Which is the hardest one of MCSE???

toteman85

Hi today I failed the 291 test with a 583, now I'm wondering if is this exam the hardest one on the list in my way to become an MCSE

dynamik

Most people say either this one or 293.

I'm sorry to hear about the fail. Did you take advantage of the second shot offer?

Welcome to the forums, and good luck with your retake

jnwdmb

I jumped into the 293 immediately after taking 291 because alot of the material carried over and I thought it was fairly easy....the 291 gave me fits though. I spent longer on it than I did on any other MS exam I have taken and I still failed on my first attempt, and to be honest, it wasnt even close. I will be taking my 294 in a couple days and the material has not been difficult to this point (and I hope that I am not underestimating it), but I have looked over some of the material for the 298 and it looks like it has the potential to be a handfull. IMO the 291 was easily the most difficult of the core exams though. Good luck on your retake.

toteman85

I have read about that and I think I just schedule the exam onece again using the same voucher number, is that correct?
I have never used a second shot

NetAdmin2436

Welcome to the forums.

So far 293 has been the hardest for me, but 291 is second.

toteman85

I just reschedule for the second shot and will be on feb 2nd...I will beat this test!! and in the mean time I will be doing some study on the 293, I think that if they are like the same kind of exam, it will help a little bit to get information from the 293 as well, to pass the 291.

Daniel333

I found 70-284 to be the hardest I have run into. 70-291 was tough too.

Jdruin

Actually, imho, I found the 294 to be the hardest. I made a 698 on it the first time then a 900 2 weeks later. For me, it was not the content as much as the obscure wording. Or it could be I was having a severe allergic reaction to something the day of the first test. I itched all over for the entire day.

mr2nut

293 then 291 I would say.

hustlin_moe20

I almost failed the 293 yesterday so yea, I'd say the 293 is the hardest. I got a 713.

Revenue

293 +1

Struggled with this a bit. Just take your time to know your stuff and ul be fine

mr2nut

Revenue wrote: »

293 +1

Struggled with this a bit. Just take your time to know your stuff and ul be fine

Looking through my testing history, 293 and 294 were the only exams I had to pull out my 2nd shot for throughout the MCSE course. I have 5 years in the industry and I would say i'm an experienced Engineer, but security isn't my strong point.

When dealing with small-medium sized business with no more than 200 staff, it isn't really an issue so it's only because I haven't had to/had the chance to implement and toy around with this stuff in the real world. I did however set some stuff up in virtualization for the exams to get the basics down.

kctxau

Jdruin wrote: »

..........For me, it was not the content as much as the obscure wording..........

Exactly! I have worked in this field since '83, and have yet to encounter -anyone- who phrases questions the way the exams do. Real people just don't talk like that. If they did, it would take forever to do anything.

coax31

294 to me is the hardest I failed it three times already. The test wording is so screwed up and i have ran out of time on this one.

Scores:
472
491
562

mikesz

How long did You guys study for the 291 and 293 exams?
I'm thinking 3 months (30 hours a week - lab and reading)??

NetAdmin2436

mikesz wrote: »

How long did You guys study for the 291 and 293 exams?
I'm thinking 3 months (30 hours a week - lab and reading)??

It really depends person to person. For me, I mistakenly relied to much on my experience (5 years) and didn't read 1/2 of the MS Press book on the 291 and barely squeaked by with a 700. Then on the 293 it came back to haunt me. 3 months is generous. I'd say 2 months would be appropriate, especially if your putting in 30 hours a week. 1 month is definitely do-able if your focused.

291 = 1 month
293 = 6 months (failed twice)

jnwdmb

In response to Mikesz, the fastest I have ever been able to study for a MS exam is 60/80 hours with 120 hours being about the most. I think that a realistic goal at 30 hours per week is an exam every 3 to 4 weeks. Good luck to you.

Daniel333

I've heard but can't substantiate, Microsoft designed these exams to be done in about 50 hours assuming you already have 6 months experience.

If you do a boot camp, where they teach your the minimum you need to know and cram the answers down your throat you can do it in 14 days, at 12+ hours a day.

Microsoft MCSA Training, MCSE Boot Camp, MCSA + MCSE Training, Course and Exam, 14 Day Official Boot Camp Training - Unitek Education

It's also important to note, that the bootcamp assumed 1+ year experience with engineering Windows Networks.

elaverick1981

Sorry to hear about your fail. 299 was by far my hardest exam, but its an elective so you don't have to go for it.
While some of the 293 materials will help you with 291, there is a huge subsection on PKI which is more than you need for this exam.
Have you had a look in the 291 section of the forum yet? Royal has compiled a list of TechNet and associated articles that should give you a real edge on this exam http://www.techexams.net/forums/70-291-windows-2003-network-infrastructure/19507-70-291-resources.html
Best of luck for your resit

meadIT

297 wasn't the hardest, but it is the one that gave me the most trouble. With this exam, if you miss one question, that can make 2-3 other questions wrong. I failed it twice (missing it by one question the second time), before passing it the third time. The only other exam I failed was 620

toteman85

well I rescheduled from the 2nd of February for today, and guess what!!! I pass with 861 finally. it was very funny I left the keys of the locker inside the locker. I had to wait for like an hour or so because they didn't have a duplicated. but the exam was easy this time I felt confortable this time.!!

Now I'm going to prepare for Exchange2003 to get MCSA soon

thanks for the support to everyone in the forum!!!

NetAdmin2436

Congrats on the pass!

toteman85 wrote: »

it was very funny I left the keys of the locker inside the locker. I had to wait for like an hour or so because they didn't have a duplicated.

Whoops! At least you passed though, so the hour wait probably didn't seam so bad. A fail would have made that wait seam like 4 hours.

elaverick1981

Congratulations

f3z81

Congrats on the pass,

I found the 290 harder than the 291, for some strange reason, but luckly I passed both on the first attempt.

I see you are doing the 284 next, me too. I fould this much harder than any of the MS exmas I done thus far. (failed the test yesterday with 622).

I know whare i went wrong: Not enough prep, I was due to sit the exam two weeks ago but had to reshedule due to the kids becoming ill, I done most of my studing then and very little in the last two weeks. Thank god on the free scond shot!

Best of luck with your next one.

cbriant

I'd say 294, this is the only exam I had to resit. Looks easy when you study the material, but the questions you get are so ambiguous.

cartecs3

I just passed 293 today and 291 two weeks ago.. I think 293 was much harder but I've been relying mainly on experience to get past the exams and only reviewing with the OReilly "In a Nutshell" book. I don't use load balancing or RRAS at work at all and the 293 exam I had seemed to hit on those quite a bit. I have yet to take 294 or 298 yet though..