70-410 Exam Passed! Resources and Tips.

Cisco Inferno

I passed the 70-410 with a score of 804/900.


This is truly a difficult test compared to the others I have taken in the past. I would rate this on ICND2 level in terms of complexity. I was getting worried up until the test as there were many, many failed threads posted here. The wording on the questions were really lengthy and at times had multiple correct answers. You just had to do it with the “least” effort. A lot of drag and drops and “where do you click” type questions. I also noticed a few questions had content from the 411!


I took courses on the 410 and 411 at University of Maryland-University College from August to Christmas 16’. Unfortunately, there was no way the 410 class could squeeze all the content into 8 weeks. I knew that I had to go above and beyond the required syllabus. Fortunately, being in a class flooded me with discussions and assignments dealing with the topics. Having the 411 class really completed what was left hanging in the 410. That, and I had a few 411 questions on my test. I also relocated to Denver in this time frame.


My resources for the 410 were:

1. Don Poulton 70-410 Cert Guide – Wonderful book that is a much easier read than Microsoft’s guides. It is hardcover and 1000 pages, so it is quite heavy at times. Lots of info!
2. PluralSight 70-410 Videos - Greg Shields and Jason Helmick are great teachers! Much much better than CBT Nuggets. We all know how James Conrad can get at times.
3. TestOut Videos, Quizzes and Text - Shad is a great lecturer and has great demonstration videos. The quizzes are a little easier than the exam and the readings are more of a review.
4. LabSim Simulator – This thing is so useful! I get to lab from anywhere and it is so close to the real thing. I can barely tell the difference. The lab scenarios for each topic are well worth the price.
5. Technet Articles – Helped me out when stuck, but very dry stuff.
6. Networked Minds Youtube Channel – Thank you to our fellow user here, Bohack.
7. ITFreeTraining Youtube Channel - Another great resource.
8. Handwritten Notes – SO Crucial! Notes=retention! Use different colored pens!

My main method of learning each new topic/chapter had this particular order:
(You will notice that it is always easier to watch a video and THEN do the reading)

1. Watch TestOut Video
2. Read TestOut Text
3. Do labs in LabSim
4. Take Testout Quiz. By this time, I’ve done plenty of discussions and proposal papers for school.
5. After completing the entire objectives, I began watching PluralSight Videos mid December.
6. I would take notes watching the videos at 1.5x speed.
7. Read Poulton Book while taking more notes. (I filled up a 70pg notebook).
8. Redo Labs in Testout
9. Take full practice quizzes on TestOut and the Book.
10. Anything I didn’t know, I would supplement with Youtube or Technet.

The things I would reinforce going into the exam are:

1. Subnetting – Thank goodness I’m a CCNA and this was just a review.
2. PowerShell and cmds – There really is a good amount of it in this exam. Also learn dism and ntdsutil and the other ones.
3. HyperV- I think Microsoft expects you to know every click location of this damn thing. Including knowledge on VHD/x and snapshots, resource allocation, vnetworking etc.
4. Remote Management- Know what’s involved with managing remote servers and nondomain servers.
5. Group Scopes- A very tricky yet essential topic that you need to have down. I had a few questions on this that would trip me up. Domain Local, Global, Universal, etc.
6. Group Policy- Learn about linking and Security Options. Besides wanting to know Applocker, it isn’t too crazy of a topic.
7. DNS – Know you types of zones and situations where you would configure things differently.

Hoping to pass the 70-411 in two weeks. I am actually glad I studied for both before taking the 410.

FullofBit

Congratulations!

Do you think you could have passed the exam if you didn't go through the 70-411 materials?

greg9891

Congrats! Nice Score

AndersonSmith

Congratulations and good luck on the 411!

Cisco Inferno

AndersonSmith wrote: »

Congratulations and good luck on the 411!

I am guessing it is supposedly easier?

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

AndersonSmith

Cisco Inferno wrote: »

I am guessing it is supposedly easier?

I found the 411 to be more difficult than the 410 but I also didn't study for it as long as I had originally intended so that may have come into play a bit. Like you, I also did some studying for it while I studied for the 410 so that will certainly help you out a lot. I ended up passing the 411 on first attempt just barely but I think if I would've given myself another week or 2 I would've done better. Oh well, a pass is still a pass either way. The biggest thing for me that I think made it most difficult was that there seemed to be more cmd and Powershell topics to learn and memorize. The test itself also seemed a little harder than the 410 just because I seemed to get more of the interactive style questions than I did on the 410. Either way though, with the score you got on the 410 I'm sure you'll have no problem passing the 411!

