Gutted

cbriant

Took 70-294 today and failed with a score of 586.

I am absolutly gutted as this is the first MCSE exam I will have to resit. I have passed every one of them first time so far, including 291 and 293 so this is really annoying to fail an exam which is supposed to be easier.

I was well prepared for the exam having used Transcender until I could answer every single question correctly. I used Exam Cram, MS Book, Carrer Academy and Readiness Review Suite. What caused me to fail was the ambiguity of the questions. I don't think that the Transcender has enough coverage of all the possible questions you can get asked.

Most of the content was on OU structuring and where to apply GPOs or permissions to an OU. There was some very random stuff that I had never come across such as the "gpOptions" permission and a question on a restore of a domain controller where you have to create folders in the sysvol folder???? Some of the questions didn't make any sense at all to me.

One thing that confused me is where to apply a bridge between site links as opposed to another DC. Can anyone advise?

Chris.

undomiel

I'd recommend editing your post for NDA content. I found this exam to be rather rough because of the vagueness as well. One or two of the drag'n'drops I'd swear were missing content because I felt like I didn't have enough information for the placement that they were asking for. I'd say it would be best for you to buck up and jump right back into your lab and start going through some of that stuff you didn't know. I know a few of the things I was asked about I didn't know from books only from my own poking around and having to fix problems at work. So I would say the lab is your best friend to prop you up for the retake!

cbriant

cbriant wrote:

Took 70-294 today and failed with a score of 586.

I am absolutly gutted as this is the first MCSE exam I will have to resit. I have passed every one of them first time so far, including 291 and 293 so this is really annoying to fail an exam which is supposed to be easier.

I was well prepared for the exam having used Transcender until I could answer every single question correctly. I used Exam Cram, MS Book, Carrer Academy and Readiness Review Suite. What caused me to fail was the ambiguity of the questions. I don't think that the Transcender has enough coverage of all the possible questions you can get asked.

Most of the content was on OU structuring and where to apply GPOs or permissions to an OU. There was some very random stuff that I had never come across such as the "gpOptions" permission and a question on a restore of a domain controller where you have to create folders in the sysvol folder???? Some of the questions didn't make any sense at all to me.

One thing that confused me is where to apply a bridge between site links as opposed to another DC. Can someone advise me on this?

Chris.

dynamik

At least you weren't filleted as well!

294 was probably the most ambiguously worded exam I've ever taken. You need a good amount of intuition in order to get you through. I was more nervous about hitting the "finish" button for that one than either 291 or 293, so don't feel bad about it. Did you register with the second shot promotion?

Hit the books, hit the labs, and nail it next time.

Also, it looks like you hit the quote button instead of the edit button on that first post of yours

cbriant

Well I guess i'll just have to resit this one in a months time. For now i'm going to forget about study for the next few days.

Not sure what kind of materials i'll need though, is there anything as good as Trancender that has completely different questions? Not sure how much labs will help me as I have a good understanding of applying GPOs and configuring active directory already. Didn't really have any problems with the SIMs, just struggled with the standard questions.

NetAdmin2436

Yeah, I was gonna say....did you just quote yourself?

It sucks failing, especially for the first time. No worries though, you'll get it. Just keep grinding away and study what confused you on the test.

Mishra

Took this exam yesterday and failed with about the same score. Fun!

I nailed the Sims even though I only got 2 of them. The questions are really hard to follow though. I guess I didn't know MS exams could get more choosey/wordy.

I fault myself and other reasons... As with every MS exam, I just don't study as much as I should. Recently it's been really hard for me just to sit down and read a tech book. I fight with myself about motiviation a lot. Recently I've had more motivation for house projects, business projects, and p0ker.

I felt like I made it after the test was over. I felt that way because I understood the topics but I couldn't quite follow what the question was really trying to ask. I also have a cold so after starting over for the 5th time reading a question I would start to go cross eyed lol and have to really try and focus on every detail of the question... And when I did focus I would still have to re-read the question... I was completly shocked to see that horrible score come on the screen.

You mention some of the question topics in your post and I remember those questions and I know what they are and know the answer... But somehow I still got a bunch of questions wrong.

I also I had 3-4 questions that honestly had 2 answers. Thats another thing I thought that hurt me... I went for the OU structure that I personally would implement... And I think MS has a different opinion.

