MCDST Certified!

I passed these two exams today 70-271 - score 783 and 70-272 - score 700 on the mark. I was surprised. The first exam 271 had 64 questions and the second 272 had 55 questions. I remember someone posted a few months earlier that they had 40 and 49 questions respectively. The past MS exams I have take they usually put a some real hard ones but after question 8, 9 and 10 it gets more familiar and somewhat easier. Luckily I bough two discount MS vouchers of $59 for a total of $118, $6 less than retail because they expired today.
Here are the exam objectives:

271 http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-271.asp
272 http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-272.asp

I recommend buying the getcertify4less.com Selftestsoftware MS voucher package for $159. They have 127 questions in the 271 exam and swear that I had some of the similar questions on my real exam.

These exams are not bad if you are already familiar with the MS exam format of lengthy paragraphs and selecting the right answer or choose all that apply. If you have Windows XP you have the OS to practice some of the regular and not used features of XP that they will test you on. I did have some questions on Office XP Word or Excel troubleshooting procedures. Plus questions on Outlook and Outlook Express, Internet Connection Firewall, NTFS/ FAT encryption or not, Remote Assistance, Virus troubleshooting. Even 70-216 Network Infrastructure type troubleshooting question on DNS, DHCP and WINS. So watch out! It may not be that easy as you think

I know some of you want to take these exams to get certified on this title, but It may not be as easy as describe or compared to exam 270. These tests do cover Windows XP so if you already have books/study guides for XP, you really don't need a 271 or 272 book. I do recommend the STS software to prepare for these exams if you want to pass the first time. They are not bad because there are some select and place questions on actual screen shots of XP menu like the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) menu and proper configurations to check.

Study for it, I'll see if I made the 5000 Charter club for MCDST

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Comments

Ricka182

I should get around to fininshing my MCDST. I only need the first exam, just too lazy. What's this 5000 club?? Hmmm...incentive to buy voucher, take test......

Anyway, congrats....nice review!

2lazybutsmart

congratulations on the pass

Don_PA

Thanks.

But I was kinda disappointed by the score. I usually review my answers in the end and I did change my answers for both tests after looking at again. One or two more wrong answers on the 272 exam, and I could have failed it.

I have to wonder how they score these tests. Maybe they put more weight/score on one question than another. I saw a screen in the beginning that some questions may be beta and might not be use in the scoring

Like I said before on one of these test they do throw in a couple of hard ones. The troubleshooting the network LAN like IP address and DHCP and DNS questions and I had a real hard one on Microsoft Wireless network configuration. Then there was the questions on Windows XP Pro configuration of regional language setting of Japanese, Korean or Bulgarian. You just have to know how to setup the regional translation. It's there in Windows XP control panel even if us English speaking users don't bother to test it.

Rick I want you to go for the 70-271 test and pass it like you did for 272 and get your MCDST cert. It's not a bad cert to earn considering it is only two tests to pass. They I did get a couple of hard questions but some more easy types like I know that is the right answer and I can eliminate the other answers. Remember these test are still new as they came out earlier this year 2004 and the 5000 club is the first 5000 who pass these two tests for MCDST. I think they give you a card.

Go for it Rick !

Study, Practice, and Pass

lseals

Congrats

skully93

Congrats!

I was going to start a new thread about this one. I think is a cert my wife might want to consider.

I figured it's not something you'd have to know every little administrative bit about to pass, but could have some real world value.

Was it difficult? What applications do they suggest you know?

mobri09

heck of a job!

skully93

I'm about halfway through the 271 book. I don't think that it would be all that hard, and I like that it goes over a lot of little things that the higher certs like 270 seem to kind of skip over.

I'm also lucky because I worked for a call center, so it gives me a lot of insight into most of the customer service end of it.

I'll have to check out the 272 book.

D-boy

Is MCDST harder than Network+ & A+? I was thinking of taking MCDST... what is the passing score? Are the MS press books best for the exams?

skully93

D-boy wrote:

Is MCDST harder than Network+ & A+? I was thinking of taking MCDST... what is the passing score? Are the MS press books best for the exams?

The MS press books are decent so far. Not as dry as the older ones. Sybex also has one book that covers both, but I've not read it.