Incredible failure! Anyone with same experience?

princess4peace

I sat for this exam on 30/06/2006. When i click the start button, i was present with a screen that indicated that the exam was to be 42 questions for about 3 hrs plus. but to my surprise when i got to the 22nd question and click next to the 23rd question, i was presented with exam review screen(this was when i was just about 50 minutes in the exam). This review screen forced me to end the exam and i was scored 230. Had anyone experienced this? At the beginning, there was a page that indicated there will simulation, but i was not given any till been forced to end the exam. This is my first experience of such.

eurotrash

It is possible that you clicked another button (i.e. the "end exam" button, if there is one) instead of the "next" button.
That's what I think, as I've never heard of that happening before.

sprkymrk

It sounds maybe like you got an "adaptive" exam. The exam asks you weighted questions, and based on whether you get a question correct or wrong, it will ask you the next question that's either easier (if you got the previous answer wrong) or more difficult (if you correctly answered the previous question). In this way you can either quickly finish an exam by answering just a few (20-25) hard questions or by missing too many questions that are considered "easy", as you then have no chance of passing after about half way through the entire test.
How confident were you on the questions you answered? If you are sure you were doing well, then maybe you ran into a glitch or as someone else mentioned hit the "End Exam" button (not likely because I think it asks for confirmation if you really want to end the exam). If you were having trouble it's likely the adaptive exam just ended your misery for you.

wizarddeath

Always heard about adaptive exams, I wasnt sure MS did them. Sounds likely.

eurotrash

AFAIK adaptive exams are obsolete...?

sprkymrk

_omni_ wrote:

AFAIK adaptive exams are obsolete...?

Sorry I don't know what AFAIK means... :
I also thought MS quit using adaptive exams, but that sure sounded like one.

BubbaJ

It may not be an adaptive exam, but an exam that is smart enough to know the point at which he could not pass.

mikej412

Did you ask the proctor? Unless there is an "emergency exam escape button," did it show you the unanswered questions in the review screen? I guess when faced with the unexpected you should stop and hunt down the proctor. How did it force you to exit from the review screen? Threats? Or only a funcitoning end/exit button (and nothing else)?

Even if there was an "emergency exit" and you missed the vague "are you sure?" prompt -- it still sounds like a call to prometric/vue and a good YELL is justified. Or, if you were in shock and didn't report it to the proctor, you could try the polite approach on a phone call Wednesday.....

My test center moved once.... but they called and told me. But there was the time their internet connection was down and I showed up for an exam -- and they didn't call me because they didn't know who was scheduled.

Demand (or request) satisfaction!

eurotrash

sprkymrk wrote:

_omni_ wrote:

AFAIK adaptive exams are obsolete...?

Sorry I don't know what AFAIK means... :
I also thought MS quit using adaptive exams, but that sure sounded like one.

As Far As I Know.

Webmaster

Indeed, adaptive exams are obsolete and I'm pretty sure Microsoft would not just give a person an adaptive exam without prior public notice.

It's seems more logical that the exam just quit because you had no chance of passing it even if you answered all of the remaining questions correct. If you have 230 points about half way the exam, there's no need to 'disclose' the other questions... though this is 'adaptive' behavior as it adapted to your answers. Anyway, the one thing that is obvious is that you need to do a whole lot of more studying before you try again.

I agree with Mike though:

mikej412 wrote:

Demand (or request) satisfaction!

sprkymrk

_omni_ wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

_omni_ wrote:

AFAIK adaptive exams are obsolete...?

Sorry I don't know what AFAIK means... :
I also thought MS quit using adaptive exams, but that sure sounded like one.

As Far As I Know.

Thanks! NIK!
(Now I Know)

mswiech

I had the same thing with my 70-272 exam, I was on the 43 question and the exam finished on me...I was like WTF happened. I had to call prometric and inform them what happened and they then gave me a free retake. I had like 30+ more questions to the exam and I knew that I was going to pass it for sure.

So in the end I got to do the retake and do the same exam all over...literally the same questions that I had prior and nailed the head on that coffin.

So I would call prometric and inform them of your situation if you already havn't.

Good luck on the next round.

woodworm

Webmaster wrote:

It's seems more logical that the exam just quit because you had no chance of passing it even if you answered all of the remaining questions correct. If you have 230 points about half way the exam, there's no need to 'disclose' the other questions... though this is 'adaptive' behavior as it adapted to your answers. Anyway, the one thing that is obvious is that you need to do a whole lot of more studying before you try again.

But as you can go back and change the answers to your questions surely that would be a little unfair?

When you went to the review screen did it not show 20 or so questions unanswered?

May be worth contacting Prometric / Vue to let them know you may have had a technical issue?

Webmaster

I didn't realize you can still go back on MS exams...