BTW some of the OU structure pictures didn't make sense to me at all... The way the picture was mapped out was weird and confusing. Like why didn't the OU structure have a ADMINs OU when they say admins have particular settings??? This is the reason why I think my real world experience hurt me in this exam.

I will re-study better and hopefully I can do better on this exam.

Mishra

cbriant wrote:

Well I guess i'll just have to resit this one in a months time. For now i'm going to forget about study for the next few days.

Not sure what kind of materials i'll need though, is there anything as good as Trancender that has completely different questions? Not sure how much labs will help me as I have a good understanding of applying GPOs and configuring active directory already. Didn't really have any problems with the SIMs, just struggled with the standard questions.

So it sounds like we had the same experience...

I'm going to re-read sections of the Microsoft book now that I know what they are asking. I think I can find MS's angle if I do it now instead of later. Any thing I didn't fully understand I can lab up. But for the most part I'm going to look through technet/MSPress to read on what they say to do.

dynamik

Sorry to hear about the fails (belated I know, cbriant!)

I think 294 was the most poorly worded exam I've taken.

Keep in mind that they often ask about things in an indirect manner. They may be looking for something completely different than you think they are. For example, they may not be looking for the most optimal OU structure, but rather if you understand other things like inheritance, enforcement (no override), filtering with security groups, etc. They may intentionally give you a less-than-perfect OU structure to see if you can make it work (because, and unfortunately, you may have to do things like that in the real world).

Keep you chins up fellas; you'll get past this

Mishra

dynamik wrote:

Sorry to hear about the fails (belated I know, cbriant!)

I think 294 was the most poorly worded exam I've taken.

Keep in mind that they often ask about things in an indirect manner. They may be looking for something completely different than you think they are. For example, they may not be looking for the most optimal OU structure, but rather if you understand other things like inheritance, enforcement (no override), filtering with security groups, etc. They may intentionally give you a less-than-perfect OU structure to see if you can make it work (because, and unfortunately, you may have to do things like that in the real world).

Keep you chins up fellas; you'll get past this

Yeah I'm definitely used to Microsoft asking things in an indirect manner.

I definitely understand inheritance/enforcement/filtering and all those things. I developed/manage a complete locked down environment at work for production users with GPOs and vbs scripts. We use a lot of these things. I'm like a GPO ninja.

I think I'm just not in the right mindset... My passing scores have never been that great for MS tests... I probably over think the questions too often or when I'm studying I only truely topics that interest me and I don't pick up on the things that I should be picking up on.

Mishra

Re-studying for this test... Failing it has actually giving me motivation to sit down and study topics so thats nice. I'm remembering the misreading I did during the exam... Again I understood everything in the question but the question itself.

I'm also seeing I got a lot of questions right... :-\

I'm trying to reschedule this exam... Prometric's site says this... And it has blanked out the dates that I can schedule the exam.

"The Microsoft retake policy requires a passed exam can only be taken once. In Addition, a failed exam can only be rescheduled after 14 days from the last failed date. The scheduling calendar reflects this retake policy. If no available dates are displayed, select the following month."

But MS's site says

"If you do not pass an exam the first time you take it, you may retake it at any time. If you do not achieve a passing score the second time, you must wait at least 14 days to retake the exam a third time. A 14-day waiting period will be imposed for all subsequent exam retakes. If you have passed an exam, you cannot take it again. Beta exams may be taken only once."

I guess I will have to call them.

hannos

Microsoft's site is correct. I failed it the first time then sat it again 4 days later.

You might not be able to re-schedule because prometric have you listed as sitting it but MS haven't received notification of your results.

But that's just a guess.

mr2nut

cbriant wrote:

Most of the content was on OU structuring and where to apply GPOs or permissions to an OU. There was some very random stuff that I had never come across such as the "gpOptions" permission and a question on a restore of a domain controller where you have to create folders in the sysvol folder???? Some of the questions didn't make any sense at all to me.

Here you go. I was confused at this too but i've just looked into it and thought you might want the MS answer..


The gPOptions attribute holds an integer value that indicates whether the Block Policy Inheritance option of a domain or OU is enabled (0) or disabled (1).