70-411 Help please

Ok, so 2015 I managed to pass my 70-409 and last year I passed my 70-410. My plan this year is to pass 70-411 and gain my MCSA. I've watched all the new CBT Nuggets videos with labs (Garth Schulte) took lots of notes but when doing the practice Transcender exams I'm nowhere near. Really struggling to remember all the Powershell stuff and certain tabs where options are. Any advice on what to use to further study?

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TheRedBar0n

Got a good study guide as well?

I used William Panek's one for 2012 R2: link

Felt a bit dry but a good study guide nonetheless.

craig88

Thanks, I'll get that ordered. Read really mixed reviews on alot of the books. I suppose any is better than non at all.

MariusRZR

70-411, is in my opinion a pretty useless exam. It's basically 70-410 with the cancer that is NPS and MS VPN.

I do NOT recommend Panek's book. Get this one : https://www.bookdepository.com/MCSA-70-411-Cert-Guide-Don-Poulton/9780789748812

Panek's book is not complete at all...it's very vague on lots of topics. Use the cert guide instead.

craig88

MariusRZR wrote: »

70-411, is in my opinion a pretty useless exam. It's basically 70-410 with the cancer that is NPS and MS VPN.

I do NOT recommend Panek's book. Get this one : https://www.bookdepository.com/MCSA-70-411-Cert-Guide-Don-Poulton/9780789748812

Panek's book is not complete at all...it's very vague on lots of topics. Use the cert guide instead.

Thanks, the NPS stuff is tricky! I heard bad things about Paneks book for 410,411,412 so I'll go with that one.

poolmanjim

MariusRZR wrote: »

70-411, is in my opinion a pretty useless exam. It's basically 70-410 with the cancer that is NPS and MS VPN.

It does seem to focus on some topics that shouldn't really get as much attention as they are getting. NPS isn't so bad, complicated, but not bad as RADIUS is a pretty common tool and very powerful if done correctly. NAP, on the other hand, is depreciated in 2012 (meaning it is not part of 2016) and for all purposes useless but, alas, Microsoft found the need to drill it in one last time. MS VPN only finds use in lab environments, small shops, and with some occasional Azure stuff. Beyond that no one uses, especially not to the scale Microsoft tests over. Some of the Networking (DHCP, DNS, etc.) and some of the AD stuff is an advancement on what was in the 410 so that has value.

Unfortunately the 70-413 is basically the hard parts of the 412 mixed with the stupid parts of the 411 and then taken to the most complicated degree imaginable. That's what I'm living with right now.

rsevillatorres

I hope that with CBT Nuggets, MCSA Exam Ref and Training Guide will be enough to pass.

atavius

rsevillatorres wrote: »

I hope that with CBT Nuggets, MCSA Exam Ref and Training Guide will be enough to pass.

Well I used CBT Nuggets produced by James Conrad for this one and it was definitely not enough. If I did not had official CERT guide alongside with real life experience I would probably not pass. But seriously I still don't understand what MS is testing there since half of that stuff nobody uses...

caliostro

atavius wrote: »

Well I used CBT Nuggets produced by James Conrad for this one and it was definitely not enough. If I did not had official CERT guide alongside with real life experience I would probably not pass. But seriously I still don't understand what MS is testing there since half of that stuff nobody uses...

New CBT Nuggets produced by Garth Schulte way better then old one. Still, not 100% covering of real exam, but video explain on a samples, how it work in real life. In addition, CBT now have a virtual lab with all course samples pre-installed, and if you could spend additional time to memorise related tab/menus/command - it will be enough to pass.
Based on all exams I passed, Microsoft testing you memory in most times. May be that make some sense, if you use all of that on daily based routine, you should remember, where all off this menu/tabs/command syntax located. Try Transcender practice exam to see what I mean.

atavius

caliostro wrote: »

New CBT Nuggets produced by Garth Schulte way better then old one. Still, not 100% covering of real exam, but video explain on a samples, how it work in real life. In addition, CBT now have a virtual lab with all course samples pre-installed, and if you could spend additional time to memorise related tab/menus/command - it will be enough to pass.
Based on all exams I passed, Microsoft testing you memory in most times. May be that make some sense, if you use all of that on daily based routine, you should remember, where all off this menu/tabs/command syntax located. Try Transcender practice exam to see what I mean.

I am just wondering in what kind of job they would ask you to remember lets says deployment of NPS or some other multi-step task off top of your head. In IT it is not about knowing everything, but more about knowing where to look for reference/manual/tutorial, then lab it, create your own checklist/process and then deploy. MS exams from my experience mostly totally neglect this. The way they structure their questions has mostly nothing to do with real life scenarios - especially the ones with AD/GPO where the correct answer to most of them should be "Fire the administrator who created this mess in the first place". Also the ones with powershell and multiple different switches are totally insane - there is literally no one who remembers syntax for all those cmdlets.

AndersonSmith

I wouldn't worry too much about what kind of score you're getting with the Transcender exams for the 411. I used them for the 411 and found them to be pretty far off course than what the actual exam was content was like. That's not to say there isn't any value in them at all but they didn't seem to cut it for me. I thought they were great for the 410 but lacked a lot for the 411. I echo what everyone else has said about the Panek book being useless - it is. In addition to the Transcender exams I also used the MeasureUp practice exams for the 411 and found them to be helpful.

drdeany

I passed this week. Here is how I studied:
1. Find a good source for video learning. My company provided SkillSoft (sucks). I personally used CBT Nuggets. Awesome series.

2. Supplement with textual information. I used two books that I found at a discount bookstore...there are a number of universities in the town so I found Mastering Windows Server 2012R2 and the MCSA Windows 2012R2 Study Guide both used. I would also read the technet articles recommended.

3. LAB! My company supplied me with a Win10 Enterprise laptop, so I installed Hyper-V and created 2012R2 VMs. Then I installed each service as I learned about it and used exercises from both books and CBT Nuggets.

4. Be systematic. As I learned about a service (ie: DNS) I watched videos, then did my reading/research on it, then labbed it. I tried to learn as much about it as possible before I went on the to next item.

5. Practice tests! I used Transcender practice exams to get used to the testing environment. And I like their flashcard ability. When I got a question wrong, I went back to my VMs and my research to understand why I chose wrong and why the correct answer was correct.