Third Time Lucky on 70-299?

SMurf7

Hello,

Today I failed the 70-299 a second time, woo hoo. That's my second shot used up.

What I didn't realise was that the questions were going to be the same as in the previous exam, just in a different order. I thought I was unlucky the first time round and a fresh set of questions would help me out. Then I thought "Well this is great, I can just try to work with my previous answers!"

So I tried giving different answers to the questions that I thought I had wrong previously (obviously evaluating them based on what I had learnt again)... guess what? I got exactly the same score - 538. One bar went down and the other went up!

I'm pretty despondent at this point because I've read the training kit from cover to cover several times, worked on the questions and also the Readiness Review Suite (which seems to generate tests full of multi-part questions) and I'm still getting nowhere. I think it may be because I have picked up bad habits or something like that, plus I think a few of the questions have more than one right answer, but if you don't do it the MS way, you're wrong. Is there a reason why they feel the need to have to press people into a mould in this way?

I suppose at the end of the day I'm just a first-level technical support analyst and won't get anywhere here without some concrete experience (which I will never get in my current position...)

spaat

SMurf7 sorry to hear that. Do you have a virtual lab setup at home? I was failing exams also, but once I implemented a virtual lab using Virtual PC 2007, I was able to grasp things better.

Also how far along are you?

SMurf7

Yes, I do have Virtual PC set up with a few instances of Windows Server 2003 and also one of XP Professional. This setup has served me well over the course of my other exams but this one seems to have stopped me dead.

In April of last year I did my first certification exam, which was CompTIA Security+. I did quite well (scoring just under 800 if I recall), so I then decided to follow the MCSA:Security track. All in all I have done the following (in date order):-

Security+
70-270 (XP)
70-290 (Server 2003 Admin)
70-291 (Sever 2003 Infrastructure)
70-316 (Visual C#.NET) (This was for the MCDBA I am also looking to complete)

It seemed that I was just getting better and better, my scores increasing with each exam I took (I got 860 in the last one). But this one has me stumped. Either way it'll have to go on the back burner for now, but I will give it a third go late next month.

spaat

I had the same problem with 70-291. I was sailing along at a good clip then I hit a brick wall with that one. Failed it several times. I took a break from it for about a 3 weeks then came back at it with a vengeance and finally passed it. Just try and stay with your game plan and hit it again next month. Once you get over that hump, the ride should smooth out some.

blargoe

Go back to your lab, but instead of doing the labs from the training kit, go to Technet and review the security topics there, and implement without using the training kit. You'll learn more that way.

elaverick1981

Sorry to hear about your problems with the exam. I only just scraped 299, it seemed like a really evil exam.

Are you going for full MCSE? If so then might I suggest you take some time out and have a crack at 293. It gives you a lot more foundation information on PKI and there are far more and far better resources available for it.

Good luck for next time.

jamesp1983

good luck bro! Lucky #3...

itdaddy

Smuf7 hang in there we have or atleast I have failed a few and then eventually came back and passed......
the hardest part is getting back on the horse and riding.
I know it was for me; i felt like a failure in my 284 exams
but realized I needed 290 and291 first dummy me..but
no matter, just take a break say a week or two revaluate your goals and hit it again. or some people here suggest hitting it again full steam. me I need 2 weeks or so to reevalute my studies and then regroup and hit it again.
you can do it man!

itdaddy

Smur7

but if you don't do it the MS way, you're wrong. Is

you are 100% right dont forget it. They really program that into your head. It seems to me the guys who pass these exam better are the ones with less experience or tons of experience and just know MSs way of doing stuff. Do it by the book and you will win!

SMurf7

A month later and I tried again, this time scoring... 862!
(Although I'm gotta be dreaming of dirty IPSecs for the next couple weeks...)

That makes me MCSA:Security now.

NetAdmin2436

Awesome!

Way to stick with it.

jamesp1983

SMurf7 wrote: »

A month later and I tried again, this time scoring... 862!
(Although I'm gotta be dreaming of dirty IPSecs for the next couple weeks...)

That makes me MCSA:Security now.

congrats!!