MCSA: Server 2016 Difficulty

Hey All,

New to the board.

Cert History: MCSA 2003, MCTS: Exchange 2010, A+, Security+

I passed the 70-740 a couple months ago, and it was pretty difficult, i got like a 720 where 700 was the threshold for passing. I am prepping for the 70-741 and just wondering for the guys who passed them all, which of the three exams are the most difficult ranked?

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malachi1612

Im in the same position as you. I passed 740 a few months ago with 770 and found it hard, im due to take my 741 in a few weeks and studying like crazy, 5hrs a day because i know its going to be the difficult one out them all.

741
742
740

740 is at the bottom ranked being the easiest.

kaiju

Most people have issues with 70-741. Order the 70-741 ebook and you should be OK if you have experience with 2012.

jpanda206

Taking the 70-741 nest week, will let you guys know how that turns out.

malachi1612

Good luck!

jpanda206

Took the exam and passed! it was pretty difficult, but honestly I thought the 70-740 was more difficult. Though i have a background in networking as well...

My suggestions for 741, know your subnetting for the "easy" points. Know how to do things in different ways (Via powershell, Hyper-V Manager, GUI).

malachi1612

Congrats and thanks for the tips. Hopefully I will pass first time like I did with 70-740.

So onto 70-742 next?

jpanda206

gonna give myself a couple week break, then hit the 70-742. for the 70-741, i studied about 60 hours doing labs,cbt nuggets, and measureup/pearson sample exams(same for the 70-740).

malachi1612

jpanda206 wrote: »

Took the exam and passed! it was pretty difficult, but honestly I thought the 70-740 was more difficult. Though i have a background in networking as well...

My suggestions for 741, know your subnetting for the "easy" points. Know how to do things in different ways (Via powershell, Hyper-V Manager, GUI).

Forgot to ask, what was the complexity of the subnetting questions? Im going through them at the moment and having problems working out something like finding the subnet of an given IP address.

jpanda206

Without violating NDA, i would say intermediate, you will want to know your cidr/mask and how many hosts go to each...
Being able to do it manually instead of memorizing the table was actually easier for me.

https://medium.com/tech-jobs-academy/subnetting-without-a-calculator-735d4c88c2a8

malachi1612

Thanks, that link helped

malachi1612

Man, what an evil exam. Failed at 560. Didn't help they have increased the questions to 63 while giving you the same amount of time to answer them compared to the usual 48 to 53 questions. So I ended up rushing at the end with 30 seconds left, didn't get time to review my unanswered questions properly so ticked anything

Back to the books, retake hopefully in a month.

jpanda206

study up and good luck! half the battle is knowing what type of questions they will throw at you.

jpanda206

After doing all three i would say 70-740 is the easiest. And 70-741/70-742 depends on your strength of topic. I had more trouble with 742 as i do not have much experience with ADFS/ADCS and multiple domain forests. 70-741 was easier as i work with the network side often and the non-work stuff was easier to grasp and lab. Of the three exams i scored in the high 700s in all three, but failed the 70-742 once. The report after is a really good indicator of what you should focus on prior to your next attempt.

Hope this helps!

Jon_Cisco

I'm taking the 70-740 in about two weeks.
I don't expect to pass the first time but I wanted to give myself a deadline and try to stick to it.
So first attempt will be the beginning of June and the second attempt will be the end of June. I'll try to post an update after my first test.

malachi1612

Good Luck

backtracker

In order from least to most difficult based off current experience I'm saying 740, 741, 742... just as they are numbered. Agreed with others though that the difficulty difference between 741/742 may depend on previous/current work experience/exposure and other factors.

_bojan

hello,I want to ask for advice, I have a course for server 2016, so I want to put a certificate for more precisely 70-740, can anyone advise me on which materials it is best to overcome the matter. and how much time i need to fix it ? thank you

malachi1612

I used CBT Nuggets and Pluralsight but if you dont want to pay https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=server+2016 covers some of the exam objectives for 70-740. Combine that with https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-server/windows-server and you be all set.

I wish I found edx when I started my server 2016 cert.

scaredoftests

No **** are appreciated here.

samuelsam

Hey guys I currently have the A+ and recently just got the CCENT. I wanted to get a Microsoft cert and I was wondering what the difficulty was like on the Windows Server exams. Also are the tests mostly multiple choice or are they simulations and stuff?

VWAnderson

I'm upset!

I just failed the 740 exam with a 620...

