A Couple of Questions

Tommy_D

Hey Everyone, took the 291 test today and failed with 593! My questions are...

2 of the questions had conflicting information, one was a sim that showed a LAN with 1 IP in screen, and another in the other screen. This made determining the correct asnwer impossible.
The other question reffered to the 192.168.1.1 subnet the whole question, except in 1 instance it showed a 192.168.0.1 address. I left comments for MS on the 2 questions, but does anyone know how process works? Do they review my comments and hopefully fix the questions? I doubt those 2 would have made a pass/fail difference, but I thought the sims are weighted heavily so maybe??

Another question is, what does the Maintain a Network Infrastructure category entail?
Anyone know if the exams are on a 900 or 1000 point scale?

This is the first time I have failed, so I'm not sure how to go about prepping to take it again, any suggestions?

royal

Sorry to hear you did not pass. The scores are based on a 1000 point scale. Each question is also weighted. So for example, if you get a question that asks you to select the best 3 choices out of 5, and you only answer 2 correct, you still get partial credit.

As for what you need to improve, only you really know that. I would take a look at my sticky post and make sure you understand the topics there. Go read through another book that is rated highly on Amazon (I used the MSPress and liked it for 70-291) and then begin reading those whitepapers. The CBT Nuggets REALLY helps with 70-291. If you can afford it, get it; especially since 70-291 is the most difficult exam in the MCSE series.

Another issue I see with many people is the method they use to study. This is the method I use, and hopefully you find it helpful. Tweak it as how it would work best for you.

My Method:
1. Get my feet wet with CBT Nuggets regardless if I am familiar with the material or not.
2. Begin reading my main/first book
3. While reading, I will use sticky notes and use them as a bookmark when I want to review information that spans >1 page. If the information is a paragraph or so, I will summarize it into my own words and write it into a notebook.
4. Every so often, even while I'm reading, I will go back to my notebook and read what is in there as well as review the pages that have sticky notes.
5. I will always do the chapter questions. If I get something wrong, I make sure I understand why, and if needed, I will go back and review that information. I also try to understand why the wrong answers were incorrect.
6. I then finish the book and then do a skim to make sure I review sections that I felt like I was forgetting.
7. I then begin reading my secondary book if I feel the need to. Repeat steps 3-6.
8. I then review any CBT Nuggets when I want some extra clarification.
9. I then use a practice exam package such as Transcenders which tests me on my readiness. I'll warn you though, do not use this unless you feel you are completely ready. After the 1st usage, you have many of the questions/answers in your head which won't properly test your readiness your second time around.

Good luck on your next attempt and let us know if you have any questions.

Tommy_D

I foud a couple posts suggesting setting up a Vmware based lab, so I am prepared to do that. However, I am wondering if it works the same to use Virtual PC 2007? Unless the free VMWare server product works the same? I assumed people are using VmWare Workstation?

Daniel333

I found a problem on my A+ exam, even though I passed I wanted to press a specific question on the test that was clearly misleading/wrong. But comptia couldn't care less. Given 70-291 is getting older, I have a feeling Microsoft would care even less. If you have complained, 100 other people have as well.

VMware server is a great product, but I found once you have a few workstations running it really slows down. Microsoft's Virtual PC just runs a lot better in that situation. But if you are planning on playing with Linux down the road you are pretty much stuck with Vmware server.

rhelt100

I took the 70-291 test about 2 weeks ago. I also had what looked like a bad question. The question was related to DNS and mentioned a domain name, let's call it "TheDomain.com", then throughout the question it changed a few times between "TheDomain.com" and "TheDomain.org". I was so confused, were these two separate domains that I needed to setup forwarding on...or the same domain with a typo? I left a comment on it.

royal

Highly doubt it was a typo. Those tests go through a lot of beta testing and if it was really a mistake, someone would have caught something so obvious.

Sanger80

Well, lets hope so. The MS Press books certainly don't have any beta testing going on. There are at least 3 fixes on the KB for the 291 book that are there just from me. I found a bunch of other mistakes in the book as well but after a while it was taking too much time to submit them all so I stopped.......

Tommy_D

I wanted to say thank you to eveyrone for the advice, it paid off today as I passed! It wasn't pretty but I'll take it. 720 was my score . Again I had a question I think was bogus, it conflicting information, I swear! Where is the QA/QC these days!? Well anyway I left a comment on it, hopefully they will fix it!

Mishra

Good job! Nice to see you really studied a lot more this time around it looks like.

Krank

Congratulations man!

I'm 1 week from my beast encounter...