Taking 70-290 tomorrow

Obi-LAN-Kenobi

Wish me luck! I wish I would have studied more, but I am on Server 2003 all day at work. I've been working with 2003 since it's release, so I'm hoping my experience and the TechNotes will carry me through. I'm sure I'll get a curve ball or two tomorrow. Thanks again for the great TechNotes; I showed them to other Systems Engineers at my work and they loved them!

babyxxx

Good luck on ur exam. and let us know how it goes

sprkymrk

Update? :

GeorgeMcFly22

Good luck, i'm on for the same in about two weeks, so let us know how it went.

Obi-LAN-Kenobi

I finally got off my butt and took the 70-290 exam. I passed with a score of 828. Not to bad considering the conditions I had to test under. The people at the testing center couldn't get my test to load, so they had to contact Prometric tech support. So I sat around wondering if I would have to reschedule for about 1.5 hours, then I finally got to test. Then a construction crew started using saws and jackhammers right outside where I was testing. It was hard to concentrate to say the least. If I could have concentrated more on any topics it would have been backups and maintaining disk drives. If you are like me, you are used to third-party backup software and hardware RAID, so you forget the Microsoft solution sometimes. I probably should have studied more on performance monitoring as well. The simulations were straightforward with no suprises; just remember how NTFS and share permissions work when combined. The TechNotes were right on! I used TechNotes and the MS Press 70-290 book to study.

Slowhand

Congratulations on the pass. I hear you on the "Prometric Experience", I think I've had one time, out of all the tests I've taken, where there weren't issues finding my test, that they had me scheduled for the right day, that they had the right test loaded, etc.

plettner

Obi-LAN-Kenobi wrote:

I finally got off my butt and took the 70-290 exam. I passed with a score of 828. Not to bad considering the conditions I had to test under. The people at the testing center couldn't get my test to load, so they had to contact Prometric tech support. So I sat around wondering if I would have to reschedule for about 1.5 hours, then I finally got to test. Then a construction crew started using saws and jackhammers right outside where I was testing. It was hard to concentrate to say the least. If I could have concentrated more on any topics it would have been backups and maintaining disk drives. If you are like me, you are used to third-party backup software and hardware RAID, so you forget the Microsoft solution sometimes. I probably should have studied more on performance monitoring as well. The simulations were straightforward with no suprises; just remember how NTFS and share permissions work when combined. The TechNotes were right on! I used TechNotes and the MS Press 70-290 book to study.

I'm scheduled for this exam this Friday (20th). I noticed the Prometric exam is scheduled for 4 hours. Does it take that long to complete?

Also, how many questions did you get?

royal

Congrats! I've heard of so many issues with Prometric from all my coworkers that most of us started going to Pearson Vue and have had no issues with them.

initiald

I finally got off my butt and took the 70-290 exam. I passed with a score of 828.

Congrats man! I was going to head down the Cisco route but decided to finish up my MCSA (70-290, 70-291) first. Hope to tackle 70-290 in a month or so.

Obi-LAN-Kenobi

I'm scheduled for this exam this Friday (20th). I noticed the Prometric exam is scheduled for 4 hours. Does it take that long to complete?

Also, how many questions did you get?

It took me about 1 hour 45 minutes, and I went back and reviewed a few questions. It certainly should not take 4 hours (unless you have a Prometric experience like mine). I had 45 questions, I think 4 or 5 were simulations.

dynamik

I've had no issues with VUE as well, and I don't think I've seen anyone complain on here about problems with them. It seems like I'm regularly seeing people complain about Prometric. Why do you guys keep using them?

plettner

Obi-LAN-Kenobi wrote:

I'm scheduled for this exam this Friday (20th). I noticed the Prometric exam is scheduled for 4 hours. Does it take that long to complete?

Also, how many questions did you get?

It took me about 1 hour 45 minutes, and I went back and reviewed a few questions. It certainly should not take 4 hours (unless you have a Prometric experience like mine). I had 45 questions, I think 4 or 5 were simulations.

Ahh yes, the "Prometric Experience".

Exams where I've been told not to turn up by the testing centre.
Exams which ended after 10 minutes saying I was out of time.

Yes - I now see why the four hours is scheduled.

turkken

dynamik wrote:

I've had no issues with VUE as well, and I don't think I've seen anyone complain on here about problems with them. It seems like I'm regularly seeing people complain about Prometric. Why do you guys keep using them?

I would consider VUE if I had a choice, but the nearest VUE from me is a 2 hour drive, and the nearest Prometric is 5 minutes away. That said, I have not had any problems yet with the Prometric in our town, except that thier PCs are so slow that they barely handled the regular questions - I'm a little worried about the sims for when i take my 70-290.

Obi-LAN-Kenobi

I haven't used Prometric since one of my A+ exams almost 5 years ago and I remember I wasn't that impressed. It's back to Pearson Vue for me, that's for sure! The people at the testing center kept saying that I could reschedule, but I just wanted to get it over with. I'm glad I was finally able to take it.