NetworkingStudent

@CISCO

Did you have a home lab that you built, or did you mostly use the testout lab? Also, did you use any practice tests...trranscender or Measure Up?

Cisco Inferno

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

@CISCO

Did you have a home lab that you built, or did you mostly use the testout lab? Also, did you use any practice tests...trranscender or Measure Up?

Yea I would say 95% Labsim Labs.
I made a Hyper-V lab on my PC and only really used it for the first part where you install servers, etc. I even set it up through my router to be remotely accessed too. I then realized that I didnt need it. I would spend too much time "setting up the lab".

If setting up a lab, I would recommend really making a checklist of everything to do. It is easy to forget your progress and what you've worked on.

It is real fun and you do not need a 'server' or separate PC. Just make sure you have enough ram to run a few VMs. I think you can get away with 8gb of ram if your VMs are using dynamic memory. I would also recommend you know Hyper-V like the back of your hand. Easy topic but lots to know. IF you have Win8+ you already have a client version of Hyper-V installed. If you still have windows 7, get VMware workstation and install it there with the free 180day server 2012 r2 demo from Microsoft.



For practice tests, I used questions in the book and Testout/Labsim questions. They have a big bank. I did get a large number of non-multiple choice questions. That would be the hard part. know your commands and syntax. Do not worry about 'get' 'set' 'new' remove' etc, Focus more on ___-ADUser or the main command. The prefixes are easy.

Also learn alot about Domain Controllers and FSMO roles. How to prep DC's for roles via cmd line. FSMO roles and how to transfer them came up a few times. Really hard topic until you hammer them down. AD domains are multi master environments where every DC has 'write' access. FSMO roles are certain roles in the forest that can only be on one DC at a time, so know about their duties. 2 of them are forest wide, 3 are domain wide. Im only saying this because this was one of the last things I really picked up clearly before the test.

Cisco Inferno

AndersonSmith wrote: »

I found the 411 to be more difficult than the 410 but I also didn't study for it as long as I had originally intended so that may have come into play a bit. Like you, I also did some studying for it while I studied for the 410 so that will certainly help you out a lot. I ended up passing the 411 on first attempt just barely but I think if I would've given myself another week or 2 I would've done better. Oh well, a pass is still a pass either way. The biggest thing for me that I think made it most difficult was that there seemed to be more cmd and Powershell topics to learn and memorize. The test itself also seemed a little harder than the 410 just because I seemed to get more of the interactive style questions than I did on the 410. Either way though, with the score you got on the 410 I'm sure you'll have no problem passing the 411!

Thanks alot. I wont let the overlap fool me into thinking I should skip out on AD and DNS stuff. How hard was the NPS stuff? it was the last topic I had to learn and I still dont feel comfy on it. WSUS and WDS are fun and I have that stuff down well.

AndersonSmith

Cisco Inferno wrote: »

Thanks alot. I wont let the overlap fool me into thinking I should skip out on AD and DNS stuff. How hard was the NPS stuff? it was the last topic I had to learn and I still dont feel comfy on it. WSUS and WDS are fun and I have that stuff down well.

The NPS stuff wasn't difficult if you study it and lab it out. It was one of my highest scoring sections on that exam. I actually didn't feel too comfortable with it when I took the exam either because it's something I never used before but I did really well with it when it came to the exam.

NetworkingStudent

@CISCO

Thank you for the response!!

Currently I have been using the IT pro tv labs.

Like you I did create the home labs, and I did find it hard to follow long as to where I was at.

Louie1277

Thanks for the resource I will add these things to review this weekend. Have a lot of studying to do this weekend.

stunnedsoup

This is the 1st time I've heard of TestOut. Looks very good, especially the LabSim part. Did you do a monthly subscription, yearly, etc? I may buy into this.

I got the Sybex Panek book last year during a sale...so far it's meh. I just read the section on security and felt it was lacking. It seems like the Poulton Cert Guide is getting better reviews. I'm thinking about getting the eBook.

Great review! Bookmarked!

Cisco Inferno

I had a discount from school but for what its worth, its a pretty good guideline for studying.

bito007

Passed my 70-410 this morning with a score of 726. This was my second attempt. Though I have 3 more retakes on a booster pack until Feb 28, 2017, but happy that I can move onto the next one 70-411.

Got off to a bad start as I was skipping it, felt like that I was going to fail this one too but somehow pull myself through it. Don't know what was the total score out of which I got 726. There were 47 questions and to my surprise this time I got only I hour and 20 min whereas on my last test I was given extra 30 min.

For those of you who are going in for this exam soon. Here are couple of tips that I applied and that may help you in your exam.

