Taking this Exam on Monday

Dbutch1976

Hey guys,

Let me start by saying this exam scares the hell out of me. Like most of the other members of the forum I've taken tonnes of these exams, and I am presently a 2000 MCSE, MCDBA, and A+ certified.

I used the transenders and went and did quite well on them, then moved on to another question source that had about 150 more practice questions, scored well on them also. Sat down to write the exam and it was like I had signed up for an exam designed to fail me.

One thing that bothered me was that I got the exact same question twice. I know for a fact that I got it right so I don't mind so much, but since I failed the exam and need to retake it I'm worried about that sort of thing happening with a DNS question that I can't answer.

Secondly many of the concepts the exam was testing me on was in opposition to the concepts that I had been trying to master all along. For exam I was asked how to make an ASR backup without a floppy drive available because I was going to add one later. Ever transcender question regarding ASR enforced the principle that ASR requires a floppy drive or it's a non-starter.

All in all I didn't think it was all that hard except for the DNS, I felt very confident about my last 10 questions and since that was 25% of the exam right there I figured I was good for a bare pass. Then I clicked the button and got my 485, which actually seems like something to be proud of when I find out what most other people seem to be getting on their first tries.

My scores were approximately this:

Managing users, computers, and groups
65%

Managing and Mantaining access to resources:
77%

Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment:
85%

Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery:
85%

Implementing, Managing and Maintaining Name Resolution:
48%

Implementing, Managing and Maintaining Network Security:
65%

I strongly feel that Microsoft takes your weakest score and that's the score you get for the entire exam. It's probably just coincidence that everyone struggles with DNS, but the only score I got which was under 50% was DNS so obviously the higher scores did not balance it out.

Well, I'm going to try this one again this Monday and I'm worried as hell, this will be my 2nd attempt so I'll have to pay if I try again, not to mention all the exams expire in March so the clock it ticking to get this done. I'll let you guys know how I make out, and good luck to all of you!

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Comments

sprkymrk

Good luck. In my opinion 292 is tougher than 291 - the beast.

xlinux

Best of luck, try not to be scared by your first try. Hopefully you will do well. I am in same boat as you and i will be taking exam on 21st of Jan, I quiet my job In Dec so that i can study for 292and 296, I know i should have done them earlier but it is always Employers promise you the world and deliver nothing to you until you stand up for yourself.

Hopefully we all will do well, if not at least we still can have crack on 291, 292, 293 and 294. Let us know how you do. Best of luck

HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
BELONGS
TO THE WORLD

Slowhand

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

7255carl

best of luck

dave0212

It is a very hard exam; I just passed with 700.

The score report can be misleading as this exam as it is very weighted towards certain subjects so that you may get 100% in "Managing users, computers, and groups" but it only counts for 10% of the overall score.

Good luck with the exam

Dbutch1976

OK guys, I know 700 is nothing to be bragging about, but the fact that I didn't score that high does nothing to dampen how pumped I am right now.

First off, I was wrong about the Transenders, did them again prior to the exam and they do cover how to make an ASR backup without a floppy drive present. Doesn't matter, it wasn't on the exam.

I studied for 5 straight hours right before the exam today, and do you know how many questions I encountered from the stuff I had cover? Like 3-4. All the topics that I had focused on because there was so much of it the first time was barely on this exam. I studied DNS like mad, everyone complains about DNS for 70-292, you know how many DNS questions there were? I swear there couldn't have been more than 5 tops.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I wrote this exam. Suddenly it was all Terminal Services, auditing (not one question on IPSEC) and remote access. I began to think that the test had to have an interactive component, because normally the DNS questions seem to be all lumped together. Well I got like two and I knew I rocked them both, then the system paused like it was trying to figure out some new way to screw me, then came the Terminal Services nightmare.

I had marked about 15 questions for review because I seriously had no clue, finished the last question with 30 minutes to spare and thought, why bother? I've failed this exam worse than I did the first time and I studied for DAYS straight.

Found out I got that 700 and could have cried I was so happy. Best of luck to everyone who still has to write this son of a motherless goat of an exam. There is no tips that I can offer you... the question base for this exam has to be in the hundreds. I studied something like 450-500 questions for this exam and many of the concepts on the exam I'd never even seen before.

Good luck to all, for those who have passed with scores in the 900s, how the hell did you pull that off?????

On to 70-296!

Cheers.

