lol @ the beast

score = 760 (first attempt)

* 3 sims (1 was deviously tricky)
* significant # of WSUS questions
* made very little use of subnetting skills
* many dns questions
* always find a way to get a MS-CHAP, CHAP, PAP, SPAP, etc question

* DHCP made a few appearences

Materials = LearnKey CDs (watched the first 4), Sybex, & Learntosubnet.com
Lab = VMWare Workstation 6.0; 3 servers & 3 XP clients
Time spent prepping = 2 weeks, off and on
Experience = 2-3 years managing AD Infrastructure; many more supporting computers/users

I wouldn't recommend the LearnKey... Aaron Spurlock knows his stuff no doubt, but videos take too long and I got bored easily with them. I quit into the 4th CD in favor of the Sybex and my VMWare lab. I pish-poshed Sybex for every IT exam I've ever taken up until this point, but I must say that they're well written and in-depth and wish I had used them more. (The LearnKey covered the topics, but I got the feeling it was a starting point not a comprehensive solution.)

VMWare is an absolute godsend and literally cut my prep time down to days rather than weeks or months. No way I passed this test without that resource to leverage my time with. I can't believe I ever studied any other way.

Prometric Center was true to form... first computer they sat me at didn't work. So they moved me to the other one (which I had passed every other test on.) Poor guy coming in an hour after me to take 292 had to wait for me to finish my beast. (He waited a while.

)

Next up: 70-293

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pvandenhouten

Congrats!

7255carl

congrats on the pass

sthomas

Congrats and good luck on 293!

Krank

Congratulations and thanks for the info!

eltoro

Good job buddy! I will take mine next month, I have been a chicken lately because of all I've heard about this beast but I definitely take 291 next month.

brad-

colebert wrote:

Lab = VMWare Workstation 6.0; 3 servers & 3 XP clients
Time spent prepping = 2 weeks, off and on

VMWare is an absolute godsend and literally cut my prep time down to days rather than weeks or months. No way I passed this test without that resource to leverage my time with. I can't believe I ever studied any other way.

I have to ask because I dont know....and i could google it i guess....

What exactly is VMWare? How did it reduce your prep time so drastically?

dynamik

It allows you to run multiple OSes simultaneously from a single machine. It's great for hands-on lab work.

I've started putting a guide together. I still have to add hardware and networking sections, but this will get you started http://www.adynamik1.com/ (the posts are sorted by date, so scroll down to part one).

Japanese and 291/293 have been draining all my time. I haven't updated it all month

Hopefully I'll be able to update regularly after a couple of weeks.

brad-

Thanks D. Sorry to railroad the thread here.

Ive been reading about it, and it looks pretty good. I'll prob do the 30 day trial. To load the multiple OS's though, does that mean you also need to own teh rights to those OS's....like have a valid key and register it etc?

dynamik

It's not my thread; I don't care

You can also get the free Server version as well. It doesn't have some of the features of Workstation 6 that I like, but it will definitely be sufficient for lab work.

You do need to have a valid license/key for each OS you use. You can download trials of all the MS products though, which is usually sufficient for studying. I personally have a download subscription to Technet. It's $349/year, and it gives you access to all the MS products with no time limitations or other restrictions.

BTW, Congrats to the OP

colebert

Hijack away!

There are two *main* VMWare products: Workstation & Server. Server is free and can run everything you need. Workstation is a couple hundred dollars and can also run everything but gives (and takes away) some features that Server doesn't have.

You basically load VMWare and tell it to create a "virtual disk" of a certain size. This this is just one huge file on your system. Then you can "boot" this disk and load an OS on it. You can internally network all the systems together, etc. It is really great.

The way it saved me time was in terms of set-up. I had been putting off my 291 for so long, and for me to have to round up six computers (not hard) and connect them to monitors, my network, run the install on every one, install drives, etc etc was holding me back because I'm lazy. But VMWare made it possible to not even get up from my chair to do it all.

Then if there was something I read about and wanted to "see" it, I could just ALT+TAB into my lab and do it. Really invaluable.