1- Studied Don Poulton 70-410 Book twice.
2- Watched CBT Nuggets 70-410 videos.
3- Took quizzes and 2 practice exams that came with the book.
4- Lastly, tried few online free practice tests and check 70-410 braindumps free practice exams online as I got lot of the questions on my exams that were either similar or close to it. That really helped me a lot of get through this exam.
5- One thing I didn't do which I should've and would advise all of those going in for exam is to setup a virtual environment lab at home and practice it. You would get a lot of scenarios based questions as if you are doing it inside the server 2012. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough time and maybe I took a little liberty of the booster pack since I got total of 5 retakes on it. Anyway, Good luck.

Thanks for all those who shared their experiences here and put out a material for me to study, which played its part too in me helping to get through this exam.

Cisco Inferno

bito007 wrote: »

4- Lastly, tried few online free practice tests and check 70-410 braindumps free practice exams online as I got lot of the questions on my exams that were either similar or close to it. That really helped me a lot of get through this exam.

This is considered cheating. but congrats.

AndersonSmith

I agree with Cisco Inferno. Brain **** are cheating. It's not going to help you in the real world when you actually have to know how to do it

bito007

i don't understand why is it called cheating when the material is out there for everyone to study.

I didn't go in hack or steal the material. I searched for practice quizzes and exams in Google.

I didn't depend on these **** as they called, but I had to read the book twice, and watched CBTNuggets videos, spent lot of time on that to pass it.

PCTechLinc

@bito007

It's really not worth trying to argue here. There are clear-cut rules about certification and braindumps. Feel however you like about them, but be warned about the possible consequences. Here is a section from Microsoft's Certification Policy page:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/certification-exam-policies.aspx

Violation of Exam Agreement.

1. All Microsoft Certification Exams, including Exam questions and answers, constitute Microsoft confidential information and are protected by trade secret law and by the Non-Disclosure Agreement and General Terms of Use for Microsoft Certification Exams (“Exam Agreement”) and may not be disclosed to or discussed with others or posted or published in any forum or through any medium.
   1. If Microsoft believes you violated the Exam Agreement or engaged in any fraudulent behavior or misconduct that could diminish or compromise the security or integrity of the Program in any way, you may be decertified and terminated from the Program and permanently ineligible to participate in the Program.

You are much better off using materials that have the vendors' blessings. You don't want to spend a bunch of time, effort, and money (or your company's) just to get it all stripped away. CYA

Dakinggamer87

@CiscoInferno: Congrats!!!

Louie1277

I have to agree playing with fire is not good. I know i had many tries on passing this exam and failed but I never thought lets go looking for braindumps.... i'm to scared to get band from any Microsoft Cert or anything... but I understand finding a good site that has good practice questions is hard but still can't take that chance...

@Dakingamer87 DAMMMMMMMMMM you have a lot of cert! one day wish to have half of what you have... lol...

Pseudonym

bito007 wrote: »

i don't understand why is it called cheating when the material is out there for everyone to study.

I didn't go in hack or steal the material. I searched for practice quizzes and exams in Google.

I didn't depend on these **** as they called, but I had to read the book twice, and watched CBTNuggets videos, spent lot of time on that to pass it.

Other people have spent a LOT more time on these exams to pass them than you. Other people have spent a LOT more time on these exams than you and failed them. Virtually anyone who's passed a Microsoft exam legitimately will tell you it is absolutely necessary to use a lab to truly understand the material, and pass the exam, the fact that you didn't lab at all says everything.

It's cheating and you're only fooling yourself.

AndersonSmith

Pseudonym wrote: »

Other people have spent a LOT more time on these exams to pass them than you. Other people have spent a LOT more time on these exams than you and failed them. Virtually anyone who's passed a Microsoft exam legitimately will tell you it is absolutely necessary to use a lab to truly understand the material, and pass the exam, the fact that you didn't lab at all says everything.

It's cheating and you're only fooling yourself.

I completely agree pseudonym, well said!

WastedHat

Congrats on the pass. Just wondering, what version of CCNA did you do? and how does it compare to MCSA so far?

draker

Congrats! Good score too!

chopsticks

Cisco Inferno wrote: »

I passed the 70-410 with a score of 804/900.


This is truly a difficult test compared to the others I have taken in the past. I would rate this on ICND2 level in terms of complexity. I was getting worried up until the test as there were many, many failed threads posted here. The wording on the questions were really lengthy and at times had multiple correct answers. You just had to do it with the “least” effort. A lot of drag and drops and “where do you click” type questions. I also noticed a few questions had content from the 411!