Dbutch1976

Wow, that is freaky. We are literally in indentical boats, I left on similar terms just recently and am also studying full time. (Was promised training since my first interview). Hope it works out for you also, and I'm glad we stood up and demanded what we deserved!

xlinux wrote:

Best of luck, try not to be scared by your first try. Hopefully you will do well. I am in same boat as you and i will be taking exam on 21st of Jan, I quiet my job In Dec so that i can study for 292and 296, I know i should have done them earlier but it is always Employers promise you the world and deliver nothing to you until you stand up for yourself.

Hopefully we all will do well, if not at least we still can have crack on 291, 292, 293 and 294. Let us know how you do. Best of luck

HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
BELONGS
TO THE WORLD

xlinux

First and foremost many congrats Dbutch1976, it doesnt matter 700 or 950 it is all same as long as one understands what he/she are doing, who cares as long as we passed. Also it matter of luck if you score 900+ that is if the question come from pool that is your strenght..it is just luck but who cares as long as we passed.

Yes it is freaky that we both are/were in same boat, yes i swore and promised myself that i would never put myself in this situation again, and to all my future employers it will be myself come first and they come last, i will milk them until they are F*** dry and if they dont like it they can F*** O** , excuse my french.

Good luck in your 296, i will update u wiht my 292 result, wish me luck and if u have any tips than let me know.

Dbutch1976 wrote:

Wow, that is freaky. We are literally in indentical boats, I left on similar terms just recently and am also studying full time. (Was promised training since my first interview). Hope it works out for you also, and I'm glad we stood up and demanded what we deserved!

xlinux wrote:

Best of luck, try not to be scared by your first try. Hopefully you will do well. I am in same boat as you and i will be taking exam on 21st of Jan, I quiet my job In Dec so that i can study for 292and 296, I know i should have done them earlier but it is always Employers promise you the world and deliver nothing to you until you stand up for yourself.

Hopefully we all will do well, if not at least we still can have crack on 291, 292, 293 and 294. Let us know how you do. Best of luck

HUMAN KNOWLEDGE
BELONGS
TO THE WORLD

SWM

Dbutch1976, I could not agree with you more :

I studied for 5 straight hours right before the exam today, and do you know how many questions I encountered from the stuff I had cover? Like 3-4

I am sick to death of hours of study to encounter an exam with allmost no questions from my study material. I am all most at the point of reading a book on the exam and walking in cold turkey.

Many exams I have passed recently I believe I could have passed with very little study, just experience and common sense. I am frustrated at going through 400-500 test questions and getting nothing similar on the actual exam.

I realise this technique will not get me 1000/1000 but I have never been after full marks. To me a pass is a pass as long as you know the material and can do the job

Well done on your pass. I think a score of 700 would scare the sh1t out of me but I would be over the moon to pass.

Dbutch1976

Yeah the 700 really did and does concern me a little bit. I studied so hard for this exam I really wanted to be confident in 90% of my answers and score somewhere in the 800s.

Now that it's all said and done I'm a little concerned about whether or not I've actually learned very much that is applicable. There are a few things that I can see coming in handy in the future, but right now I'm pretty much a DNS expert from all the focus I've been doing, but when am I going to need to roll out DNS to 3-4 sites with multiple domains?

I guess I won't really know if my new MCSE is just a piece of paper until I'm asked to do something. Well until then, I'm just going to keep studying and knocking off these exams.

Does anyone plan to uprade to 2008 once they've got 2003?

SWM wrote:

Dbutch1976, I could not agree with you more :

I studied for 5 straight hours right before the exam today, and do you know how many questions I encountered from the stuff I had cover? Like 3-4

I am sick to death of hours of study to encounter an exam with allmost no questions from my study material. I am all most at the point of reading a book on the exam and walking in cold turkey.

Many exams I have passed recently I believe I could have passed with very little study, just experience and common sense. I am frustrated at going through 400-500 test questions and getting nothing similar on the actual exam.

I realise this technique will not get me 1000/1000 but I have never been after full marks. To me a pass is a pass as long as you know the material and can do the job

Well done on your pass. I think a score of 700 would scare the sh1t out of me but I would be over the moon to pass.

SWM

Does anyone plan to uprade to 2008 once they've got 2003

I have allready passed :
70-649 MCTS 2008
70-620 MCTS: Vista

and am sitting the beta for the below tomorrow:

70-647 MCITP: Enterprise Administrator

Not sure how I will go with little study/little study material at this stage