Passed 70-290 today

Passed today with a 728, not very happy with my score. I was hoping to keep my "a pass is a pass" line in reserve in case I needed to use it on the 291, but that didnt happen. My weakest objective was surrounding DR. I thought I was comfortable in that area but got railroaded by a few unique restore scenarios and methods. I read the Sybex book cover to cover and the M$ Press book with the exception of the areas I felt I had down. I also used CBT Nuggets and the Technotes from this site. I spent most of my extra time on groups and permissions, I am happy I did. I have already scheduled my 291 for 4 weeks from today, I have read the Sybex book and finished the CBTs and will likely crack the syngress today.

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Comments

Daniel333

Good job!

I am still trying to design a timeline for myself on this one, what was your background?

cacharo

I do not have any real, professional, admin experience. I work in a noc and work on server quite a bit, but mostly as a proxy for a customer. I strongly suggest using VMWare or VPC to set up a virtual lab at home. It really made things easy and will certainly come in handy further down the road.

dynamik

Don't lose any sleep over your score. A few crazy scenarios can drop you down even if you have a solid understanding of the material. Congrats on the pass and good luck with 291.

Dracula28

I see many people use the sybex books, how do these compare to the MS ones? I've always stuck to only MS books, I guess I'm limiting myself somewhat to the MS thought process only.

Of course the MS books are notorious for never containing absolutely everything you need to know for the exam.

cacharo

Dracula28 wrote:

I see many people use the sybex books, how do these compare to the MS ones? I've always stuck to only MS books, I guess I'm limiting myself somewhat to the MS thought process only.

Of course the MS books are notorious for never containing absolutely everything you need to know for the exam.

I would say they are lighter than the MS Press books, but easier to grasp imo. I have always used them as well as CBT Nuggets as a litmus test to tell me what I know, what I need to refresh on, and what I really need to work on. From there I skim the chapters I am comfortable with in supplemental material like MS Press or Syngress and spend extra time on the rough areas.

It has worked for me so far. But still, every test is going to have one of those questions on material you have never seen before. Then it is time to bring out those process of elimination skills