Passed the 70-410 today

Long time lurker, first time poster. I managed to pass the 70-410 today with a 778. This was my 2nd attempt. When I took it the first time in October I only scored a 559.

I used the Poulson book, the Sybex Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2 book, CBT Nugget videos, and doing labs on an ESXi box at home. Hyper-V has its place but I am a VMWare man at my core.

I would like to thank the members of this forum for the recommendations on study resources and methods. It definitely helped me to prepare.

I plan to take a break for the holidays and start studying again for the 70-411 in January.

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Cisco Inferno

Congrats! may I ask how your review schedule was? such as how did you split topics in the last few weeks etc. Any good tips?
Taking mine at the end of the month.

AndersonSmith

Congratulations! Good luck on the 411!

Brain-D

Congrats!!!

stubba

I wish I had any sage-like wisdom to pass on. Two big factors for me was focusing on doing labs and learning how to take the test. The first test I took in October I knew I wasn't prepared for but I wanted to see how the test was structured. I had picked up one of the booster packs back in June so I figured with 4 retakes, why not take it and see how the test is setup. The answer, in my humble opinion, is terrible.

As other posters here have noted, there is a world of difference in the bullet point summaries Microsoft recommends knowing for each section vs. what question show up on the test. You basically have to lab. I really don't see any other way to gain the first hand knowledge Microsoft expects.

The second thing was learning how to take the test. Learning how to examine the question, weed out the unimportant information, and compare the available answers is a key skill. Lots of question in a series have information that is irrelevant or misleading.

As to studying habits, I watched the CBT Nugget videos and took notes on things I wanted to follow up on. I then went through the Poulson book, made sure I knew all of the chapter quiz and prep exam answers by the end. Watched the CBT Nugget videos again but chose specific areas I felt weak on. The entire time I was doing this I had my ESXi box setup and went through setting up, tearing down, and playing in 2012 R2.

If I am being honest, I was surprised when the test came back as a pass. I was better prepared this time but felt the questions were more varied and difficult. I got maybe 2 IPV6 questions on the first test so I only brushed up on it a little. This time around I had 4 or 5. I flat out guessed on every IPV6 question but one. And it was like that for a lot of questions. I studied extensively for storage spaces since I didn't know those questions last time. I think I had 1 question related to it.

I wish everyone taking the 70-410 good luck and don't get too frustrated if it takes a couple of attempts to pass.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!!

greg9891

Congrats!

AvgITGeek

Well done. Now onto the 411?

jazz_01

Congratulations on your pass. I had appeared for 70-411-R2 - MCSA/MCSE - Administering Windows Server 2012 R2 in December and passed in my I attempt. All I use was the Sybex and uCertify MCSE course and watched some videos.

Thank you uCertify and the contest you post on the groups are amazing through which I won the free course material for 1 month.

jertsy

Congrats!

draker

Congrats!! Hope to take this soon.

Kinectic

congrats