Going for the MDAA

Spiegel

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I've been active here. Last time I scored my CCNA R&S and now my aim is on Microsoft. Modern Desktop Administrator Associate

Reason I'm taking this exam is to fulfill an HR requirement so that I may qualify for a senior role in my department. I'm also a bit curious about taking a Microsoft exam as I've never taken any of the legacy MCSA exams. The stars never aligned for me to take one as much I've wanted too to obtain one. Anyhow, I'm ready to tackle this on and share my experiences as there isn't much in the way of the new MDAA cert in this section of the forum. Will start with MD-100. I have already booked my exam for May 18th 2020. I'm pretty confident about this first exam as it deals with primarily with Windows 10. I've been in the desktop admin game for a couple of years now and after glancing the objectives I feel as though just a couple of weeks of studying should suffice.

Here are my resources I'll be using to study prepping with:

• Windows 10 Exam Ref MD-100
• Measureup Assessment (may upgrade to the full practice exam if necessary)
• CBTNuggets (which also includes 145 practice questions and 100 flashcards)
• Microsoft Docs (formally known as TechNet and MSDN)

This should be enough to get me started. If you anyone else has any questions, suggestions, tips, or anything else please share.

itdept

Good luck, you answered my question of "WHY" when you stated HR requirement...

Spiegel

Just a little update from my studies.

I've nearly completed all the CBTNugget videos. The quality is great, however, I feel like the amount of information is a bit lacking. It's mostly a high overview of each objective. Definitely pair this video with reading.

Have a little over two weeks left until take the exam. Will start my reading today from the Windows 10 Exam Ref MD-100 book. Should take me about a week to get through the book. Then I'll spend the last week doing practice exams and going over flash cards.

Spiegel

5 days until I take the MD-100. Not entirely sure how I feel as far as being prepared is concerned. The topics don't appear to be overly difficult. Taking some practice exams provided by CBTNuggets and MeasureUp, the questions are pretty tricky in their wording. Not sure if it'll be like this for the real thing. Taking some time off of work to study into the weekend, we'll see how I feel by Sunday.

Spiegel

Welp...today is the day. At 5:45 PM EST I will be taking the MD-100 Windows 10 exam. Doing some last minute practice exams with MeasureUp and Kaplanlearn (via CBTNuggets). Wish me luck!

Spiegel

So I failed.

First cert I've failed in a very, very long time. Score was 660, needed 700 to pass. Watched all the CBTNugget videos. Read the Exam Ref MD-100 for Windows 10 all the way, took notes, every spare moment I had during and after work was spent studying. But a las, I know what to do to pass. It appears that my weakest areas were in Windows Deployment and Manage Devices and Data. Will make sure I give those areas extra attention and try again soon.

Areas of improvement:
I could have spent more time doing practice exams. That is definitely something I did not plan properly. Between trying to finish up my term for WGU, having two courses left and taking on this extracurricular  cert for work purposes it got pretty difficult to manage my time to dedicate the proper amount of time I needed for this exam. I was pretty close and all things considered it makes failing this a lot better. I think I need to experience this feeling from time to time. Time to get back on that horse and try again!

itdept

Sorry to hear you failed a cert you probably never wanted to start. Did they pummel you with much Powershell?

Spiegel

Without going into too much detail, yes. There are three primary ways to execute certain actions, PowerShell, command prompt, and GPOs. You’ll definitely want to know all three pretty well. I am a PowerShell and GPO novice so I’ll be working on becoming very familiar with those two.

Permissions was another huge one. Honestly, this exam was a lot bigger in scope than I had anticipated. I may have taken about 10 to 15 minutes per question as I tried to make sense of the answers and questions brought forth. Definitely lab as much as you can.