Passed 70-272
Hello,
I sat the 70-272 yesterday and passed with a 781. I finished the exam with 1.25 hours to spare. I 60 questions. There was one sim, and the rest seemed evenly distributed across the various MS application softwares (MSIE, OE, Office XP and Office 2003). No duplicated questions this time, and no questions which I thought I had seen on 270 or 271.
I used the 270 and 290 tech notes from this site and skimmed a book called
MCDST EXAMS/Exams 70-271 and 70-272 by Timothy L. Warner. The ISBN for this book is
1-58450-355-6
He is a MCT, MCSE and MCDST. His writing style is akin to that of Mike Meyers, but a little more on the dorky lighter side. It was an easy read.
Most of the MSIE questions were focused/centered on the Windows security features that appear in control panel on a SP2 version of Windows XP. I found it peculiar that their essay fluff for the XP Home version questions always had a scenario of... (this is in NO WAY an actual question)
***********Start of parody question*****************
You are a DT for Contoso corp, and Scott Phree who works in the janitorial department has a XP Pro workstation at the office and sometimes connects to it via RDP from his home PC running XP Home.
He wants to make sure that his warez collection on his home PC cant be seen while he is VPN'ed into the office network. How does he make sure of this?
***********End of parody question*******************
The idea I am driving home here is that at all the places I have worked, the corporate desktop support folks NEVER, EVER, EVER support non-company hardwares. And for that matter, connecting to a corporate network with non-corporate issued equipment is usually a non-no worthy of getting fired over or at least getting written up over. I have worked for several large companies, one of which is a Fortune 500 company and that was always the rule.
This is just an example of how Microsoft doesn't always do a good job of offering real world questions with real world answers. They want you to know the answer based upon the theory which was delivered to you by reading a MS Press book, the MOC curriculum, or the like.
One other item of possible interest. I tested yesterday at a test center actually owned and operated by VUE. The security was VERY tight. I had to place all items in my possession (except my drivers license) including my car keys into a locker. I am then asked to pull the rabbit out of the hat (pull my pockets inside out). Keep in mind please that I am an IT exam veteran who always only comes in with the standard 2 pieces of ID (both with signature and 1 with picture) and my car keys, and am in serious shock at this point. I always leave the rest of the billfold and the cell phone in the car. So I lock my bankcard and keys in the locker, take my locker key and drivers license and head to the control center.
Here in the control center is nurse rachet who again asks to see my ID, pull my pockets inside out, and she even has me pirouette to make sure nothing is in the back pockets. I was wearing sweatpants for heavens sake. She then issues me a high tech erase board (not your typical VUE dry erase board) which cant be erased without some special solvent, and the typical pen.
Now I am debriefed again. She tells me that both audio and video are being recorded (and she is behind 1 way glass), and tells me if I need to consult with her at any time during the test to remain seated, raise my hand and she will come to me. When I am finished with the test, I am to raise my hand again and she will escort me out of the test area. Do I want some earplugs she asks, I ask if any of these people get audio questions and she tells me yes, but we make them wear noise canceling headphones and sure enough one of the test takers had headphones on. I pass on the headphones and tell her lets just go 'git-er-done'. I say it just like Larry the Cable Guy and she gives me the weirdest look and says 'follow me please'. How the hell am I going to get lost in the 25 feet we have to travel to test station #5? I don't say that out-loud of course.
I finish the test, raise my hand and she comes to get me. She does a cursory inspection of the area around me and does some keystrokes on the PC. I am then escorted out, and asked to show my ID once more TO HER for that matter. She asks me if I haxored (messed with) that PC and I told her of course not. The warden now paroles me and head back to the check-in desk, the guy who checks me in is interestingly now not so stick-up-the-butt uptight. He hands me my score report, and laughingly thanks me for finishing the test so quick so they could go home early.
I asked why the ultra-high security at their test center. He tells me they do more than just IT exams there. They do SAT, GMAT, CLEP, College entrance exams, licensure exams for doctors, and all kinds of high end testing stuffs. He says many of these high end exams have a history of VERY elaborate cheating methods. OK I say, and thank him for a relaxing test experience, laugh myself and head out the door a brand new MCDST.
It was an interesting experience and I am happy that I tested there, because now I know what to expect at the extreme end of the test center security spectrum going forward. If this was a harder test that I was concerned about not passing, the initual shock might have caught me off guard and had me stressing.
Thanks
Rob
I sat the 70-272 yesterday and passed with a 781. I finished the exam with 1.25 hours to spare. I 60 questions. There was one sim, and the rest seemed evenly distributed across the various MS application softwares (MSIE, OE, Office XP and Office 2003). No duplicated questions this time, and no questions which I thought I had seen on 270 or 271.
I used the 270 and 290 tech notes from this site and skimmed a book called
MCDST EXAMS/Exams 70-271 and 70-272 by Timothy L. Warner. The ISBN for this book is
1-58450-355-6
He is a MCT, MCSE and MCDST. His writing style is akin to that of Mike Meyers, but a little more on the dorky lighter side. It was an easy read.
Most of the MSIE questions were focused/centered on the Windows security features that appear in control panel on a SP2 version of Windows XP. I found it peculiar that their essay fluff for the XP Home version questions always had a scenario of... (this is in NO WAY an actual question)
***********Start of parody question*****************
You are a DT for Contoso corp, and Scott Phree who works in the janitorial department has a XP Pro workstation at the office and sometimes connects to it via RDP from his home PC running XP Home.
He wants to make sure that his warez collection on his home PC cant be seen while he is VPN'ed into the office network. How does he make sure of this?
