Beast De-fanged?

tawnos

With the second shot deal, i decided to make an early first attempt to see how close i was and see what i needed to work on. The test was much shorter and easier than i expected, and far easier than i remembered the 290 or 270 being when i took them in mid 2007. I went in having only studied the mspress book and got a 921, whereas i had expected to at least need transcenders on top of that just to pass.

I'm wondering if the tests have been changed, and rethinking whether or not i want to stop at just the MCSA if the 293 and 294 would be as easy as this one nowadays.

genXrcist

Great score, congrats! You must have a lot of work experience?

Super99

Great score!

tawnos

Not much work experience really. I had to put in quite a bit of studying and practice tests on the 270/290. The entire format of this 291 test (taken almost 2 years later) seemed different, with really short questions and no subtle tricks hidden in the depths of long paragraphs.

RobertKaucher

tawnos wrote: »

Not much work experience really. I had to put in quite a bit of studying and practice tests on the 270/290. The entire format of this 291 test (taken almost 2 years later) seemed different, with really short questions and no subtle tricks hidden in the depths of long paragraphs.

That's not the test I took! It is possible the format changed but I really doubt it for a test of this age. More likely you got very lucky and managed to get a pool of "kind" questions. Not easy, just questions that were nice to you and didn't bite. But don't let that degrade your achievement. A 921 is a killer score on any MS test, especially this one!

dynamik

Congratulations!

There are plenty of people failing 293 and 294, so go ahead and do them if you're looking for a challenge

Seriously though, an MCSE is much better than an MCSA. Finish the track! You already have a good start on 293 since there is significant overlap with 291.

genXrcist

dynamik wrote: »

Congratulations!

There are plenty of people failing 293 and 294, so go ahead and do them if you're looking for a challenge

Seriously though, an MCSE is much better than an MCSA. Finish the track! You already have a good start on 293 since there is significant overlap with 291.

I agree that an MCSE is better than an MCSA but I'd be very interested in hearing the reasons why you think it is.

dynamik

Normally I'd just provide an answer, but since you're local, you're going to have to bribe me with a few beers

Do a search on a job board for MCSE and MCSA. Looking in nation-wide on Monster shows 966 and 234, respectively (which is a better ratio than the 15-to-2 in MN). The MCSE is simply the more "known" of the two, regardless of whether the job needs it.

Moving from an HR perspective to a technical perspective, I simply think it makes you more well-rounded. The lack of any serious work in AD really weakens the MCSA in comparison to the MCSE, IMHO, and things like clustering/NLB, PKI, design and planning, etc. will only help you in the future.

impelse

Congrats.

I agree with dynamik, if you get MCSE you have more probabilities to go through HR and your salary rank will be much better.

whatthehell

Congratulations on passing with such an awesome score!

mikedisd2

genXrcist wrote: »

I agree that an MCSE is better than an MCSA but I'd be very interested in hearing the reasons why you think it is.

Huh? Higher tax bracket!

Seriously though, that's one kick-arse score, I like the sound of the shorter qu's, no tricks concept, wish we were all that lucky.