FAILED MY MCDST AGAIN

dsaffar

HI ALL I FAILED MY MCDST 70-271 TODAY GOT 632 SCORE, THE EXAM IS NOTHING LIKE THE PRACTICE TEST YOU GET WITH MSPRESS, REALLY NOT IMPRESSED.

ANY IDEAS?

sprkymrk

dsaffar wrote:

HI ALL I FAILED MY MCDST 70-271 TODAY GOT 632 SCORE, THE EXAM IS NOTHING LIKE THE PRACTICE TEST YOU GET WITH MSPRESS, REALLY NOT IMPRESSED.

ANY IDEAS?

First, not that it's a pet peeve of mine, but you don't need to type all in CAPS.

Second, if you want a good practice exam the only one I can recommend is Transcender and they are expensive.

Other than that I would just recommend reading the MS Press book and maybe another one like Exam Cram and trying again. Do you have any experience on a Helpdesk/Tech Support?

Good luck.

dsaffar

sorry yes I have worked in IT for 2 years helpdesk, and taught Computer Maintenance at college for 1 year, mspress book did not help me, dont think my manager will pay for transcender so may have to purchase exam cram.
thank you

loxleynew

Yea if you really want to pass the test go for transcender. The questions there are very similar to the ones on the actual test. Exam cram is good.. but it leaves out some stuff.

Keep in mind on the tests they sometimes add one word that completely changes the way the answer is, so read carefully.

BradleyHU

the ms press books help alot, but you need a supplementary book as well. Also, pay attention to the wording of the questions...i think thats why i failed the first time i took the 271...

RobertKaucher

BradleyHU wrote:

the ms press books help alot, but you need a supplementary book as well. Also, pay attention to the wording of the questions...i think thats why i failed the first time i took the 271...

MCP lineage tests (i.e. not MCTS exams) are as much reading comprehension tests as they are technical exams. I believe the newer exams MCTS/MCITP are much less likely to be tricky in this way. But that is of no help in this situation....

I have mixed opinions on the Exam Cram book. I used it as one of my prep materials for the 271 and found the questions very difficult. Much more so than the actual exam. I also felt the topics covered were some times better suited for the 70-270. Also, the Exam Cram book I used had NO coverage of SP2, so it was a bit out-of-date.

kctxau

The Selftest practice exams are very similar to Transender and are noticably cheaper. Try the free demo software of two.
http://www.selftestsoftware.com/demo/default.aspx
http://www.transcender.com/demos/

RobertKaucher

kctxau wrote:

The Selftest practice exams are very similar to Transender and are noticably cheaper. Try the free demo software of two.
http://www.selftestsoftware.com/demo/default.aspx
http://www.transcender.com/demos/

Actually, Self Test Software is owned by Transcender. I am a huge STS fan. Used it for entire MCSE Security and Security+. But I don't think the software is really the issue.

dsaffar, what do you think the issue is? With or without the software, if you know the topics being tested you should be able to pass. With a score like yours I suspect you know the topics, but you are having issues with the questions.

What I think would be helpful is dowloading the demos suggested by kctxau and posting a few questions you you found difficult during the practice exam. We can pick it apart and once you start to see the logic in the questions your score will go up.

JMO...

dsaffar

Hi Robert

I think its the way the questions are written? I sat a practice test using mspress and got over 90%, I have been through the summaries in the book and practice labs, that's why I was thinking of using another source. I might go with self test, what do you think?

dsaffar

I am downloading a practice demo and will post questions i struggle with, thank you

neathneathneath

Personally, I found the Exam Cram books for the MCDST to be fine and passed both exams ok.
I found the 70-272 to be the easier of the two.
(i'm finding it a little different for the 70-291 but that's irrelevant here.

HolyWars

Try using Sybex for another option. Some of it is a bit vague on some of the areas but Is only about 400 pages long and covers both exams. Transcender is fantastic. Get it

Mogambo55

Hi Everyone

Just took my 70-272 today and passed with a 930 score. I purchased a 450 question exam PDF off of ebay for £1.99 that really helped me get ready for the exam. Must admit I did not feel that I had done as well as my score! Just passed the 70-271 with a score of 700 at the beginning of the month but I have found doing tests a really great way to prepare.

I have used the Microsoft books which I have found a real help especially the exercises as there is no substitute for hands on experience.

Mmartin_47

Mogambo55 wrote:

Hi Everyone

Just took my 70-272 today and passed with a 930 score. I purchased a 450 question exam PDF off of ebay for £1.99 that really helped me get ready for the exam. Must admit I did not feel that I had done as well as my score! Just passed the 70-271 with a score of 700 at the beginning of the month but I have found doing tests a really great way to prepare.

