Preparing for exams

HotKeys68

I am sorry for asking this. I know it has been posted quite a few times but what is your way of studying.

When I took the NT 4.0 exams I had a copy of the transcenders and books. Now I am studying for the 290 and I only have an Exam Cram book. What else do I need to make sure I am ready. I have seen on this site and others, practice exams but there are only like 20 questions....

deneb829

I used the MS press course book and workbook and exam cram 2 as my primary source of material.

Lots of hands on - set yourself up a server and at least touch the things you did not know. A good example of where this helped me was with backup/restore and ASR. Before I started studying, I did not know what ASR specifically did or how to use it. The test sims asked about the process of using ASR, and I could not remember how to use it from my readings, so I backed up and restored a server using ASR and was able to remember the steps and what it did. I got at least 2 questions on the 70-290 specifically about ASR and probably 4 or more about backups/restore and other disater recovery in general.

Exam sims and review questions (including this site). Be careful not to count on these as study material - IMO they really should only be used for review. I know a guy who only used review questions and ended up failing twice. Once he went back and hit the books he passed. For as addicted as I was to exam sims and review questions, I really had to avoid putting too much stock in them as actual study material.

I bought the 70-290 (and 70-291) audio CDs from prep logic during their sale. They were ok, but were more of a broad overview, I can only suggest them for someone starting out. Prep Logic had sample training videos on their site which I actually thought were pretty good. I didn't buy the video because they were a bit pricey. Too bad you can't get those videos from Netflicks!

For 6 months, I had an unused voucher that I received at TechMentor. I never studied and just figured I'd get around to using it. Finally, as motivation, I scheduled the test 6 weeks from from the date that I signed up for the exam. Up until 2 weeks before I took the exam, I was really struggling with some of the material. About 5 days before the I was scheduled to take the exam, the dam broke and all of the material made sense. I have heard of people struggling to learn a foreign language and then it seems like all at once they just get it. My advice to student who are suffering from frustration is to stick with it - you'll get it.

I am not sure what other certs you hold, but despite some of the high scores, don't underestimate the scope and depth of this exam. You really can't study too much. A friend gave me his exam sim after he passed, but I also tried all of the free sample test questions that I could find - including some of the limited trial software - even if it just gave me 5 questions. Right up until the day that I took the test, review questions kept popping up on material that I had not seen in any of the study guides. Again, don't use the review question as study aids as much as just a way to test your knowledge. When I missed a question, I was never satisfied with the short explanation that the practice exams gave, it was back to the books, the web, or this site to ask or research missed questions. It's about understanding the material.

HotKeys68

Did the workbook come with the "training kit"?

deneb829

HotKeys68 wrote:

Did the workbook come with the "training kit"?

It wasn't the training kit, it was the classroom training books. None of the books that I read had enough info. I also has the self-paced training in pdf format. I mainly used those for reference - I don't enjoy sitting and reading page after page on a computer screen - especially a CRT.

As a teacher, I also had the Thomson and Prentice Hall books that I use for my classes, I don't think those are very good for test study - in fact, I didn't really care for either set for teaching class. Don't waste your money on those.

HotKeys68

Do you think that it is worth spending the $1000 on the transcenders?

agustinchernitsky

I used Syngress all the way... plus a lot of MS KB and technet. Scored over 900 on almost all of them.

deneb829

HotKeys68 wrote:

Do you think that it is worth spending the $1000 on the transcenders?

Nope, I don't think any resource out of your own pocket is worth $1000. You don't need to spend that kind of money to pass the test.