297 or 298?

cashew

This is quite preliminary as I'm prepping for 294, but by experience which one is easier, 297 or 298? I know most people go the 298 route to get +secur, but is anyone more difficult than the other? Also, do both these test revolve around case studies?

royal

Both the 70-297 and the 70-298 use the case study format. I'm not sure of the difficulty of the 70-298 exam, as I have not done it, but I do know that the 70-297 is not all that difficult in terms of material. It is mostly review except a few new topics. These new topics include business structures, designing different OU structures, more in-depth in terms of hardware requirements and capacity planning, forest/domain structures and when to use them in different scenarios, etc... In regards to 70-298, I heard it is mostly review as well and is not terribly difficult. I think the struggle most people have is the case study format. I personally did not find the case study format to be all that intimidating due to the organization of data you need to refer back to. The exams present you with clickable categories that make it easy to refer back to the type of information you need to answer a question.

cashew

The case studies are what threw me off and intemidated me. I downloaded a measure up demo and was like what the hell?? I'm going to focus on 294 for now and worry about those darn case studies when the time comes.

bcairns

I am in the same boat...just passed 293 and gearing up for 294.

After everything I have read, if you are just after an MCSE and then moving on to other things then 297 is the easier (more review of 294) route.

If however you want the MCSE +Security or +Messaging designation you will want to do 298 as it counts tward both (correct me if I read that wrong).

hanakuin

I can't vouch for 297, but I did take 298 and found it to be one of the easier tests. The case study didn't throw me at all; actually I wish more tests were built like that. If I remember correctly you can review the case study at any time, but you can't go back to the previous case study. Once you complete one it is locked and you can't go back to it. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give 70-298 a 6 on difficulty.

cashew

All I care about is the MCSE for the 2003 track. Might pursue the security seal in 2008. If 297 is a refresher of 294, than maybe I should sit 297 a week after 294?

ajs1976

cashew wrote:

Might pursue the security seal in 2008.

Is of right now there is no +security for the 2008 tracks.

cashew

Lets say I complete 298, then do the upgrade exams for 08. After that is done let's say I go back and pass 70-350 and get my security seal. Will that apply to 08 credentials or only 03?

dstock7337

bcairns wrote:

I am in the same boat...just passed 293 and gearing up for 294.

After everything I have read, if you are just after an MCSE and then moving on to other things then 297 is the easier (more review of 294) route.

If however you want the MCSE +Security or +Messaging designation you will want to do 298 as it counts tward both (correct me if I read that wrong).

After a side-track by my work requiring me to become Netbackup certified , I too am prepping for 294, as I'm done with 293. I'm already stressed out about the case study format, I'm just hoping it'll be like a review session of all that has been already covered by the other Core MCSE exams.

On a side note, I've been in/out of this website's forums and have found the postings and feedback for all of the users here to be quite helpful. I have finally decided to register, as having this community is beneficial overall and I hope to be able to help provide feedback as to my experiences with certifications/IT industry.

I would like to thank everyone who makes this site possible.

sprkymrk

Welcome to the site, and thanks for being part of it!