Bring on 291

BazWal

Hi Guys,

Quick intro. My names Barry from Ireland. The MCSE has been an ongoing project for a while now. I have 270 and 290 done and after a break have scheduled 291 for 17th of next month. Only leaves just over 3 weeks to study but I have a little bit done already. I have my lab set up on virtual machines (DNS, DCs in different subnets) and have watched some CBT Nuggets on DNS. So I'm going to have to get the head down now for a few weeks to get the beast out of the way. Going to use the MS Self Paced training book to do some labs. Hopefully this forum will come in handy too. Do you think it's possible in just over 3 weeks? I know it depends on alot of things. But would like to know what kind of hours people generally put into their study for this one.

Thanks,
Barry

dynamik

What kind of previous experience do you have?

How much are you going to be able to study each day? Half hour? Five hours?

I'd use 50-60 hours as a rough baseline for this exam.

BazWal

Hi Dynamik,

Have about 4 years exp. Currently a sys admin on a large network. But wouldn't have experience designing large networks.

A rough guide was all I was looking for. I'd probably do 2 hours on weekdays and 5 hours on saturdays and the same on a sundays. This would give me 60 hours.

Barry

ladyfox

Hi Barry

Im studying for 291 now (having recently achieved 290 and 270 too). Im going to try and do a few hours a day during the week and max out on weekends. Id like to think i'll sit it in 3 weeks time but i know this exam is a biggie.

I also hear that if you are doing MCSE and 293 that you should try and do them close together as there is some overlap, so that might also be a consideration. I wonder whether to leave mine until Christmas as i have a lot of work engagements right now and do both exams then in one hit. Would welcome others suggestions?

Good luck, and ping me if you want to bounce questions off someone. Right now i am planning on doing just DNS and subnetting as i want to really get good in these areas.

Psoasman

Barry,

If you have 4 years of experience and a home lab set up, I think you can take out the 291. I would focus on DNS, RRAS, DHCP, and IPSec / security protocols, encryption.
I didn't feel the questions were worded poorly, they are just LONG. look for key words in the questions about what they want you to do. I think you have 3 or 4 hours for the exam, so there is plenty of time.
I have started reading the 293 book and there is a lot of overlap between 291 and 293.

BazWal

Thanks all for your input and support. Had started on DNS but doing a bit on RRAS now. Will have to go back to DNS again though as I haven't got my head around it all yet.

Good to know that there is an overlap with 293 as I hope to have both done by the end of November as that is when my current contract is ending.

I've left it all till the last minute as usual but I work better under pressure