Passed - 757 Points

Managed to pass with 757 points, 5 case studies 2hrs for whole exam.

I found this exam extremely tough with the time limit for each case study. The exam started and I was shocked as you have to complete 5 mini tests with a time limit for each one. It opened with the first case study with 20 minutes to answer 6 questions. I panicked, but the questions on this one were pretty easy and most could be answered without referring to the case study.

I completed this with about 5 mins to check over my answers. The next one flashed up and was a little harder with about 30 mins to answer 9 questions. This one involved using the case study a lot more.

Case study three opens and I've got 13 mins to answer 5 questions, now it's starting to get hard and there are more of the classic MS ambiguous questions that don't seem to make sense.

The next case study had harder questions still and it was hard to extract the information from the case study. The fifth one was ridiculous, with the amount of time given, the length of the case study and the ambiguity of the questions. I ended up having to guess a lot of the questions in this exam and was quite rushed to answer them all.

I wasn't expecting to pass at all and was quite surprised to see a pass mark at the end. My advise to anyone taking this exam is try to answer as many questions as possible without having to look at the case study. Answer questions based on ruling out the incorrect choices based on your knowledge of MS Infrastructure and then refer back to the case study to see if they marry up. Don't read the whole case study, most of it is waffle and it will take time to do this. Just scan for the relevant information.

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Comments

dynamik

Congratulations!

Are you done with the MCSE then?

cbriant

Now I have:

MCDST:
70-271
70-272

MCSA:
70-270
70-290
70-291

Should have MCSE with:
70-293
70-294
70-298

I've checked the website and it is not updated yet, but I believe this will get me the MCSE. Need to see it with my own eyes first to believe it. lol

dynamik

Do you have the Security+ or another elective? The MCDST only counts as an elective for the MCSA.

http://www.microsoft.com/LEARNING/MCP/MCSE/WINDOWS2003/default.mspx

cbriant

Looks like you're right.

Doesn't make sense though to make it an elective for MCSA and then take it away from you when you do the MCSE. Gutted that I have to do another exam.

NetAdmin2436

Congrats!

What study material did you use? Or did you just rely on everything you've learned so far....

NetAdmin2436

cbriant wrote: »

Looks like you're right.

Doesn't make sense though to make it an elective for MCSA and then take it away from you when you do the MCSE. Gutted that I have to do another exam.

Eh, no worries. Why don't you do security+? Compared to these exams it should be relatively straight forward for you. It would give you a long needed break from MS and you could get an entry level security cert under your belt.

cbriant

I used Transcender and Readyness review suite that comes with the book.

cbriant

Guess I'll have to do an elective then, either Exchange 2007 or SQL Server.

I've got a small amount of experience with Exchange, but absolutly none with SQL Server and used to struggle with relation DBs at University. Both would be usefull.

Please can someone comment on what they'd recommend.

I'm more inclined to take the Exchange elective, to be honest I just want to have the MCSE credential, it will help me to get a better job. Is this exam very difficult?

dynamik

Yea, some of those electives are MCSA only. The A+/Network+ combination is like that too.

I think either of those would be very useful electives, and would definitely make you stand apart from other MCSEs (like me). I'd go with whatever interests you the most since there are definitely opportunities for both.

elaverick1981

Congrats

cbriant

cbriant wrote: »

I used Transcender and Readyness review suite that comes with the book.

I found that the two of these were adequate for the exam. Transcender is good as a realistic simulation of the real exam and the Readiness Review Suite is very usefull in getting you up to a good standard as the questions are more difficult than the real one.

What I did and this is what I do with all exams, is go through every single question in the software twice and make notes. This took me two and a half days the first time round and it is boring, but it gets you up to the standard. I only use the MS book for reference.

Some people with experience can probably just take the exam and pass, but I don't get as much hands on as I am 1st Line Support.

cbriant

dynamik wrote: »

Do you have the Security+ or another elective? The MCDST only counts as an elective for the MCSA.

http://www.microsoft.com/LEARNING/MCP/MCSE/WINDOWS2003/default.mspx

Dynamik,

Although it appears that way here, I've just viewed my transcript and it says "Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer". I guess the MCDST does count towards the MCSE elective.

dynamik

Yea, I've seen people say they got it with the A+/N+ combo as well. I don't know what to think about it since none of their literature supports that. Those people are always encouraged to contact MS Learning, but if they do, I've never seen them post back.

elaverick1981

dynamik wrote: »

Yea, I've seen people say they got it with the A+/N+ combo as well. I don't know what to think about it since none of their literature supports that. Those people are always encouraged to contact MS Learning, but if they do, I've never seen them post back.

Actually if you go in to the certification planner they do show up there (if you can decipher it), unfortunatly you can only access that before you've got your MCSE...