The 90% Guarantee

rlebah

How do you feel about the accuracy of the practice exams? Did anyone ever score 90% on the practice exams and than fail the exam?

I am here to learn it and it turns me inside out when I hear people comment on paper mcse's.

My routine is
1. Watch the certification training videos (Cbt nuggets 70-290)
This helps me visualize the material so when I read the material I can understand it.
2. Browse through my books (Sybex/ Microsoft)
3. Practice questions through examforce/crammaster
Identify my weakness
Revisit the weaker areas through steps 1 and 2
Review practice questions again making sure I know why the wrong answers are incorrect.
Once I get passing scores on the practice questions through knowledge not memorization I move to step 4
4. Prepare with exam simulations using examforce/crammaster

Before you say anything I know I need to prepare a lab and practice, My question is how confidant can you be to schedule the exam? Is the final gauge the exam simulation passing of 90%? For my other tests I was able to pass the tests and not achieve the 90% level. I am currently supporting xp desktops with the only exposure to Server 2003 was while studying for this exam. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

sprkymrk

I have never taken an exam for which I don't have "hands-on" time and real/lab experience with, so I couldn't guess how prepared you might be. Personally, every time I have taken an exam, questions pop up that are confusing until I visualize myself at the console performing the task, then it makes sense.

So to be true to yourself, since you stated that it turns you inside out to hear about paper MCSE's, build your lab first and experiment. Even if you are ready now, if you haven't installed W2K3 and played with it, postpone the test until you do. My 2 cents.

Good luck.

Vogon Poet

Ditto on the "hands-on" requirement. Also remember that MS tests love the sims.
As far as practice tests, I never touch them until I feel I've mastered the book work.
By mastery I mean that I need to feel like I can teach a class on the subject with no notes.
Then, I see what kind of problems practice tests throw at me.
A lot of good "think" questions come from the practice tests that might put the material in a different context for you.
I wouldn't say that a 90% on practice tests is the "final gauge".
Schedule the test when you feel confident enough that you can march into the testing center and not miss a single question. If you go when you think you know "enough to pass", you probably won't.
Good luck!