Appointment with the Beast ... Update: Done and Done!

amp2030

I'll be taking it on this Wednesday. Been preparing for a whole month, Ms Press, CBT Nuggets, and many, many virtual machines. Was a blast studying for. I hope I'm ready; I'd have liked another week or so for review but the test center closes next week for the holidays and I want to make use of Second Shot.

Big Jizay

amp2030 wrote:

I'll be taking it on this Wednesday. Been preparing for a whole month, Ms Press, CBT Nuggets, and many, many virtual machines. Was a blast studying for. I hope I'm ready; I'd have liked another week or so for review but the test center closes next week for the holidays and I want to make use of Second Shot.

It sounds like you're ready for the test, using CBT Nuggets and many virtual machines. This seems like the kind of exam you have to prepare for with a lot of hands on training. I'm just now starting to study for the 291 myself. I believe if you register for the second shot by the end of December, and you take the test by the end of the year, the second shot is good until the end of February 2009. I'm not 100% about that though. Good luck on Wednesday.

(I used to use my brother's account GravyJoe but I have my own now)

suren327

yea i'm doing the same thing for second shot..i'm lucky though i got a date on the 29th so i got an extra 2 weeks of study time..but i've only started studying for this exam a week ago so i may be rushing it a little..

J-Dubs

Good luck!

Big Jizay

Good luck on the test today! Come back and let us know how you did

amp2030

Well, after a long struggle, the beast is no more. Can't really boast I slayed it, a better description would be I mortally wounded it and it died on its way to the hospital. Please welcome me to the 700's club, 792 to be exact (almost avoided it). But as I tell others, a pass is a pass. I guess this one makes me an MCSA!

Zerubb

Good job. I know you are happy to be done with this one. I'm currently studying for 291. I plan to take the test near the end of January. So how did the test questions stack up against the practice questions included with the MSPress study guide?

RomBUS

Coool congrats on the pass! And on the MCSA achievement too! I hope to be there by spring then leap to MCSE and then to the 2008 exams (at a slower pace).

I did a few practice questions on Trancender to see what I am up against and it looks like a challenge and fun at the same time. I think im gonna have fun with this one too

Big Jizay

Congratulations on passing the test AND becoming MCSA!!

Death to the Beast!!

kenny831

Congrats! Good job. I bet you are "Amped".

amp2030

Haha, amped indeed. This test has been fun to study for, it's the first one so far that seems to take a stab at more fundamental material (DHCP, DNS...).

The questions on the actual test ranged from annoying multiple choice "know the GUI by heart" ones (ex: how do you enable *something*: A - open this tab press that button open that press this, B - open this other tab press that other button, etc) to really cool situational ones that give a network topology and some requirements and ask you to assign correct settings.

I had only one SIM that was trivial.

Compared to MS Press, I found some questions had a greater level of complexity, while others (multiple choice/pick two) were very similar.

I know this isn't much information but I feel anything else would violate the NDA. My advice: get a good understanding of why things work the way they do, then do lots of practice to get used to where things are. Hope it helps a bit.

NetAdmin2436

Congrats! Both on passing and becoming MCSA. It's a wonderful feeling huh?

lucifer_sam

Congrats on the pass and on joining the MCSA club.

I very much agree with your advice below:

amp2030 wrote:

My advice: get a good understanding of why things work the way they do, then do lots of practice to get used to where things are. Hope it helps a bit.

LS.