Do's and Don't before an exam

p3te844

I'm taking my 70-270 exam tomorrow. Anybody have any do's and don't before the exam. And any last minute preparation before tomorrow comes??

royal

Personally, I always relax the day before my exam and the day of the exam. If I don't know the material the day before the exam, then there's no point in taking the exam the next day.\

As for the actual exam, I would make sure you read every question at least twice. Try to look for words that might turn it into something like a double negative. Sometimes the questions love to trick you. If you are unsure of a question, don't waste too much time on it and save it for review so you can do the question last when you know how much time you have left.

Get a good nights sleep, eat a healthy breakfast (don't stuff yourself or your mind will be on your stomach), and try to relax.

Good luck on the exam and let us know how it goes!

Sie

Do : Take an early night
Dont : Poke badgers with spoons

Do : Have a light breakfast
Dont : Eat a hot curry

Do : Chill out and do your best
Dont : Panic, Mr Mannering!

Different things work for different people, just try to chill and not over do the cramming session today

Megadeth4168

Be prepared for long 2-3 paragraph type questions. Read them carefully!

One thing I've noticed about Microsoft tests is that they give more information than you actually need... You have to pick out what is relevant to the main question. They also like to throw something in the question that will change the answer completely. You have to watch for certain buzz words or lack of buzz words.

Simple things like the word NOT or Default... Can change the entire meaning of the question.

Take your time, they give you plenty of time. If you are feeling rushed and are unsure of a question, don't spend too much time on it. Answer with your gut feeling and MARK the question so that after the exam if you still have time left you can review the question without it effecting your time on other questions.

Good Luck!

sprkymrk

Megadeth4168 wrote:

Be prepared for long 2-3 paragraph type questions. Read them carefully!

One thing I've noticed about Microsoft tests is that they give more information than you actually need... You have to pick out what is relevant to the main question. They also like to throw something in the question that will change the answer completely. You have to watch for certain buzz words or lack of buzz words.

Simple things like the word NOT or Default... Can change the entire meaning of the question.

In addition to Sie's excellent advice about not poking badgers with spoons, this advice by megadeth is spot on. Good luck!

Megadeth4168

I realized after re-reading the post that you are asking about advice before sitting the exam....

In that case, as others have pointed out... Get a good nights sleep. For me, I have a hard time sleeping the night before the test... Obviously everyone is different... For me a glass or 2 of Red Wine is enough to calm my nerves and allow me to sleep, may not work or be appropriate for everyone though. (Almost forgot to mention the obvious... Don't overdo it on the alcohol if you do use this technique. Not that I have experience with this but my guess is that a hangover will not help your testing experience any.)

The day before, I only do a couple small practice tests to keep my mind current with the test while not over exhausting myself. Once again this varies person to person.

Make sure you are confident! Go into the testing center with the attitude that you are going to pass.

Good Luck!

p3te844

any ideas of how many you can get wrong and still pass. 58 questions and 50 are scored. 35/50 pass? 700. Or does partial credit come into play for some questions you get 2 out of 3 right?

Sie

I dont know the exact scoring but you shouldnt be planning to get any wrong :P

royal

Not to mention the questions are weighted anyways. Just make sure you are prepared, go in with confidence, and pass.

doom969

Dont overdo the practice exams. If i do too much of those I tend to loose concentration when reading the questions. As said by the others, you need to read the questions carefully, so that can be bad.... Just my 2 cents.

Fluidly Unsure

I took the test just yesterday and passed. I got 765 and 700 points were needed to pass. That probably will be different the next time the test is run. I've read that some of the questions are adaptive so I think few would get the exact same questions or the exact same scoring requirements.

I remember when my sister went to college to get her degree in nursing. She was really stressed when she got a C in a class. The instructor asked what they call someone with only 70 points. The answer: a CNA (Certified Nurse Assistant, not a Novell wad of paper).

Somebody mentioned the questions had more information than you needed. I noticed that also. In the study books the goal was clear while in the actual test I had to figure out what the goal was before I solved the problem. I also noticed it wasn't as bad as people claim. There weren't any really obscure questions that only someone with years of experience could answer. Nor were there any twisted sentence structures to throw you off.

The night before I took one practice exam, read over the summaries in the most detailed book, practiced my guitar, did some cryptograms, got to bed in time for a good nights sleep, and set the alarm for 1 hour earlier than I needed (the test was at 9am). That morning I had a good breakfast, scanned the summaries, and played the guitar. It worked!

Megadeth4168

Fluidly Unsure wrote:

I took the test just yesterday and passed. I got 765 and 700 points were needed to pass. That probably will be different the next time the test is run.

Congrats.... Just a little confused about "The next time the test is run".... Once you pass a MS exam I don't think you are allowed to take it again. Unless you mean the next person who takes the test will have different questions.

Fluidly Unsure

Megadeth4168 wrote:

Fluidly Unsure wrote:

I took the test just yesterday and passed. I got 765 and 700 points were needed to pass. That probably will be different the next time the test is run.

Congrats.... Just a little confused about "The next time the test is run".... Once you pass a MS exam I don't think you are allowed to take it again. Unless you mean the next person who takes the test will have different questions.

Which is basically what I was saying.

fluidly unsure wrote:

I've read that some of the questions are adaptive so I think few would get the exact same questions or the exact same scoring requirements.

It is definately not like A+ was when COMPTIA was playing with adaptive testing. In ten or fifteen minutes I was out and thought I had failed. But almost everybody I know who took A+ at that time had the same experience.

I did notice twice that I was asked the same question one after another. The were reworded of course. It made me wonder if they were testing another area based on my previous answers. Maybe these were just co-incidences that I'm trying too hard to interpret.

Megadeth4168

My understanding is that you get questions selected from a pool of questions randomly....

I'm sure there must still be some order to it though. I did not feel at all that any of the MS exams I've taken in the past year have been adaptive.... At least they were nothing like the A+ I took back in 2003 which was adaptive and like you said, very quick.