***********End of parody question*******************
The idea I am driving home here is that at all the places I have worked, the corporate desktop support folks NEVER, EVER, EVER support non-company hardwares. And for that matter, connecting to a corporate network with non-corporate issued equipment is usually a non-no worthy of getting fired over or at least getting written up over. I have worked for several large companies, one of which is a Fortune 500 company and that was always the rule.
This is just an example of how Microsoft doesn't always do a good job of offering real world questions with real world answers. They want you to know the answer based upon the theory which was delivered to you by reading a MS Press book, the MOC curriculum, or the like.
One other item of possible interest. I tested yesterday at a test center actually owned and operated by VUE. The security was VERY tight. I had to place all items in my possession (except my drivers license) including my car keys into a locker. I am then asked to pull the rabbit out of the hat (pull my pockets inside out). Keep in mind please that I am an IT exam veteran who always only comes in with the standard 2 pieces of ID (both with signature and 1 with picture) and my car keys, and am in serious shock at this point. I always leave the rest of the billfold and the cell phone in the car. So I lock my bankcard and keys in the locker, take my locker key and drivers license and head to the control center.
Here in the control center is nurse rachet who again asks to see my ID, pull my pockets inside out, and she even has me pirouette to make sure nothing is in the back pockets. I was wearing sweatpants for heavens sake. She then issues me a high tech erase board (not your typical VUE dry erase board) which cant be erased without some special solvent, and the typical pen.
Now I am debriefed again. She tells me that both audio and video are being recorded (and she is behind 1 way glass), and tells me if I need to consult with her at any time during the test to remain seated, raise my hand and she will come to me. When I am finished with the test, I am to raise my hand again and she will escort me out of the test area. Do I want some earplugs she asks, I ask if any of these people get audio questions and she tells me yes, but we make them wear noise canceling headphones and sure enough one of the test takers had headphones on. I pass on the headphones and tell her lets just go 'git-er-done'. I say it just like Larry the Cable Guy and she gives me the weirdest look and says 'follow me please'. How the hell am I going to get lost in the 25 feet we have to travel to test station #5? I don't say that out-loud of course.
I finish the test, raise my hand and she comes to get me. She does a cursory inspection of the area around me and does some keystrokes on the PC. I am then escorted out, and asked to show my ID once more TO HER for that matter. She asks me if I haxored (messed with) that PC and I told her of course not. The warden now paroles me and head back to the check-in desk, the guy who checks me in is interestingly now not so stick-up-the-butt uptight. He hands me my score report, and laughingly thanks me for finishing the test so quick so they could go home early.
I asked why the ultra-high security at their test center. He tells me they do more than just IT exams there. They do SAT, GMAT, CLEP, College entrance exams, licensure exams for doctors, and all kinds of high end testing stuffs. He says many of these high end exams have a history of VERY elaborate cheating methods. OK I say, and thank him for a relaxing test experience, laugh myself and head out the door a brand new MCDST.
It was an interesting experience and I am happy that I tested there, because now I know what to expect at the extreme end of the test center security spectrum going forward. If this was a harder test that I was concerned about not passing, the initual shock might have caught me off guard and had me stressing.
Thanks
Rob
Comments
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Mishra
Member Posts: 2,468 ■■■■□□□□□□
Our company has to support people's PCs at home... Actually they are making our group drive out 4 hour to another county in order to install a wireless router and printer/fax/copier for some person who has no idea about computers... And I also work for the state so their regulations should be tough... But such is IT life. -
sprkymrk
Member Posts: 4,884 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats on passing rkholmes.
I've never heard of such tight security. Pockets inside-out? I'd have asked them if they had some slippers I could wear in so they knew I didn't hide something in my shoe. The pirouette request would have really ticked me off. I may have written off the $125 and gone somewhere else.All things are possible, only believe. -
Nishesh.Prasad
Member Posts: 185
CONGRATS !MCITP: EA 2008| VCP4| MCSE 2003 | CCNA | MCSA 2003: Security | MCDST | Security+ | ITILV3 -
ajs1976
Member Posts: 1,945 ■■■■□□□□□□
congratsAndy
2020 Goals: 0 of 2 courses complete, 0 of 2 exams complete -
Megadeth4168
Member Posts: 2,157
Congrats!
Wow... That is tight security!
I just get asked for ID and then they ask if I have a cellphone or pager on me.... Thats it! -
rkholmes
Member Posts: 42 ■■□□□□□□□□
The only reason I selected that test site was because my normal test location (New Horizons Computer Learning Center) doesn't do tests on Wednesday for some reason. This site was my only other choice.
If I wasn't unemployed right now, I might have told them to kiss my butt and left. Oh and it wasn't $125, it was $100. I bought a 20% off any MS exam at VUE code from a MCT on eBay for 99 cents. It's been pretty economical for me so far:
70-270 I paid $75 for and tested at Prometric. (Microsoft/Prometric promotion for first time MCP's)
70-271 I paid $100 with the code I bought on eBay.
70-272 I paid $100 with the code I bought on eBay
Another person on eBay is selling a 2 for 1 voucher at Prometric. Being that I am unemployed, I may just buy that to save $75 dollars. The Prometric testing experience blows at New Horizons, but maybe I go to some other Prometric test center and have a better experience. -
Slowhand
Mod Posts: 5,161 Mod
Very cool, congratulations.
Free Microsoft Training: Microsoft Learn
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Let it never be said that I didn't do the very least I could do. -
slayer3
Member Posts: 22 ■□□□□□□□□□
Wow that is tight security. The place I test at does not even look at your ID, they just confirm your name and what test you are taking and thats it.
