Passed Friday 17th April

I passed this exam today, it was tough but easier than I thought it would be!

I got 50 questions (bummer), which included 5 sims that were all pretty simple. There were about five or six drag and drop questions too, and a couple of property-sheet type questions.

NLB/Server clusters didn't seem to feature as highly as I was expecting, but PKI was in there, especially on the SIMs.

My advice for those soon to take this exam: alongside the obvious NLB/clustering/PKI material, make sure you are familiar with the Group Policy Management Console, revise hard on IPSec/security templates.

Also, RRAS and DNS featured more highly than I was expecting, so make sure you brush up on those subjects too.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

nielpeel

I forgot to say, I used the MS-Press book (not very good), Syngress (much better), CBT Nuggets, but probably most of all Technet articles, to prepare for this exam.

And to celebrate I'm having a few Steall Artois and Carlsberg lagers to celebrate.

70-294 next - see you there!

dynamik

Nice job

Good luck with 294!

Slowhand

Very cool, congratulations on the pass!

genXrcist

Congrats on the PASS!!!

msnelgrove

Congrats on the pass!

NetAdmin2436

Congrats!

motogpman

Congrats on the pass! On to 294 then?

nielpeel

Yes, 294 is next for me; I managed to get the MSPress book off of Ebay for £13, and although I was temporarily distracted by the lure of other vendor certs like Cisco, I really want to keep up the momentum with the Microsoft certs, through to MCSE hopefully

manny355

congrats on the pass, I hope to be taking this one very shortly.

motogpman

How did you feel towards the MS book. I have it on disc, but in particular, how do you think the labs helped? I am using the testout, CBT nuggets, and internet info as well. I want to learn it, apply it, and not just pass it, if that makes sense.

nielpeel

To motogpman :-

Honestly I felt that I had wasted my time going through the 70-293 MS Press book - although I had heard that it was poor for this particular exam, I went ahead and read through it, but realised when preparing for the exam with practice questions, labs etc. that it had left some gaping holes in the knowledge required to pass this exam.

Therefore I would advise using the Syngress book for this exam, particularly the chapters on PKI and Clustering. If you have already taken and passed 70-291, then your knowledge of DNS, DHCP, security templates and IPSec should be enough to see you through in those areas.

I also found Microsoft Technet to be an invaluable resource for 70-293.

The MS Press book labs were OK, but again you would need to put in a lot of practice of your own exploring the depths of PKI and Clustering before you are ready for the exam. From my experience, the exam sims (I had 5) focus on PKI and GPOs/IPSec more than anything else. Make sure you are familiar with the Group Policy management Console (gpmc.msc - download it from Microsoft)!

Best of luck for your exam.

whatthehell

Congratz!

Wow technet was a good resource too? Cool! Glad I have a subscription --- any links to particular site sections that were good knowledge?