The Beast claims another victim :(

neathneathneath

Took the exam this morning and failed with a 495.

48 questions and 1 sim.

Felt pretty confident throughout and overall "feel" of the exam was not as difficult as I was led to believe. The format of the exam was fairly straightforward too. About six questions were out of my depth and were pretty vague (DNS). Some other questions needed a bit of guesswork.

My exam printout showed about 50% in all areas except Network Security (say 40%).
Even RRAS was about 50%.

I've got a second shot on this one so all is not lost, back to the books and try to find a way to improve my performance by at least 20-25%.

I've used CBT Nuggets, ExamCram2, MS Press and SelftestSoftware (but only bought this recently). Been studying pretty hard for 5 months but it seems that I'm a bit below par on this one. Doesn't help that I don't deal much with DNS and certainly not RRAS at work.

Others on this forum have mentioned the syngress book - any recommendations?
(I find the Exam Cram2 Book is not quite up to scratch and the MS Press is on a different planet).

Any ideas on test retake action plan welcomed - need to re-sit before second shot expires in June - will have to check the exact date.

neathneathneath

As I said above, I've got a second shot on this.

Although there's no rush, I've looked at possible options when I can re-take this test and there are two choices, 8 weeks time or 14 weeks time.

Do you think its better to go for the 14 weeks to allow more time or go for it at 8 weeks whilst its fresh in my mind. (you can only book 8 weeks ahead with prometric)

The second shot offer would cover either.

skrpune

sorry you didn't make it on this shot neathneathneath.

I say book the exam now for 8 weeks out, and then go about reviewing. As you go through your round 2 studies, if you find that you're a bit head you can always move up the test date...and if you're lagging behind or need more review, then you can always push back the test.

stangman

Sorry to hear you did not pass. I know the feeling all to well. I used three books but I agree that the exam cram book did not do a very good job with the content. My first time being disappointed in one of there books. What I used was Transcender, MSPress and Sybex along with Self-Test and I took advise from this board and watched TestOut video for 291.

When I failed the first time 2 weeks ago I went back and hammered on Transcender and Self-Test mixing in going over reading what I was weak in. Yesterday I passed so keep your chin up and I'm sure you'll pass as well.

Daniel333

Sorry to hear about that.

I would highly recommend starting with the videos on DNS at Online software tutorials, training CDs, Photoshop Tutorials, Dreamweaver Tutorials, Apple Tutorials from vtc.com. They go into the detail that I felt was missing from the books.

Then maybe snag Transcender questions. I am sure now that you have seen the level of complexity you'll figure it out.

aordal

Don't beat yourself up. It's not called The Beast because its super easy =D Now you know what you're up against. Arm your holy hand grenade and when you're ready, try again.

motogpman

Sorry to hear about the fail. It seems that this test has a lot of material to cover, now that I am studying for it, so this may be the reason for the high fail rates. At least you know where to brush up on. I can see the DNS issues if you don't use it that often or in a limited capacity. Keep us updated.

Daniel, thanks for the link. I am watching the 291 demos right now. I used the VTC for my Security+ studies, the author was not bad, a little dry, but the material did cover a good bit and in depth. He at least had experience in the security side of IT, which probably helped. Are you using the monthly subscription or just the free demos? Not trying to highjack this thread however.....

bsddaemon0

I failed both 290 & 291 on the first attempts, missing by 1 or 2 questions and scoring about 650 & 670. I just retook them both about a month later and passed. Go over the sample tests from MeasureUp & SelfTest. When you score in the upper 80s to low 90s then reschedule.

Slowhand

Sorry to hear you didn't pass. You can use the score report you got at the end of your exam to determine your weak areas and what you need to focus your studies on from here, (just don't forget to review a little bit of everything, so you don't forget something you did well on this first time). I'd say your best bet is to schedule it as far in the future as you can, start studying, and see where you are about a week before the exam. If you're doing well on cold practice tests, then you're ready, otherwise you can always reschedule with Prometric for another two or three weeks.

Good luck!

neathneathneath

stangman wrote: »

Sorry to hear you did not pass. I know the feeling all to well. I used three books but I agree that the exam cram book did not do a very good job with the content. My first time being disappointed in one of there books. What I used was Transcender, MSPress and Sybex along with Self-Test and I took advise from this board and watched TestOut video for 291.

When I failed the first time 2 weeks ago I went back and hammered on Transcender and Self-Test mixing in going over reading what I was weak in. Yesterday I passed so keep your chin up and I'm sure you'll pass as well.

You mentioned using both Transcender and Self-Test. I'm finding the bookwork a bit much at the moment, so I've decided to hit the selftests and transcenders every day with some extra book work. I've signed up for the 30 day Web access of transcenders to try it out and am finding many of the questions (in particular DNS) not so long-winded as the selftestsoftware ones. Some questions are identical. Any thoughts on using both Transcender and Self-Test - my gut feeling is to crack on with Transcenders as it seems to be a bit more user-friendly.