Passed 298 got a 946!

bleScreened

I am not usually a braggart but I was pretty impressed with getting a 946 considering that by the end of the exam I was not sure if I passed at all.

around 34 questions spread among 5 teslets. 3 were under 20 minutes and 2 were over 30 minutes. The time limit is a joke and I think causes too much stress and pressure.

I took the 70-298 class through my college, UMUC, that uses the MS Press classroom book. This helped me significantly because I was able to read the entire book and absorb all info over a 15 week semester. Plus the assignments my teacher gave out really helped.

Other than that I used Transcender and Measureup. Measureup was better. There were more measureup-style questions on the exam than Transcender-style questions.

Also the Transcender software is so much unlike the actual MS testing interface that it is nearly detrimental to your test taking. Transcender's way of organizing scenario information is very nice, but the MS exam does NOT organize information in the same way. Transcender boldfaces key words which makes it very easy to go back and pick out small details about servers and groups that you missed. Not so with the MS exam. I found MeasureUp to both accomplish tet questions that are VERY similar to the MS exam and all the info is a little disorganized like the actual MS exam.

Hope this helps!

bleScreened

Oh, the most fequent questions asked were about IPSec, EFS, Certificates, and VPN.

( Additional information removed by moderator - please do not discuss questions in this much detail.)

Slowhand

Congratulations, that's a score to be proud of. After you're done celebrating for the weekend, what do you plan on going for next?

bleScreened

Im probably going to try either the 70-299 or one of the core exams for the MCSA. I am not going in any particular order.

sprkymrk

Congrats on your pass. I am sure that the 15 weeks of study in an instructor-led class will help you retain the information for a long time. That's a great score you got.

PS - Had to edit your second post a bit.

bleScreened

sprkymrk wrote:

Congrats on your pass. I am sure that the 15 weeks of study in an instructor-led class will help you retain the information for a long time. That's a great score you got.

PS - Had to edit your second post a bit.

That's ok, I'm new around here and wasn't aware of those rules. Guess I should go read teh stickies.....

royal

ccaltacc wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

Congrats on your pass. I am sure that the 15 weeks of study in an instructor-led class will help you retain the information for a long time. That's a great score you got.

PS - Had to edit your second post a bit.

That's ok, I'm new around here and wasn't aware of those rules. Guess I should go read teh stickies.....

You shouldn't do it anywhere. It violates the NDA you agreed to when taking the exam.

And congrats!

bleScreened

royal wrote:

ccaltacc wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

Congrats on your pass. I am sure that the 15 weeks of study in an instructor-led class will help you retain the information for a long time. That's a great score you got.

PS - Had to edit your second post a bit.

That's ok, I'm new around here and wasn't aware of those rules. Guess I should go read teh stickies.....

You shouldn't do it anywhere. It violates the NDA you agreed to when taking the exam.

And congrats!

Thanks for the reminder. Rookie mistake.

_maurice

To the author of the thread: did you start your MSCE certification track with 70-298?

dynamik

ccaltacc wrote:

I am not usually a braggart but I was pretty impressed with getting a 946 considering that by the end of the exam I was not sure if I passed at all.

It looks like 946 is the magic number

Congrats on the pass

bleScreened

_maurice wrote:

To the author of the thread: did you start your MSCE certification track with 70-298?

Sorry it took so long to post back to you, I forgot to turn on notification.

More or less, yes, I started my certification track with 298. I suppose it's a bit unusual.

The reason I did so is that I just finished a 70-298 class at my university while pursuing my bachelor degree. Last semester I took the 290 class but never sat for the exam because I got a new job as the semester ended. So this summer I am concentrating on certs. I started with the 298 because it was the freshest in my memory and I just took the 290 with a pass.

I guess I technically started my MCSA/E path when I got my AAS degree that focused on networking with Windows 2000 Server and AD. Back then I was pretty young with no experience and just got a new job then too, so I didn't feel comfortable sitting for 2000 at the time, especially since 2003 had just come out.

I will probably take the 270 next and then the 291.

_maurice

I ask because I just passed the 70-298 after failing the 70-299 twice.

On my failing print outs, the bars showing my success in each category shows that I answered most patch management questions wrong. So as a suggestion to other people, even though 70-299 seems easier because it is shorter that the other exams, having only 30 questions, and is an elective, study well!

I have to wait 2 weeks to retake the 70-299 again because of the MS retake policy.

70-299 and 70-294 standing in my way of being MCSE.

PS: I want to achieve MCSE: Security. Would anybody recommend achieving Security+ instead of passing an exam about ISA?

Thanks!

bleScreened

_maurice wrote:

I ask because I just passed the 70-298 after failing the 70-299 twice.

On my failing print outs, the bars showing my success in each category shows that I answered most patch management questions wrong. So as a suggestion to other people, even though 70-299 seems easier because it is shorter that the other exams, having only 30 questions, and is an elective, study well!

I have to wait 2 weeks to retake the 70-299 again because of the MS retake policy.

70-299 and 70-294 standing in my way of being MCSE.

PS: I want to achieve MCSE: Security. Would anybody recommend achieving Security+ instead of passing an exam about ISA?

Thanks!

I thought about that too. I haven't worked with ISA at all so I may just opt for the Sec+ when the time comes. I have answered a few practice questions on it and it doesn't seem that difficult. Whereas I may need to study pretty hard for ISA since I don't know much about.

dynamik

Don't underestimate the Security+. It's a broad exam with a higher-than-average pass-rate.

bleScreened

dup post

bleScreened

dynamik wrote:

Don't underestimate the Security+. It's a broad exam with a higher-than-average pass-rate.

So wouldn't a higher than average pass rate mean that many people pass it and it may be easier than some MS exams?

dynamik

Passing score, sorry.

For example:
Network+ - 554/900
Linux+ - 675/900
Security+ - 764/900

astorrs

If you're not using ISA in a work environment right now and need to show those skills, then I would go for Security+.

If you are using it, take your pick.

bleScreened

dynamik wrote:

Passing score, sorry.

For example:
Network+ - 554/900
Linux+ - 675/900
Security+ - 764/900

Oh ok, got ya.

HeroPsycho

astorrs wrote:

If you're not using ISA in a work environment right now and need to show those skills, then I would go for Security+.

If you are using it, take your pick.

I wouldn't necessarily say that. The better question is what does Security+ do for your career vs. ISA. It's not that black or white.

ISA is an enterprise class firewall, so achieving the ISA cert would help validate enterprise firewall experience.

Security+ would help validate general security skills more than just MCSE/MCSA: Security alone would. However, if you have plans to get something like CISSP relatively soon, the value of Security+ would diminish.

Not advocating one or the other, just giving a few scenarios and how to generally think about it.

astorrs

I guess I could have been clearer...

My point was if you're not using it right now, I would question the value in achieving the cert - "validating" knowledge in ISA without having hands on probably isn't going to do much for your career. As Hero said, "Security+ would help validate general security skills..." and in my opinion would probably serve you better in that case.