Failed a second time

So I just got back from failing this beast a second time. I admit the first attempt I did not study nearly enough. This time I spent three days straight studying and really thought I was prepared going in. I could tell half way through the exam I did better than last time (scored 484 then) but it didn't seem like I was doing well enough to pass. It felt like they hit me harder on the CA and Clustering material than before and this was my downfall. Scored a 574 this time which is lower than I expected.

The good news is I focused my studies on DNS the last few days and I really felt good about those questions, so in theory if I spend a few days on clustering, nlb, and certificates I should be all set.

From what I've read so far the Syngress book gets high remarks around here so I'm thinking about buying that. I would like to take the test again next week so I'm not sure I could get this book in time but I'll check locally. It seems I've depleted the usefulness of the MCSE Nutshell book. Anyone have experience with other material that was helpful?

Thanks for all of the input you guys provide in this forum, I'll slay the beast yet.

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Comments

Nezzer

Looks like most of the links in the 70-293 Resources sticky will be a good start.

dynamik

Definitely hit up the links in the sticky and check out the Syngress book. It pushes 1000 pages, so you'll probably have a difficult time getting through that in a week even if you manage to get your hands on it. I'd focus on learning the material and not just trying to get through the exam asap. Have you been doing any labs to get hands-on experience?

Welcome to the forums

Nezzer

I'd focus on learning the material and not just trying to get through the exam asap.

Good advice.

I just rescheduled the exam and the earliest I can take it is March 9th. That will force me to take the time to really learn the material which is for the best in the long run. As far as labs I just have some simulators I found on the Internet a while back. It seemed to help quite a bit so I'll work with those some more and maybe build a few VM's with 2003 Enterprise.

I refuse to take this exam a fourth time so I'm going to give this try everything I have and hope for the best. If I pass then it's on to 70-294 and 70-298. If I fail again I'm moving on to material I enjoy - CCNP.

aordal

This free lab is amazing for getting to know clustering: TechNet Virtual Lab: Creating Highly Available Services with Failover Clustering

You can go through the lab and do what M$ recommends. THen you can come up with some stuff on your own (Breaking the Quorum drive and fixing it, bringing online different resources etc..)

Nezzer

Awesome. Thanks aordal!