Taking 290 today with 2 hours study time**Update Failed 698*

ULWiz

Well i got my exam scheduled for today at 1pm et. I decided to go take a shot at this exam with only a few hours of study time. Have not read a book as of yet. I guess i feel i got a good chance at passing it but also want to see how the exam is due to the second shot offer.

Wish a brother luck on this one i am def going to need it with my lack of prep.

I will post a pass or a fail either way.

amp2030

Good luck mate, hope you pass it!

gorebrush

Nice, 2 hours study only!

Well, the exams are supposed to be a mark of your experience and expertise, so I say: - Go and nail that sucker!

mrmcmint

good luck mate! Let us know! Im taking in a few weeks, let us know what you think!

kmfinegan1

good luck

ULWiz

2 hours and 15 minutes to go. Test time is almost here. Going through my practice questions and hitting a few subjects to brush up. I will be shocked if i pass this since i never really studied for this exam.

J-Dubs

Best of luck to you.

Graham_84

Did this exam ages, i was quite shocked at difficulty, i got 920 on it, but it touched active directory quite a bit, dsmod, dsadd etc. Lots of things to know that i have never used since. Good luck!

ULWiz

So i failed my exam today with 2 hours total study time. Got a 698 on the exam. I had 30 questions where 7 of them where sims. Test was not super hard but with only 2 hours of study time and no real world experience besides my home server it was to be expexted.

Not dissapointed at all, of course i would have liked to pass but this was a trial run for me since i have the second shot.

Going to reschedule the exam two weeks from today and take it again.

Graham_84

you must be well p*ssed off! sorry to hear it! So close! been waiting for your result . On the upside. Fantastic effort!

dynamik

Why did you take it without studying for it?

ULWiz

Just wanted to see how hard it was. And what to expect. This was my first server exam from microsoft and since the second shot is available i said why the hell not.

Going to study a little on the areas i saw on the exam where i needed a little touch up.

Going to schedule it again for two weeks from now and go take it again

amp2030

That is most unfortunate... Two points?

On the plus side, though, it forces you to study some more, and learning is what taking these exams is all about, in the end.

Which were your weakest topics?

ULWiz

Never implemented terminal services on my server so that was a weak point for me. besides that i would have to say i need to brush up on IIS a little. Going to implement both on the server i have downstairs and take this exam again. dont feel like a pass should be a issue at all next time.

Slowhand

Ouch, that's too close for comfort. Well, at least you didn't spend weeks or months of study before getting that close, only to fall so very, very short. It's a good thing you've got the Second Shot, so go knock it out of the park next time around.

ULWiz

Definately going to try. Now that i know what to expect it should be a breeze next time. Even though i did not pass i expected this exam to be much tougher. If the 291 is a beast it better be 10 times harder than this exam.

ULWiz

How soon can i register for this exam again. Do i have to wait two weeks before i can take it again or can it be taken the next day.?

ULWiz

And dynamik i guess i decided to take it because i though i stood a good chance at passing it with the knowledge i had on it. I knew i would either fail it by a little or pass by a little. So i guess that was part of my logic on this one.

I was thinking about maybe taking it this morning but think i am going to wait till this sat.
Going to study a few things and implement a few more things on my enterprise server.

amp2030

ULWiz wrote:

How soon can i register for this exam again. Do i have to wait two weeks before i can take it again or can it be taken the next day.?

If you want to use the second shot voucher, you'll have to wait a day or two for the fail to register with MS. The two weeks thing is if you fail it a second time.

ULWiz

So my plan is to study for another week between work and school and try and take the exam again. There are a few things i need to brush up on. Scheduled it for Tuesday at 2.

amp2030

Well then I'll race you to it!

ULWiz

When are you taking it.

And what did you use to study with.

amp2030

Taking it tomorrow, second shot next week if I'll need it.

I spent about two weeks of full-time study for it. Used MS Press, CBT Nuggets, and a VMware virtual lab for practice (one 2003 DC, one 2003 member server, one xp client).

gorebrush

I assumed you had real world experience, and now you're saying you have none!

698 is pretty good then!

ULWiz

Nah i have never touched a server in any type of business setting. I have a windows 2003 Server doing AD on my home network but never used it for labs or anything to practice with.

All i did for this exam was read the cramsession guide and the technotes.

Going to brush up on a few things like IIS and Backups and terminal services.

helms20

ULWiz wrote:

Just wanted to see how hard it was. And what to expect.

The problem with this is the possibility that this test only had a couple of questions on a certain subject and you got them both right giving you a false sense of understanding the subject. Your next test could hammer a subject you did well on this time and go more into detail about it.

Anyways I hope that you will do fine. Good luck

Mishra

This is the one exam where I feel like you should really study and test lab everything. Have a great understanding of all the topics because the study material is closely related to real life problems.

If you are just trying to quickly knock this out, then you aren't doing yourself a favor. Especially if you don't have much experience with 2003. So do yourself a favor and really understand each topic.

ULWiz

Just because i was trying to knock it off quickly does not mean i dont understand the topic that are being given to me. It just means i did not think i needed to study for this cert for months at a time. And as you can see i do have a pretty good grasp of the concept since i missed a pass by one question without opening a book.


I dont have much experience with 2003 Server on a company level but have had my own server implemented for almost 2 years.

Studing what i need help on for my retest on tuesday.

Mishra

ULWiz wrote:

Just because i was trying to knock it off quickly does not mean i dont understand the topic that are being given to me.

Thats not really what I said/meant. I said IF you are trying to knock it out quick (quick meaning you half way understand the topics and are trying to get it over with) then I wouldn't suggest that. If thats not you then so be it. The reasoning for my post is to strengthen the importance of the topics on this test vs real life scenarios. Not to judge what you know about this test.

And as you can see i do have a pretty good grasp of the concept since i missed a pass by one question without opening a book.

And for a quick point, the score of the tests isn't a true measure of what you know about the topics. Someone could truely get 50% of the test correct, and guess correctly on 20% giving them a passing score. Again, I'm not saying this is you. I'm just making a generalized point.

ULWiz

I hear what you are saying. It would be pointless to try and knock of a cert without understanding the concepts. Not what i am trying to do . I just felt i understand the topics at hand and decided to take a shot.