Test tomorrow.. 5-29.. nervous as heck

Hey there everyone, I have been prowling these forums like mad for the last 6 or so months. I have been studying pretty much on and off since late december. I feel like I have a good grasp on the material, and I have been doing pretty well with the transcenders (a bit above 70%'s on average), and have been hammering out final rough points these last few weeks.

I have read the suggestions for what to do the day of the test, and it seems all well and good, but I have a horrible knack for sitting down for a test and then either going to fast and obviously missing to much or going to slow and not finishing.

First off do you think I have a prayer with my consistant scores of in the 70's sometimes higher sometimes lower and an occassional 80, it sucks when I get one wrong and I know as soon as I see it why I got it wrong but I really feel like I know it and its just something stupid that got to me.

I have almost a year of real world experience and a degree in CS which are fine and dandy but when it comes to these tests its like they just try and find a way to kick you in the nuts.

Not much to this post I spose, but I thought I would ramble and make an appearance the day before the test. Thanks for all the inspiring posts out there. Wish me luck, I will report tomorrow.

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sprkymrk

Good luck!

Thanks for finally posting. Let us know how it goes.

ripley

hey corys, i'm taking the 70-270 on wednesday the 30th. i've already taken the fool thing twice and failed after staring at the questions thinking "you have GOT to be kidding me w/ this". they make the questions so twisty. i'm thinking natural childbirth would be preferrable to taking this exam again. then again, if my study skills were up to par, i'd probably have passed the first time around.

i'm just lazy is all. but i really wish they wouldn't give you info in the questions that doesn't need to be there in the first place. i'm fairly certain by the 18th question that i KNOW i'm an "administrator" or a "help desk" person. even my dog knows these things by now.

bygones. good luck tomorrow!

royal

Glad you signed up. Always nice to see new faces posting. Good luck on the exam and let us know how it turns out for you. Hammer out a few exams and that nervousness feeling when taking Microsoft exams will diminish. I remember when doing 70-270, 70-290, and 70-291. My heart would pound like I was going to have a heart attack, especially when I finished the exam and awaited the score. After you do 70-291, you definitely won't be as nervous in the following exams.

doom969

GOOD LUCK !

mikej412

Good Luck!

I don't have any specific MS advice for you.... but try to relax and get a good nights sleep.

leefdaddy

Good luck, just make sure you read the questions carefully! You'll do fine.

arwes

Best of luck, I'm scheduled to take mine next Tuesday on 6/5 but I may reschedule. Work has been pretty rough as of late and has really hampered my studying. That and fighting with my home systems to get one of them to run VMware Server so I can play around with some stuff I haven't used in XP.

Finally got my Linux system to run it last night, and I'm going to play around with unattended install stuff when I get off work in a few hours.

sprkymrk

Wow, 3 first-time posters in one thread! Welcome to all of you CoryS, ripley and arwes!

Sie

Welcome and good luck guys!!

Wow, 3 first-time posters in one thread!

Lets hope its not just one person with a multiple personality!

Icem@n

welcome and good luck with the exam man. i remember that sametime like if it was yesterday. frighten like hell. just relax and make sure if u aint understand the questions the first time reading it do it again and again, it will not hurt nd u have enough time to do it. Again good luck. let us know how it went.

Megadeth4168

Best of luck on the exam!

Most the questions you are going to get will probably be 2-3 paragraphs! Yeah, they are long questions filled with a ton of information.... Out of that information you usually need to dig out only about a sentence or 2 of information relevant to the actual question being asked. Regardless, you should read the entire question, once you start skipping around while reading, you start to miss out on relevant information. If it helps, look at the answers first and try to get a feel as to what it is that they are asking.

The following works for me, it's just a suggestion. Chew gum during the exam. This helps calm my nerves and I honestly believe that this has helped me stay focused in every exam that I have done using that advice.

arwes

Megadeth4168 wrote:

The following works for me, it's just a suggestion. Chew gum during the exam. This helps calm my nerves and I honestly believe that this has helped me stay focused in every exam that I have done using that advice.

Ha, I did the same thing during my Network + test. It was a breeze deciphering all the questions. Too bad I forgot to chew gum when I took the Security+ test (twice).

royal

I've also read that having chocolate before/during the exam helps your brain concentrate during the exam. I haven't tried that, however. Usually, the day before the exam, I'll do basic review. I'll review the sticky notes in my book, the notes I took, and just do other miscellaneous things. I'll get a good night sleep, and when I wake up, I'll have a healthy breakfast. Make sure not to stuff yourself or your mind will be on your full stomach during the exam.

sprkymrk

royal wrote:

I've also read that having chocolate before/during the exam helps your brain concentrate during the exam.

Ah ha! An excuse to stop at Starbucks for a Peppermint Mocha before the exam!
I owe you one Royal.

royal

sprkymrk wrote:

royal wrote:

I've also read that having chocolate before/during the exam helps your brain concentrate during the exam.

Ah ha! An excuse to stop at Starbucks for a Peppermint Mocha before the exam!
I owe you one Royal.

Haven't tried that yet, but it sounds good!

jjpee

Hi to Everyone,

I'm new in the forum and preparing for the Exam as well, this is an exciting forum and I've been touched by members posts. I'm a working IT professional and must admit being sometimes unable to read because of work related issues or tiredness.

For those of us taking the exam these days, we would like to know which kind of questions you got? which kind of materials may have helped you most and aproximately how long it took you to prepare for the Exam.

Also I think I forgot, how many questions are we getting for the Exam?

Thanks and everyone contribution will be highly appreciated

CoryS

Well I got to the testing center about an hour early today just to make sure I have everything squared away, was able to sit early. Started out being pretty nervous, I saw on the signin one guy for the 291, and another for a ccna test, I didnt envy the guy going for the 291 but once I started my test I settled in really well.

I used a little over and hour and 10 minutes and ended up getting an 889. I felt like I wanted to yelp when I saw it but figured that would throw the guy next to me off so I waited

Thanks for all the advice on these forums my tidbits

1. Know your security template stuff I had a few on that
2. Disk management top to bottom, it was all over for me
3. Firewall stuff, just know it all here

the rest was a mix of installs and ntfs stuff..

Used... MS Press (sparsley to clarify topics) Exam Cram, Transcenders (nice) and some TestOut vids.

royal

Congrats and good score! Thanks for the review. I'm sure it will help others.

Slowhand

Very cool, congratulations on the pass and your new MCP status.

ajs1976

Congrats.

leefdaddy

congrats

mikej412

Congratulations!

That gives you the MCP, right? Are you going to update your profile certifications? Or are you waiting until you fill it out some more?

eltoro

nice job!!

doom969

Congrats

jjpee

Congrats,

That what we expect everyone to do, share your experience with others. That really helps those of us still preparing to sit for the exam

Megadeth4168

Congrats!

7255carl

congrats

KGhaleon

Congrats, that's a good score. It sounds like you did really well. I'll be taking the test soon. I'm studying a fairly heavy Microsoft 70-270 textbook with the examcram book for addition help and quizing. I'm taking some online practice exams and I've got some XP books from a microsoft class I took a while back that I plan to dig through for reference.

KG