I have used the Microsoft books which I have found a real help especially the exercises as there is no substitute for hands on experience.

So you pretty much cheated. LAME

RobertKaucher

Mmartin_47 wrote:

Mogambo55 wrote:

Hi Everyone

Just took my 70-272 today and passed with a 930 score. I purchased a 450 question exam PDF off of ebay for £1.99 that really helped me get ready for the exam. Must admit I did not feel that I had done as well as my score! Just passed the 70-271 with a score of 700 at the beginning of the month but I have found doing tests a really great way to prepare.

I have used the Microsoft books which I have found a real help especially the exercises as there is no substitute for hands on experience.

So you pretty much cheated. LAME

And how do you know this was not a legit source that someone has created and sells on eBay?

dynamik

I'm inclined to give most people the benefit of the doubt, but no one is going to go through the trouble of writing 450 questions only to sell them £1.99. I think the best-case scenario is that someone stole the questions from companies like Transcender and repackaged them. However, it's probably just a ****.

Mmartin_47

dynamik wrote:

I'm inclined to give most people the benefit of the doubt, but no one is going to go through the trouble of writing 450 questions only to sell them £1.99. I think the best-case scenario is that someone stole the questions from companies like Transcender and repackaged them. However, it's probably just a ****.

Or possibly questions from braindumps and repackaged them, adding them as the author.

Mmartin_47

Honestly for me I did not need any practice questions. I just read the book and took the exam. Then again I did take the 70-270 course, so that may have helped me out.

RobertKaucher

Mmartin_47 wrote:

dynamik wrote:

I'm inclined to give most people the benefit of the doubt, but no one is going to go through the trouble of writing 450 questions only to sell them £1.99. I think the best-case scenario is that someone stole the questions from companies like Transcender and repackaged them. However, it's probably just a ****.

Or possibly questions from braindumps and repackaged them, adding them as the author.

I generally believe that it is correct to assume another to be innocent until proven guilty, rather than call him/her a cheater on a public forum when you have no first hand knowledge of what in fact they used to prep for the exam.

Perhaps we could create a list of these cheaters and force them to use a yellow star as their avatar? I will discourage accusing other people of cheating, just a strongly as I will discourage the use of ****. Here is a recent example:
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39593
Shouldn't this guy be able to post his messages without having to justify himself? I believe strongly in positive peer pressure, but we should draw a line at some point.

dynamik

Like this?

I really don't see how Mark putting a question mark by a resource is considered to be crossing the line though. I think people should be confronted when a resource seems questionable. Is it really that taxing on them to say, "Oh, I was referring to this resource."? Many people, probably like the guy in this thread, stumble upon these resources on use them without knowing any better. I'm pretty sure most people would want that brought to their attention, especially considering they risk suffering harsh penalties, such as having their certifications revoked, from using these types of resources.

I don't think it's fair to say we don't have any first hand knowledge of what he used either. He told us outright, and there is absolutely no way that is a legitimate resource. The fact is, he did ****. It's just not clear whether he did so intentionally (and it doesn't seem like he did), so while I agree that we shouldn't jump to conclusions and be exceedingly harsh, make personal attacks, etc., I think it absolutely should have been brought up.

RobertKaucher

Dynamik, I agree with you that the situation on the link I posted was probably not crossing a line, but I also found it a bit annoying because I see stuff like the link you posted too often. People are free to say what they want to, I just believe that sometimes they shouldn't say whatever they want.

But so I am clear, you know for a fact that Mogambo55 used a brain ****? I imagine he may have, but I do not know it for a fact. And I am certainly not willing to call him a cheater in a public forum, not only because of the potential insult to him as an individual, but also because of the potential stain on my own reputation were I to be wrong.

But just to play devil's advocate, I imagine if it was a brain ****, he had no idea. Otherwise, why bother paying?

Mmartin_47

I'm sure this is just a coincidence but people that have mentioned they passed with so and so, the user only has 1 or 2 posts...

dynamik

All I was saying is that I think it's fair to politely question suspicious material. I absolutely agree that we shouldn't level baseless accusations against someone's character as he or she may be genuinely unaware of a resource's illegitimacy. As I said earlier, it is beneficial to have such a thing brought to his or her attention.

As far as his resource goes, just poke around a little bit.

GET THE QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU TAKE THE EXAM

Get all the Questions and Answers for the MCDST Exams and feel confident when you take the test

That's from someone in Ohio.

As far as the package goes, it looks to be identical to the offering from Hong Kong, but Vincent Wong decided to go with something slightly more subtle.

