Is 270 harder than 271+272?

taktsoi

Greetings:
I've just completed 271 and 272 exams thus earning my MCDST. As I aim for the MCSA, I am planning to take the 270 soon.
I just bought the MS self-pace 270 training kit. Wow...amazingly, there are alot of pages...alot of chapters......contents are in-depth....now I understand that 271+272 are different route than 270....
Now, I am curious, is this test difficult than a combo 271+272? I know mileage may vary. however, I would like to see how well I should need to prepare. I wanna set a time frame for myself to get the 270.

thank you very much for your suggestions and opinion.

tak

bighornsheep

Congrats on getting your MCDST. I too am working on my MCSA. So I'll give you a little bit of what to expect.

MCDST, focuses more on user support in a large corporate environment, Microsoft has decided that Office customization, issues escalation, remote desktop, firewall are the 'core' concepts. Since the title of the exams dont 'mention' install, you've probably discovered that unattended installation wasnt a big objective while studying, or during practice exams and etc....

70-270, however, being a client exam in MCSA, MCSE track, focuses alot more on the client aspect of a server-client network infrastructure. So I've discovered that customization, and how to 'ecalate' issues is not a major domain objective, because we are the ones that are dealing with ecalated issues at this point. So at this point, it seems like things like Remote Installation Services, Internet Information Services, Network Deployment, network redundacy, are things that are 'extra'.

In my opinion, I dont think 70-270 is any harder than 271, or 272, or 271+272 together. That's why I am choosing to tackle 291 first, and leave 270 till afterwards.

Good luck!

taktsoi

thank you for your quick response.
however, what I don't understand is that you would like to focus on the 291 first than 270. Am I to understand that 291 is about the 2k3 server's? Isn't it server's exam very harder than workstation's exam?
Can you please clarify it?

bighornsheep

taktsoi wrote:

thank you for your quick response.
however, what I don't understand is that you would like to focus on the 291 first than 270. Am I to understand that 291 is about the 2k3 server's? Isn't it server's exam very harder than workstation's exam?
Can you please clarify it?

I have much experience with the workstation, and client setup aspect of network environment already. But I have virtually no real-life encounters with the network/server aspect of an infrastructure. So I've decided to use 290, 291 to force myself and learn server techologies. Also, I have discovered from the labs, that 270, or client exams in general is much easier if you understand why certain things have to be done, that is, the server component of the network environment.

I've built myself a test environment, practicing all the win2k3 components, and now I'm going back and reviewing all the 'theory'.

Now, it's not to say that everyone should do this, beause some people understand better when they take 'logical ladder' steps, but for myself, I understand things better in bigger picture, so that's why I am doing my 291 first, but I havent decided which should come after 291. Probably 290, but I may get 270 out of the way...we'll see...