I took courses on the 410 and 411 at University of Maryland-University College from August to Christmas 16’. Unfortunately, there was no way the 410 class could squeeze all the content into 8 weeks. I knew that I had to go above and beyond the required syllabus. Fortunately, being in a class flooded me with discussions and assignments dealing with the topics. Having the 411 class really completed what was left hanging in the 410. That, and I had a few 411 questions on my test. I also relocated to Denver in this time frame.


My resources for the 410 were:

1. Don Poulton 70-410 Cert Guide – Wonderful book that is a much easier read than Microsoft’s guides. It is hardcover and 1000 pages, so it is quite heavy at times. Lots of info!
2. PluralSight 70-410 Videos - Greg Shields and Jason Helmick are great teachers! Much much better than CBT Nuggets. We all know how James Conrad can get at times.
3. TestOut Videos, Quizzes and Text - Shad is a great lecturer and has great demonstration videos. The quizzes are a little easier than the exam and the readings are more of a review.
4. LabSim Simulator – This thing is so useful! I get to lab from anywhere and it is so close to the real thing. I can barely tell the difference. The lab scenarios for each topic are well worth the price.
5. Technet Articles – Helped me out when stuck, but very dry stuff.
6. Networked Minds Youtube Channel – Thank you to our fellow user here, Bohack.
7. ITFreeTraining Youtube Channel - Another great resource.
8. Handwritten Notes – SO Crucial! Notes=retention! Use different colored pens!

My main method of learning each new topic/chapter had this particular order:
(You will notice that it is always easier to watch a video and THEN do the reading)

1. Watch TestOut Video
2. Read TestOut Text
3. Do labs in LabSim
4. Take Testout Quiz. By this time, I’ve done plenty of discussions and proposal papers for school.
5. After completing the entire objectives, I began watching PluralSight Videos mid December.
6. I would take notes watching the videos at 1.5x speed.
7. Read Poulton Book while taking more notes. (I filled up a 70pg notebook).
8. Redo Labs in Testout
9. Take full practice quizzes on TestOut and the Book.
10. Anything I didn’t know, I would supplement with Youtube or Technet.

The things I would reinforce going into the exam are:

1. Subnetting – Thank goodness I’m a CCNA and this was just a review.
2. PowerShell and cmds – There really is a good amount of it in this exam. Also learn dism and ntdsutil and the other ones.
3. HyperV- I think Microsoft expects you to know every click location of this damn thing. Including knowledge on VHD/x and snapshots, resource allocation, vnetworking etc.
4. Remote Management- Know what’s involved with managing remote servers and nondomain servers.
5. Group Scopes- A very tricky yet essential topic that you need to have down. I had a few questions on this that would trip me up. Domain Local, Global, Universal, etc.
6. Group Policy- Learn about linking and Security Options. Besides wanting to know Applocker, it isn’t too crazy of a topic.
7. DNS – Know you types of zones and situations where you would configure things differently.

Hoping to pass the 70-411 in two weeks. I am actually glad I studied for both before taking the 410.

Good info and congrads!

JoJoCal19

@Cisco congrats on passing the time and thanks for the list of resources!

Cisco Inferno

Thanks all. I just booked my 70-411 for Friday, March 17th.

With student vouchers being $82, i would not mind if i had to retake it. hopefully not.

The exam is definitely a part 2 of 410 and i am just in my review stages.

Louie1277

well good luck on the exam in a couple weeks. Question for you what material are you using for the 411? I have 2 book I bought last week

1. Administering Windows Server 2012 R2 Exam Ref 70-411
2. MCSA Windows Server 2012 R2 Adminstrator Study Guide Exam 70-411 ( William Panek )

Wanted to see if those would be enough to study and do labbing for the 70-411 exam.

Cisco Inferno wrote: »

Thanks all. I just booked my 70-411 for Friday, March 17th.

With student vouchers being $82, i would not mind if i had to retake it. hopefully not.

The exam is definitely a part 2 of 410 and i am just in my review stages.

Cisco Inferno

Louie1277 wrote: »

well good luck on the exam in a couple weeks. Question for you what material are you using for the 411? I have 2 book I bought last week

1. Administering Windows Server 2012 R2 Exam Ref 70-411
2. MCSA Windows Server 2012 R2 Adminstrator Study Guide Exam 70-411 ( William Panek )

Wanted to see if those would be enough to study and do labbing for the 70-411 exam.

I am using the Administering Windows Server 2012 R2 70-411 Training Guide by Orin Thomas.
I also plan on skimming the exam ref since its shorter and meant for a review.

I also read some terrible reviews on amazon about the Sybex book. I would probably return it and get the Training Guide.