Anyone ever taken 70-501?

astorrs

MCTS: Windows Server 2003 Hosting, Configuration and Management

Just curious how difficult you found it. I think I'm going to give it a try before the second shot offer disappears... the objectives are all familiar, but this will be my first of the "new gen" exams.

astorrs

Passed this today, and just wanted to give some pointers to anyone considering this in the future (it's not very popular - only 490 people have passed it thus far, so there isn't much info about it on the web). Make sure you are grounded in the following areas before attempting this one:

Network Load Balancing
Clustering
IIS configuration, scalability, troubleshooting
ASP.NET troubleshooting
Scripting and process automation (including the Microsoft Provisioning System)
Delegated administration (including constrained delegation)
SharePoint Services
Performance monitoring
Storage design and quotas

50+ questions in about 2hrs.

The "skills being measured" section for this one was pretty spot on: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-501.mspx

jibbajabba

astorrs wrote:

Passed this today, and just wanted to give some pointers to anyone considering this in the future (it's not very popular - only 490 people have passed it thus far, so there isn't much info about it on the web). Make sure you are grounded in the following areas before attempting this one:

Network Load Balancing
Clustering
IIS configuration, scalability, troubleshooting
ASP.NET troubleshooting
Scripting and process automation (including the Microsoft Provisioning System)
Delegated administration (including constrained delegation)
SharePoint Services
Performance monitoring
Storage design and quotas

50+ questions in about 2hrs.

The "skills being measured" section for this one was pretty spot on: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-501.mspx

Thinking about taking taking it too .... Checked some sample questions and it seems pretty easy ...

Where did you check how many people have this exam anyway ?

astorrs

Gomjaba wrote:

Thinking about taking taking it too .... Checked some sample questions and it seems pretty easy ...

Where did you check how many people have this exam anyway ?

Where did you find practice tests? I couldn't find any. Make sure you know how to work in MPS and are comfortable troubleshooting different IIS and ASP.NET problems. Also know how to script the automation of all the different objectives (creation of websites, sharepoint sites, etc)

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx

jibbajabba

astorrs wrote:

Gomjaba wrote:

Thinking about taking taking it too .... Checked some sample questions and it seems pretty easy ...

Where did you check how many people have this exam anyway ?

Where did you find practice tests? I couldn't find any. Make sure you know how to work in MPS and are comfortable troubleshooting different IIS and ASP.NET problems. Also know how to script the automation of all the different objectives (creation of websites, sharepoint sites, etc)

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx

They were not really paractise test .. on some blog some dude went for it and posted a couple of exam questions he remembered ...

Thanks for the link btw....

jibbajabba

I passed it today with 987 points .. \o/

The good thing : I know which question I have wrong .. the bad thing : I wouldn't have had it wrong in the first place lol .. I didn't tick anything (how stupid) and marked it as review and .. well ... didn't (review that is) .. so I could have had the chance of 100% - but doesn't really matter .. passed is passed ..

I must admit though : This is the EASIEST exam I have ever been to. It obviously helps to work as software guru in a hosting company for years, but still ... WAY too easy to call it "Technology Specialist" .. I don't complain (just took it to keep our Microsoft Partnership anyway) - but still .. they should still work on the not so popular exams ..

But I am happy .. back to beer

jibbajabba

Oh, one question : The certificate - does it actually say the title or just "MCTS" ?

astorrs

My score was similar to yours and I didn't find any real challenges as long as you have hands on.

As for the certificate you should be able to order one from the MCP site and it will include the specific MCTS title.

jibbajabba

wow - I am impressed, I already got the confirmation from Microsoft and the exam is on my transcript .. I remember my first MCPs took WEEKS to be shown on the transcript ... this didn't even take a day ...

astorrs

Gomjaba wrote:

wow - I am impressed, I already got the confirmation from Microsoft and the exam is on my transcript .. I remember my first MCPs took WEEKS to be shown on the transcript ... this didn't even take a day ...

From what I can tell it seems to depend on the test center. There are some I go to where its on the transcript almost as soon as I get home, others still take a day or two.

rthomazi

Is there any kind of simulation during this test ? My brother did another test (SQL, I guess) and in his test he had to solve some simulated issues. I am gonna take this test this weekend and need this information.

Thanks in advance,
Rogerio Thomazini

astorrs

rthomazi wrote:

Is there any kind of simulation during this test ? My brother did another test (SQL, I guess) and in his test he had to solve some simulated issues. I am gonna take this test this weekend and need this information.

There is always the possibility of recieving any of the different types of questions that Microsoft uses (including simulations). For example, people who took the 70-620 exam < 2 weeks after I did recieved many sims (while I had none).

You should have hands on experience with any product you are being tested on (even if it's just in a virtual lab at home), so a simulation shouldn't be a problem.

rthomazi

I did this test (70-501) saturday and passed with a 962.
Thanks for all the help I got here.