Real Exam Complete Package

I'm not sure why you think people wouldn't pay for ****. People wouldn't create them if they didn't profit from them. People aren't using **** because they're poor; they just don't want to put the effort into learning the material.

sprkymrk

RobertKaucher wrote:

Mmartin_47 wrote:

dynamik wrote:

I'm inclined to give most people the benefit of the doubt, but no one is going to go through the trouble of writing 450 questions only to sell them £1.99. I think the best-case scenario is that someone stole the questions from companies like Transcender and repackaged them. However, it's probably just a ****.

Or possibly questions from braindumps and repackaged them, adding them as the author.

I generally believe that it is correct to assume another to be innocent until proven guilty, rather than call him/her a cheater on a public forum when you have no first hand knowledge of what in fact they used to prep for the exam.

Perhaps we could create a list of these cheaters and force them to use a yellow star as their avatar? I will discourage accusing other people of cheating, just a strongly as I will discourage the use of ****. Here is a recent example:
http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39593
Shouldn't this guy be able to post his messages without having to justify himself? I believe strongly in positive peer pressure, but we should draw a line at some point.

I don't mind your comments Robert, we should always treat others the way we would like to be treated. We should also try to maintain a balance, though, between "assuming" a suspicious resourse is legitimate vs. holding a person accountable for what might be cheating. Let's face it, if you can find me 3 legitimate resourses available on e-Bay that come in the form of PDF's, I'll show you 20 that are ****. I will continue to call 'em like I see 'em. A few of us have been on the forums long enough to smell this stuff a mile away. And you only see 10% or less of what the moderators see, as most of the threads in question go to the trash can before the post gets 4-5 reads on it. Then, the PMs come from those who have had there posts removed and in 99% of the cases they really did use ****. And they still try to justify it with all the same old reasons I won't list here.

Also, you can always drop me or Johan a PM if you think a thread/member gets out of line with flames or accusations.

DoubleD

How do you know thease PDFs are bad? and are Cheating? and If they are then the questions need to be asked...

Why is there stuff out there like that? and how did it get out there? Who did they get the questions and awnsers from? and what is being done to put a stop to it?

Surely it cant be possible to get the exact exam papers and answers on PDFs? it dont happen in real exams so how is it happening in this industry? please can somebody enlighten me?

how do they get away with make them/selling them cant ebay stop them from being sold?

dynamik

http://www.certguard.com/braindumps.asp

RobertKaucher

sprkymrk wrote:

I don't mind your comments Robert, we should always treat others the way we would like to be treated. We should also try to maintain a balance, though, between "assuming" a suspicious resourse is legitimate vs. holding a person accountable for what might be cheating. Let's face it, if you can find me 3 legitimate resourses available on e-Bay that come in the form of PDF's, I'll show you 20 that are ****. I will continue to call 'em like I see 'em. A few of us have been on the forums long enough to smell this stuff a mile away. And you only see 10% or less of what the moderators see, as most of the threads in question go to the trash can before the post gets 4-5 reads on it. Then, the PMs come from those who have had there posts removed and in 99% of the cases they really did use ****. And they still try to justify it with all the same old reasons I won't list here.

Also, you can always drop me or Johan a PM if you think a thread/member gets out of line with flames or accusations.

I have never seen the sort of behavior I would consider reporting on these forums, which goes a long way in showing the quality of people who post on this list and who are the moderators. Dynamik is a prime example. Polite and intelligent as always. Even in a post like this, which could get ugly, folks like MMartin keep their cool and are cordial to others. Good people!

Mmartin_47

RobertKaucher wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

I don't mind your comments Robert, we should always treat others the way we would like to be treated. We should also try to maintain a balance, though, between "assuming" a suspicious resourse is legitimate vs. holding a person accountable for what might be cheating. Let's face it, if you can find me 3 legitimate resourses available on e-Bay that come in the form of PDF's, I'll show you 20 that are ****. I will continue to call 'em like I see 'em. A few of us have been on the forums long enough to smell this stuff a mile away. And you only see 10% or less of what the moderators see, as most of the threads in question go to the trash can before the post gets 4-5 reads on it. Then, the PMs come from those who have had there posts removed and in 99% of the cases they really did use ****. And they still try to justify it with all the same old reasons I won't list here.

Also, you can always drop me or Johan a PM if you think a thread/member gets out of line with flames or accusations.

I have never seen the sort of behavior I would consider reporting on these forums, which goes a long way in showing the quality of people who post on this list and who are the moderators. Dynamik is a prime example. Polite and intelligent as always. Even in a post like this, which could get ugly, folks like MMartin keep their cool and are cordial to others. Good people!

Anyways im taking 272 on Saturday! Weeee! Finally my title changes from MCP to MCDST