Yes, that would be a 'little' unfair. Not more than a little though, because if you need to go back and may need to change your answer on 20+ questions...

May be worth contacting Prometric / Vue to let them know you may have had a technical issue

If it is not supposed to do what happened 'm sure they will offer a free retake, especially 'if' p4p reported it in the test center.

princess4peace

Webmaster wrote:
It's seems more logical that the exam just quit because you had no chance of passing it even if you answered all of the remaining questions correct. If you have 230 points about half way the exam, there's no need to 'disclose' the other questions... though this is 'adaptive' behavior as it adapted to your answers. Anyway, the one thing that is obvious is that you need to do a whole lot of more studying before you try again.

Thanks, i will try and do better next time. however am damn confident about the ones i answered.

I had the same thing with my 70-272 exam, I was on the 43 question and the exam finished on me...I was like WTF happened. I had to call prometric and inform them what happened and they then gave me a free retake. I had like 30+ more questions to the exam and I knew that I was going to pass it for sure.

So in the end I got to do the retake and do the same exam all over...literally the same questions that I had prior and nailed the head on that coffin.

So I would call prometric and inform them of your situation if you already havn't.

Good luck on the next round.

mswiech and woodworm

Thanks too, i have already been scheduled for a retake with vue. Just sharing my experience during the exam.

Webmaster

Did you call VUE to explain what happened?

strauchr

Webmaster wrote:

I didn't realize you can still go back on MS exams...

Yes, that would be a 'little' unfair. Not more than a little though, because if you need to go back and may need to change your answer on 20+ questions...

May be worth contacting Prometric / Vue to let them know you may have had a technical issue

If it is not supposed to do what happened 'm sure they will offer a free retake, especially 'if' p4p reported it in the test center.

Yeah I doubt that was the issue. I have skipped many long questions or questions I can not answer straight away and then went back and filled in the blanks.

One exam I skipped almost all of the first 20

Danman32

Adaptives can't let you go back on questions, because if you could, that would change the remaining series of questions the test would use. The review screen normally allows you to revisit one or more questions. I marked questions for the first time when I took 294, and was able to go back to them from the review screen.

Once you end the exam though, you get a chance to comment on any or all questions, which are accessed through the same review screen interface.

Much of the time at the beginning when you have to go through all the disclosure and 'I Agree' screens, you get to a screen that says 'start test' and 'end test'. I frequently select 'end test' and fortunately get a warning 'are you sure you want to end the test?' Of course I answer no and then select the correct button to start the actual exam.

Much of the time the MS tests have stalled between questions, sometimes by as much as a minute. 294 stalled several times, and once on the 6th question, terminated, then restarted automatically where I left off. It nearly freaked me out.

The MS test is pretty good though at protecting you from shooting yourself in the foot and prematurely ending the exam accidentally. I suspect your test glitched itself out.

sprkymrk

Based on the posts, I would ten to agree she got hosed and ought to get a free retake.

princess4peace

I failed the second shot with a reason, i had to the last day of July to take both this exam (70-290) and security+. I decided to concentrate on the security+ since i intended to follow the path of Info security. for the server, i score 594. i had five simulations out of 42 questions which i was able to finished and still got about an hr remaining. i did my review but am sure my problem lis with the simulations.

Comparing the cost of both exams that i sat for on the same day, i have long before then concentrated and shifted more attention to the security+ exam.

I hope to pass my 70-290 next time after full preparation for it.

By and large this site is extremely realiable for my success in the security+ especially. though i know i didnt prepared adequately for the server.

for the security+ i used
1. sybex (2nd edition and later 3rd edition)
2. syngress with dvd
3. technote from this site
4. adequate practice using this site and www.freetests.com


for the server, i had more than enough materials too, but i had no enough time to attend to this

To everyone on this site, accept my appreciation for all your efforts to make this site a great item in existence. Thank you all

Danman32

I would have focused on the 290, so as not to lose out on the 2nd shot. The Sec+ can come later.

That's why when I failed sec+ back in May, thought 298 would help (not much), found out about the 2nd shot so I continued on the MS track instead of going back and trying sec+ again. Once I completed MS, I studied for sec+ and passed about 3 weeks ago.

But that's just my opinion.

bighornsheep

mswiech wrote:

I had the same thing with my 70-272 exam, I was on the 43 question and the exam finished on me...I was like WTF happened. I had to call prometric and inform them what happened and they then gave me a free retake. I had like 30+ more questions to the exam and I knew that I was going to pass it for sure.

So in the end I got to do the retake and do the same exam all over...literally the same questions that I had prior and nailed the head on that coffin.

So I would call prometric and inform them of your situation if you already havn't.

Good luck on the next round.

You had you had 73+ questions for 70-272? I thought they limited it to 55 questions?
I wrote mine yesterday and had 50 questions.