Nailed It!

A word of advice: If a major freeway goes East and West, and your test is during rush-hour, be sure you go the right way. I was 20 minutes late, and in somewhat of a panic that they wouldn't let me take the exam. The triple espresso I had on my way there didn't do a whole lot to calm me down either, and I was already nervous since this test cost twice as much as the MS exams.

Anyway, I passed in the mid-800s on my first try. I finished it in less than a half hour. I really wish this would have been updated since 2002. Most of the training I used was much more up-to-date than this exam, and some of the questions seemed kind of odd. The most difficult part for me was the questions that seemed to have multiple correct answers, such as solutions that could be achieved either using routers or VLANs (but they don't say if the switches support VLANs, etc.). I don't mind difficult questions if they're challenging my knowledge; it's just frustrating when you have to interpret vague wording to try to figure out what it is they're really looking for.

To prepare, I used the CBT nuggets videos, The Syngress book (which someone recommended on here earlier - the cheap download PDF is the way to go!), the exam cram book (which wasn't nearly as good as the Syngress. You could probably skip this one - I just happened to start with it), and the Transcender practice exams.

I had to study pretty intensely for this exam. The material isn't really difficult, but there is a lot to cover. Just give yourself enough time to adequately prepare, and you'll do fine. The questions were pretty general, at least on the test I took; I was expecting it to go more in depth with how encryption algorithms worked, etc.

294 is next since I was working on that before this one. I had to take a break from all the MS stuff; AD can get extremely boring. I'll probably go back and do 298 and 299 after that while this material is still fresh in my mind.