What is wrong with this thing...

aidan80

Maybe I'm doing something wrong here but.. Read the MS Press 70-270 cover to cover!.. Have a VM setup in a VM domain via Win 2k (trial), read Mike Myers 70-270 Passport and the tech notes, a few times!... I'm getting like 80%.. the high has been 84% using the testout software that came with the MS book!.. Haven't taken the test yet, it's scheduled for this coming Friday! I'm getting the mid 80's with the Passport book and around the same in the techexams tests...

Almost all the questions it's (testout) throwing at me are a paragraph long, with another few sentences for each of the selectable answers? Then it gets worse.. it then wants me to give it the correct answer by dragging and dropping the correct sequence of events in the right order.. who cares if I hit start - control panel or right click and hit properties!..I seem to be tripping up on the simple things because the answers at times appear all so similar? What **** wrote this test!

I'm not happy at all with this!.. going into the A+ both exams and the N+ I was scoring in the mid 90's before the test and didn't worry too much at all? Now am in the low 80's% and I'm worried that $125 is about to vanish! I've used XP for years and 2000 before that... I know the stupid thing inside out but I still appear to be slipping up and rereading the MS book isn't any help.. the Mike Myers book is so out of date I think that did more harm than good at this point...

Any advice short of hoping for the best! I am trying to target any weak areas and reread as much as I can from all sources! I do have the second shot voucher applied so I can do it again.. Is the actual test as hard as the what testout is throwing at me? What's the pass again... I thought it was 80% but got a fail today at 84%?

apena7

I recently took this exam and passed with a 794.
Even though I was expecting them, I did not have any simulation-type questions. Get ready for those paragraph-long questions! Yes, they are a drag, but I'd rather have a couple of paragraphs with Microsoft than 2 sentences with CompTIA.

Prepare for the most obscure questions. You probably won't get asked anything basic, such as rolling back a driver, or probably anything you would perform day-to-day. Most of the questions I had were targeted towards NTFS and folder-sharing. I also had a couple of questions regarding installation techniques.

For studying techniques, I would write down just about every *.exe file mentioned in the MS Book along with its purpose. For example, you should not have to guess between using WINNT or WINNT32 for the situation presented in the question.

Good luck!

knownhero

apena7 wrote: »

I recently took this exam and passed with a 794.
Even though I was expecting them, I did not have any simulation-type questions. Get ready for those paragraph-long questions! Yes, they are a drag, but I'd rather have a couple of paragraphs with Microsoft than 2 sentences with CompTIA.

Prepare for the most obscure questions. You probably won't get asked anything basic, such as rolling back a driver, or probably anything you would perform day-to-day. Most of the questions I had were targeted towards NTFS and folder-sharing. I also had a couple of questions regarding installation techniques.

For studying techniques, I would write down just about every *.exe file mentioned in the MS Book along with its purpose. For example, you should not have to guess between using WINNT or WINNT32 for the situation presented in the question.

Good luck!

Same here I passed with 843 and I didnt get any drag and drop q&a. Think they are just testing you to see if you actually know how to do it the long way. They think I learnt very quickly about MS they want you to do things the long way instead of the simple right click of things.

Not to down play the exam it was kinda tough. Some questions are long and full of pointless rubish that has nothing to do with the question itslef!! Tip for you if you would call it that is to read question and pick out the important parts and forget the rest that is what I did to save time.

9 times out of 10 you can skip the whole top line as its only telling you about the OS they use.

aidan80

Thanks for the responses!.. I think I feel a lot better knowing what your saying! I think another part of whats tripping me up on the practice right now is I'm doing it so late.. after being at work all day.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the paragraph long questions.. at last. After some reading and looking over the questions it's best if I split out the question do the math on the permissions, that makes it a lot easier. although I'm still getting caught.. then again it's almost midnight and I been up all day at work.. then running over this!

I'll keep at it, I'm sure I'll get through it all alright!

