Where to next?

justover

Hey All,

The test preps that I take I always seem to score 65% - 75% which is never going to pass me unless I get lucky.

I have been reading lots until my brain is about to explode with overload.

I think my problem is that I have no real practical experience prior to deciding to sit the MCSE, always been a break / fix technician.

I guess what I'm asking is should I have started with the XP exam first and should I perhaps spend more time on the exercises and practical side of things?

I have spent all this time on the 70-290 and feel I should see it through first.

How do I get that extra 15%-25% so that I can sit the exam?

Thanks Justin

Slowhand

One way, and one way only: hands-on experience. Get yourself a copy of Virtual PC or VMWare to install Server 2003 on, and set yourself up a lab. Pretty much any book you've got would have scenarios, as do a lot of websites that talk about MCSE training. You don't have to have worked with Server 2003 professionally, but you do need to have some actual hands-on practice before you sit for the test. Work with it for a while, and you'll get that extra 25% you need.

Vogon Poet

What he said.
For everything that you read, you should be able to apply it on a server. So every chapter you cover, you should spend considerable time working through it in a home lab situation. Experimentation is good.
I also started w/ 70-290. It's just a ton of info, which you need to know backwards and forwards. Sounds like you might be taking the test preps before you're ready. I don't touch any practice tests until I feel that I can teach a class on the subject without any notes.
Good luck!

deneb829

justover wrote:

Hey All,

The test preps that I take I always seem to score 65% - 75% which is never going to pass me unless I get lucky.
I have spent all this time on the 70-290 and feel I should see it through first.
How do I get that extra 15%-25% so that I can sit the exam?

I had the exact same experience. I chose to go for server first and gave myself 6 weeks to study (I scheduled the test in advance). Up until the last week, I was scoring in the 600's on the practice exams. With just 2 weeks to go, things weren't getting any better. I told my wife that maybe I should just switch to the XP exam. She said that if I don't take this exam, I may never go back and take it - she knows me pretty well and just knew that I was stressing about taking my 1st major exam in years. She knew that it was better that I take and fail the Server exam than to not take it at all - especially since I had put so much study into it already.

So, I decided to stick with it and just accepted the fact that I just might fail the exam. Then, a day or so after making that decision, it was like the dam broke. All the sudden everything seemed to come together, and I started scoring in the high 800's on the practice exams. I ended up getting a 940 on the 70-290 Server 2003 exam. It was the hardest that I have ever studied for anything.

I realized that much of my problem was just stressing about the test and much of my focus and energy went to that fear and uncertainty. Now, I am studying for the 70-291. I am finding the material more difficult and am still not sure that I will pass the test, but that's ok, I am just going to keep studying the material and not stress on the passing or the failing ... at least until the day that I sit the test

turkken

I too lack hands-on Win 2003 experience and have found this test has taken me much longer than I expected. I was getting 70ish % test scores but had no confidence. No one element is very hard for me to understand, but I kept taking practice tests and missing simple things I thought I already knew. I had too many of "oh yeah I knew that but need to study it a little more" moments. I know I can't pass this one as easily as I had passed 70-270 (I had relied too much on my XP experience to get through that one).

This made me take a step back and work on my 2003 test server alot more to get more hands-on experience. I also am looking for ways to change-up my study methods. Of course changing up your study methods varies with each person depending on what you started with. When I started studying for this test I read a few books, then watched CBT Nuggets and Learnkey repeatedly. Now am doing hands-on labs along with making lists of command-line utilities and concepts I am not strong in.

I just accepted that my pre-set timeframe wasn't realistic and last weekend hit some long neglected household chores. My artistic short-attention-span-mind does very well solving problems and thinking outside the box, but studying and retaining new material is harder for me. I plan to take another month or two studying part-time, but not enough to burn me out. Once I feel like things are starting to all gel I'll hit it very hard for a few weeks to bring me into the test strong in all areas. I see some guys here getting these done in a month, but I've learned that for me it may take anywhere from 2-5 months of on-and-off study per test. The key is you are here and doing it. That alone makes you a member of an elite group. If you burn out just don't quit altogether - keep progressing and seeing the concepts from new angles - mixed with a touch of review here and there.

That approach has really helped a lazy burn-out like me - then at some point I'll get that "dam breaking" feeling where it comes together and I know I'm ready for my last few weeks of heavy studying. I had a similar experience with Net+ (boy does that test seem easy now).

The other reason I am taking my time on the 70-290 is that I feel I should know those concepts inside and out before hitting the 70-291 and getting that MCSA