410 Passed!!

Finally passed the 70-410 after 1 failed attempt, and 1 month longer of preparation than I had planned on. I outlined the book, watched most of the CBT Nuggets videos with virtual labs, and did some MeasureUps/Transcender/PearsonPractestTest questions before 1st attempt. I failed with a 625, so I knew that I just needed to study harder.
I don't think outlining the CertGuide book helped me a lot, and gave me a false sense of security - this time around, I will only read through the Cybex book, do the CBT Nuggets videos and virtual labs, and hit all 3 of the practice exams real hard. I will take extensive notes on the practice exams, then will sit for the 70-411 as soon as I can. I will go in with the expectation that I will fail, and if I do, I will know what the exam will be like and will be better prepared for round 2.

Here we go!

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Comments

poolmanjim

Congrats! Its a good feeling to get that first one under you.

The 411 is pretty brutal depending on who you ask. Make sure you lab as much as you can. Good luck with your studies. Hit me up if you have questions.

AvgITGeek

Well done! Not an easy one to pass and I thought 411 was a little worse. I don't know if it was because of the lack of quality of study guides or because I was really rushed and had life thingies come up, I passed it on my 3rd try. If you don't have a whole lot of experience with the admin side, techNet will be your friend. That and your lab environment.

To echo poolmanjim, let us know if you have any questions or problems.

greg9891

Congrats!

Kiyori

@poolmanjim and @AvgITGeek - how did you guys do your labs, in terms of scenarios and figuring out what to do with your labs? I have my Hyper-V set up with a Server 2012R2 evaluation, and done a couple little things like creating the domain and setting up a domain controller. I don't really have a story to use with my lab so it's more like, "How do I do this?" and "What does [xx] look like?" - I can easily get sidetracked with tasks B - Z trying to figure out task A, and then I feel like I lose a lot of time.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

AvgITGeek

This is the issue with 70-411. IMO there are no decent books to help you along. Look into getting a subscription to PluralSight. $20 a month and unlimited videos. The Sybex book was worthless. It went into the trash. Sorry Mr. Panek.

You should have a DC, at least 3 file servers (so you can lab DFSR and WDS) For RRAS and NPS and NAP you could use one or two of your file servers but I'd recommend on keeping them on their own VMs.

Arkrain

Congrats!

AndersonSmith

Congratulations Kiyori! One piece of advice though - Never go into anything in life, whether it be a certification exam or otherwise with the expectation that you'll fail. ALWAYS visualize success! Even if you don't pass on the first attempt it's nothing to be ashamed of but don't go into the exam feeling like you're going to fail or you'll be more likely to in that case. Before I sit for all of my certification exams I imagine myself clicking "submit" at the end of the exam and seeing that "Congratulations you passed" screen and walking out of there with the papers with my passing score. Don't ever sell yourself short. You can apply this to all aspects of your life and you'll be amazed at the difference it makes. Good luck with the 411!

Kiyori

@AndersonSmith - I will take your advice to heart! Thanks!

poolmanjim

There aren't a lot of good lab guides for most of this out there. However, the exam details are useful for this. If you look over the exam requirements you can construct a scenario. Think of it as your manager coming to you and listing off a bunch of technologies he read about online and he wants you to come up with a proof of concept for all the technologies. Just go through that list of technologies and lab each one. Try to figure out any powershell commands or even old commands that correspond to those technologies.

Another thing to try is if you have CBT Nuggets or Pluralsight (or even if you use the MVA videos) try to follow along with the labs. If they show you something, try to recreate the lab the best you can. If you can do that, you'll quickly find out that sometimes a lot goes into a lab that isn't actually on video.

JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass!

Louie1277

I have to agree there's not any good books. Still having issue finding a something to follow.

AvgITGeek wrote: »

This is the issue with 70-411. IMO there are no decent books to help you along. Look into getting a subscription to PluralSight. $20 a month and unlimited videos. The Sybex book was worthless. It went into the trash. Sorry Mr. Panek.

You should have a DC, at least 3 file servers (so you can lab DFSR and WDS) For RRAS and NPS and NAP you could use one or two of your file servers but I'd recommend on keeping them on their own VMs.