plan for study sound? I don't know that this approach will work, but I've got to try something because I really want this cert.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to seeing you guys around and sharing tips/tricks/info/horror stories/whatever!

poolmanjim · November 2015

There are a handful of different ways I have seen them test the powershell stuff. You will run into cases where you are given lists of more than one command and you'll have to know which one will accomplish the task. They will try to trip you up some with the Verb portion of the command (e.g. Add-ABC vs New-ABC or Delete-XYZ vs Remove-XYZ). They will throw the occasional syntax at you but I haven't had to type out an entire command free hand yet on the exam.

I'm being a little vague as the exact way the test Powershell can really blur the lines of the NDA. Safe to say study the commands for the different groups. Figure out which ones do what and get an idea of their syntax.

dustervoice · November 2015

SconnieInShorts wrote: »

Thanks everyone, looking forward to seeing you guys around and sharing tips/tricks/info/horror stories/whatever!

If you are seeking TIPs/TRICKS & HORROR then you are in the right place.

Here is the first tip: Use a strong password!
Here is your first trick: Try not to share your strong password with the community as much as we pressure you
Here is your first horror: We are all BOTs here so we have no emotion.

Welcome my friend