Ugh! 70-270

Dogzen

Just finished taking the 70-270 for the "second time"....
I used CBT Nuggets, Exam Cram book, and Cram Session tests. The first time I didn't study at all.
This time, studied for about two weeks, also with 6 years of Sys Admin experience...
What I found is that the questions on the exam, this go around, didn't seem to be covered very well in the materials I used. Part of the issue was the story book format of the questions, yet the items I really did study didn't seem covered at all in the exam....such as Sysprep, Setup Manager, etc...RIS was covered yet the questions really pertained to the granular components....which is somewhat irritating after investing a considerable amount of time studying material that just didn't cut it.

Question....... since MS is administering the test, is it a better idea to use the MS Press books? You would think they wouldn't use questions in the test, unless their study material covered it, right?

Cheers,
J

dynamik

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It's usually best to use more than one study resource. I think the MS Press books are just written from the objectives and authors' own experience. I don't think they give them questions from the exam nor are the questions taken from the MS Press books. I can't find the link, but I used to have a good article about how the exams are prepared. They are actually written by professional test writers that more than likely aren't IT folks (the questions are obviously verified to be technically accurate).

Hang in there, you'll get it. Try the Sybex book, CBT Nuggets, and/or Transcender.

Sie

What score did you obtain this time around? WHat areas did the score report show you were weak in?

As Dynamik said these exams arnt based off the book and the book not based directly off the exam (I know you would expect the MS book and MS exam to be the same?) I used a MS Academy Course Book for this exam and it was quite good but the CBT Nuggets were also very good for this topic.

I dont have the ISBN of the book to hand but if I can find it I will let you know.

My advice is to look at your score sheet and brush up on the topics you were weak on, if you are ok with posting them here maybe we could suggest some good resources to get you on your way??

Daniel333

Dogzen,

I personally have no love for the exam cram books. For 70-270 I found most people use both the Sybex and Microsoft press book. As far your questions you should be using Transcender.

If you run every lab and from both the Microsoft book and the Sybex book and understand and invent your own lab for every Transcender question that isn't obvious this your pass with flying colors.

Dogzen

I scored a *ahem* 519....however when I compared my first test results with the second in installing XP Pro, the results were pretty much identical which is baffling since this is the area I spent the most time studying and in the CramMaster tests I averaged 80% each time......dunno.

I found a MS Press book on 270 and figured I would go through it lesson by lesson and see how that shakes out. I think the Install section is what tanked my score since all other sections weren't too bad. Network Protocols was my second weak area followed by Device and Drivers....

Just a note, the first time I took the exam my score in the Troubleshooting Devices and Drivers section was much higher than this time. Leaves me wondering if MS uses your last test as a basis for your retake.....interesting none the less.

Thanks for all feedback! I'll heed the advise. Scheduled 7/21 for the retake.

kriscamaro68

Sorry to hear about the bad experiance. I did the same thing where I didn't study for the test the first time and just wanted to see how it was since the 2nd shot offer was going on. I bought cbt nuggets and the ms press book. I didn't like cbt nuggets so much cause it seemed to be outdated mainly with RIS. I did like what I read out of the ms press book though. My suggestion is study up on the security templates, local sec policy, gpo's and you will probably pass. Thats what I did and the second shot worked for me.