Passed 296 - but only just

Joe Donner

Well, I must be special or something - because my exam experiences of 292 and 296 were the exact opposite of what everyone else have said.

I have just passed 296 by the skin of my teeth: 700. Kinda disappointed by the score, but very happy that MCSE 2003 is now finally done and dusted.

296 was more difficult than 292 (for me) without a doubt. The questions were a lot longer, there was a lot more junk information to try and filter through, and sometimes the answers seemed to not even remotely relate to the question...forcing you to reread the whole thing again. I actually ran out of time, and that has never happened to me before in any of these exams.

I'm just happy it's all over, because I studied really hard for over two months for these two exams, and I'm a bit sick of it all by now. Maybe I overdid it.

I definitely didn't get any questions with "throw away answers" like MD said in an earlier post. I literally struggled through almost every single question while second-guessing myself.

If it helps anyone: I used the big blue MS Press book, the Transcender practice exams, and did a lot more hands-on in my little test lab at home than for 292.

Anyway, job done for me and good luck to anyone who still needs to do the upgrade exams before the end of the month.

dynamik

Congratulations! Way to sneak it in within the last couple of weeks.

Maybe you just have more experience working with the 292 material. The most difficult exams are the ones you're the least knowledgeable/experienced with (or you just get unlucky and get a bunch of poor questions ).

Megadeth4168

Congrats!
Sorry to hear that your experience with this one was not like mine... I know to me it felt like half the exam was fairly easy and the other half was very hard.

Joe Donner

the most difficult exams are the ones you're the least knowledgeable/experienced with

Aye, very true. IPsec, Certificate Services, and clustering I've never really used in the real world. But to be honest, I kinda thought I was pretty much knowledgable about them when I went into the exam.

The real problem was that many questions were really vague and sketched loooooong situations that were more about design issues than specifically about how to implement those technologies. Almost like the Active Directory design exam. If you understand what I mean.

Well, what's done is done and I've reached my goal, so I'm quite happy with that. Would've liked to get a better score, but never mind.

stupidboy

Joe Donner wrote:

296 was more difficult than 292 (for me) without a doubt. The questions were a lot longer, there was a lot more junk information to try and filter through, and sometimes the answers seemed to not even remotely relate to the question...forcing you to reread the whole thing again. I actually ran out of time, and that has never happened to me before in any of these exams.

Sounds like the exams that I got

However, at the end of the day you have reached what was required and that is enough in anyones books. Congratulations.

What next for you?

Joe Donner

Thanks dude.

Next I'm going to lie on the couch and read a good book. A thick good book. Like Lord of the Rings.

Actually, I kinda became the "unix admin" at work on top of all the Windows stuff we do. Which is cool because it's been forcing me to get up to speed with Linux and so on, which is quite interesting. So I'm thinking of maybe trying to go for the RHCE certification one of these days. But these two MCSE upgrade exams were the first priority for me.

But...RHCE appears to be a major undertaking, so I'll take things easy and see what happens and how I feel.

How about you?