ThunderPipe

One thing to remember with Microsoft's questions is that there is a ton of b/s thrown in the question. They tell you susie's friend amy has a sister who likes dogs, and then tell you to fix susie's computer. This is of course an extreme exaggeration, but it gives you an example of what to do: Weed out the b/s and figure out the actual question. From there, you should easily be able to scratch two answers off, read, reread, and then you should be able to get the correct answer.

skrpune

ThunderPipe wrote: »

One thing to remember with Microsoft's questions is that there is a ton of b/s thrown in the question. They tell you susie's friend amy has a sister who likes dogs, and then tell you to fix susie's computer. This is of course an extreme exaggeration, but it gives you an example of what to do: Weed out the b/s and figure out the actual question. From there, you should easily be able to scratch two answers off, read, reread, and then you should be able to get the correct answer.

Perfect description!

In all seriousness though, while these long & sometimes wacky questions are a bit annoying, they're a pretty good representation of what goes on in real life. It's rare that a customer/client/coworker will present you with EXACTLY the information you need to figure out a problem and nothing more. Most often, you get a ton of information that has nothing to do with the problem at hand and it's up to you to weed through it and figure out what's pertinent and then use that info to fix the problem at hand.

Daniel333

TestOut questions were pretty accurate, so are Transcender. I would make sure you are getting in the mid to high 90s before taking this exam.

Lastly, I would work through all the labs in the Microsoft Press book. You are going to have to a few simulations that are based after those.

aidan80

Daniel333 wrote: »

TestOut questions were pretty accurate, so are Transcender. I would make sure you are getting in the mid to high 90s before taking this exam.

Lastly, I would work through all the labs in the Microsoft Press book. You are going to have to a few simulations that are based after those.

Thanks for all the responses..

Right now I'm getting low to mid 80's! it's failed me every single fcukin time I've taken the practice test! I need to either reschedule it tonight because by tomorrow it'll be too late I'll have to sit it and hope for the best.

I just can't see what it is to nail down what I'm doing wrong? I'm picking what appears to be the most correct answer and I think I'm being caught by the smallest of things.. those questions that have two answers almost the same.

I've done the A+ and N+, used XP for years and years.. used 3.1, 95, 98, ME and 2000.. even running a beta of Windows 7 and I'm failing XP? Or I should say I'm failing.. "Some XP but mostly server stuff and a bunch of networking as well"

I'll try another random test and if it fails me again I'm going to have to do it another time. I just don't know when and I hate to have to do that.

apena7

How frequently do you use a practice test?
I suggest only using it once every few days or so, after you have studied your weak areas outlined by your last practice test. Don't base your performance on the practice test as your expectation for the real thing. Use the practice test only to judge where you should focus your studies.

calaverasgrandes

While it may help to take the practice tests somewhat. Do not put too much on them. I was getting terrible scores on my practice test (the one that came with the MS 70-270 self learning kit). Like 50% or worse! I kept putting my test off and hitting the books. Well I screwed up and forgot to put my test off again. Prometric has that nifty 24 hour lockout on their website. So if you try and re-schedule less than 24 hours beofre your appointment, no dice!

Well I went in fully expecting to fail, miserably. I figured it would be good to just get it over with and kind of clear this mental block. I sat down and took the test. I didn't rush through but I still finished with an hour to spare. So I went through and reviewed my answers. There were a couple I reconsidered.
I ended up passing well! I completely nailed hardware and installation. Sucked at security. Did ok on the others. my score wasnt great but I passed!

As far as studying for it I would just make sure you get a lot of hands on. Reading is the worst way to learn computer stuff. DO IT! If you hit a stumper question, dont freeze up. Use logic. Eliminate the choices which would certainly be false. Then of the remaining choices try to determine the most logical choices.
I say this because (without violating the NDA) I have to say there were some dud questions on my test. Stuff about networking that was patently wrong. I dont know if they are trying to phase testers by throwing in ringer info or what? I am sure I chose the correct reponse. But it was vexing that part of the exhibit (which didnt actually affect the element in the question) was wrong in a way that would be non-functional!

But yeah, I didnt hit anything but multiple choice questions and one target question. Those "put the tasks in order" questions are annoying. CCNA has alot of those too. And with both windows and IOS there are MULTIPLE WAYS to do almost everything!