I've got 1,200 the Sybex MCSA study guide, and I've gone through it cover to cover three times (plus a fourth just for the first third, where it's specifically about 70-740). I was making 90% on the practice exams. The problem was that half of what was on the exam wasn't in the book. I'm pretty sure that the exam has changed since it was published. The book hardly mentioned Azure, and there were at least 10 questions on it. It also pretty much glossed over Docker, and that was another big portion. Over the last two weeks, I also took a lot of time building a full test lab and running through a 20 hour course on Udemy (not counting the labs/demos), and it covered a lot less than Sybex.

I'm thinking about re-taking tomorrow, since I was so close, but what's the point? I'm not going to learn all of the Docker or Azure commands in the next 24 hours. And to top it all off, they don't even send a transcript or report or anything so that I know what I missed and what I need to specifically touch up on.

Now that I've had my chance to vent... lol... I do have two serious questions:
1.) Does anyone know what the pass-rate is for first time test takers? (Google seems to know everything but that.)
2.) With Microsoft doing away with the MCSA, what are you all eyeing as your next cert?

itdept

VWAnderson said:

I'm upset!

I just failed the 740 exam with a 620...

I've got 1,200 the Sybex MCSA study guide, and I've gone through it cover to cover three times (plus a fourth just for the first third, where it's specifically about 70-740). I was making 90% on the practice exams. The problem was that half of what was on the exam wasn't in the book. I'm pretty sure that the exam has changed since it was published. The book hardly mentioned Azure, and there were at least 10 questions on it. It also pretty much glossed over Docker, and that was another big portion. Over the last two weeks, I also took a lot of time building a full test lab and running through a 20 hour course on Udemy (not counting the labs/demos), and it covered a lot less than Sybex.

I'm thinking about re-taking tomorrow, since I was so close, but what's the point? I'm not going to learn all of the Docker or Azure commands in the next 24 hours. And to top it all off, they don't even send a transcript or report or anything so that I know what I missed and what I need to specifically touch up on.

Now that I've had my chance to vent... lol... I do have two serious questions:
1.) Does anyone know what the pass-rate is for first time test takers? (Google seems to know everything but that.)
2.) With Microsoft doing away with the MCSA, what are you all eyeing as your next cert?

I'm not really one to tell people to give up on a cert but you might want to let this one go unless you already have 70-741 and 70-742
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/mcsa-windows-server-2016-certification
The MSCA 2016 is being retired. Maybe give it until last day if you still want to take to cram all the extras.
What practice test did you use?

Tech_123

itdept said:

The MSCA 2016 is being retired.

If the MCSA 2016 is being retired, what DOD 8570 cert is next in line to replace it?

spiderjericho

MCSA isn’t an 8570 certification. It’s an OS certification.

Also, 8570 has been replaced by 8140. You can get 8140 compliance via certifications, college education or other education/job evaluation.

In the case of 8570 and MCSA/E, 2016 would start to get long in the tooth since 2019 has been the pushed software solution. In another year or so, we’d probably have a Windows 10 or Server 2019 replacement. And on the certification side, Microsoft seems focused more on Azure. And that requires an annual recertification based on recent updates.

VWAnderson

Yeah, I'm giving up on the MCSA... I've got over 10 years in IT, and I bought the Sybex book about a year ago, read through it cover to cover several times, chapter quizzes in the book and the practice tests in they had online. But honestly, the deadline snuck up on me. I'm more just frustrated that there was so much on the test that wasn't covered anywhere in what I studied. Right now, I'm looking for where to go next... What certifications to shoot for and where I should I be getting my study materials.

I had a lot more faith in Sybex than I should have, but ultimately, I just wish I had a better understanding of what to expect. The book didn't cover Azure at all, and gave virtually no Docker commands. My company didn't use them, so I was, more or less, TOTALLY lost on those. I know that thats where things are going (and, really, are now), but that's why I was testing for 2016 instead of the new certs.

The last cert I got was a CNA, back in 2003 or so... This one was just as important to get me back into the 'testing game' as anything else, so it's still money and time well spent... But I've got to figure out a better way to know what I'm expecting.

itdept

VWAnderson said:

The last cert I got was a CNA, back in 2003 or so... This one was just as important to get me back into the 'testing game' as anything else, so it's still money and time well spent... But I've got to figure out a better way to know what I'm expecting.

CNA, now thats a cert I have not heard in a while..
I gave up on MCSA 2012 exactly for the same types of reason. I had experience going back to Server 2003 and I thought the exam was kinda crap. I got smashed by PowerShell commands and switches. Granted I should have been more prepared and I never really had access to practice tests and test building resources. I just had a book and my lab but came to the conclusion you really needed to be a "guru" and I was not.
Maybe work on some cloud certs or with tech your company uses. Depends where you want to go.