Passed 83-640 / My thoughts

Just got back from taking the new 83/640, thought I would offer my thoughts on it, since I lurk around these forums a lot, I figure I should give back a little. I'm not trying to violate the NDA, so if someone notices something that may be questionable, let me know.

First off, I had to drive an hour to get to the testing center, because none of the centers in my area have availability on the weekend, and I wanted to take the test this weekend, in case I failed and needed to retake before June 30th. I didn't really expect to do very well since I didn't get to study the material as in-depth as I normally do for cert tests, but I figured it was a free try since I had the second shot offer. Also, I was expecting the 70-640, and just realized like a week ago that I had to take the 83-640, so that made me nervous.

My study materials:
Trainsignal
CBT Nuggets
MS Self-Paced Training Kit
Lots of virtual machines at home

The simulator part of the test was to me pretty easy, after the first one, I was kinda worried I missed something it was so easy. If you have gone through the CBT/Trainsignal videos, and do all the labs they do in your home lab, you will feel right at home with the simulator part of the exam.

There were more multiple choice than I expected, but pretty straightforward. I don't like the way MS asks some questions, I had one question that was rediculously ambiguous, but ah well, at least it wasn't all multiple choice for the test.

The multiple choice did a good job of covering most of the exam objectives at least a little. Total, it took me 45 mins to do the test, and I got a 950/1000.

I would recommend being comfortable with the following especially:
DNS
AD CS
The entire Sites & Services snap-in
Group Policy (saw quite a few on this subject)
DFL/FFL features

Those were just the ones that stood out to me. On to the next test....I look forward to more virtual lab tests from MS.

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Comments

Jamesm3

Hi

Thanks for the heads up. Like you I have been studying for 70-640.

I went to book the exam for 2 weeks time and I have to do 83-640.

I wasn't too sure what to expect, but now I'm pretty happy after reading how you got on.

Thanks

James

dynamik

Nice review!

Congrats

Jordus

Im not too sure why everyone says to be uber prepared for AD CS.

Its said to be 13 percent of the entire exam, which comes out to around 5.5 questions.

Thats not gonna be a deal breaker when trying to pass this exam.

flurrball

I simply warned about CS because it seemed like the last 6 or 7 questions were about CS, and they weren't the easy questions, they required pretty indepth knowledge of CS, which was a big difference from the questions about the rest of the additional roles (FS, RMS, LDS).

I remember thinking "What the hell is with all the CS?" at the end of the multiple choice part, I literally had several CS questions in a row. I studied extra for CS because I heard from someone else that it was the source of some tricky questions on the exam, and yet of the questions that I got wrong, I'm sure at least one of them was one of those CS questions.

As for it being a deal breaker, no it probably won't be, was more of a general heads up that you need to know more than the basics with CS.

Honestly, I wish I would have studied it more, I get irritated when I don't get a perfect on cert exams, regardless of what a passing score is.

dynamik

Jordus wrote: »

Im not too sure why everyone says to be uber prepared for AD CS.

Its said to be 13 percent of the entire exam, which comes out to around 5.5 questions.

Thats not gonna be a deal breaker when trying to pass this exam.

The maintenance section is also 13%, and configuring additional roles isn't even worth mentioning at 9%. I can't believe anyone bothers with that 35% of the exam...

Maybe it's also one of the more difficult topics on the exam, so it warrants a little extra time. Also, a lot of people try to genuinely learn the material, not just pass an exam.

Jordus

dynamik wrote: »

The maintenance section is also 13%, and configuring additional roles isn't even worth mentioning at 9%. I can't believe anyone bothers with that 35% of the exam...

Maybe it's also one of the more difficult topics on the exam, so it warrants a little extra time. Also, a lot of people try to genuinely learn the material, not just pass an exam.

Dont for a second think that i dont try to learn the material as opposed to just passing the exam. My score should sufficiently show that.

I was commenting on the fact that most people say the test is "heavy" or "has lots of" DNS and AD CS, when in reality there arent that many questions on CS. Yes, the questions themselves are fairly difficult, but there is no reason to give the impression that there is more CS questions than there really is.

I went into the exam with the fear that id have 40 questios on CS and 2 on everything else, a fear that was founded by over exaggeration on other posters behalf. A fear that I shouldnt have had, because there were exactly as many CS questions as MS disclosed.

HeroPsycho

Jordus wrote: »

My score should sufficiently show that.

I just want to repeat that exam scores do not prove you know your stuff. Someone could for example just completely skip a section of material because they know there won't be enough questions to keep them from passing/scoring high, where another person could have learned everything well, but not split hairs about the topics enough to get 95% of the questions right (more like 80%, more than enough to pass), just well enough to understand and utilize the technology well and pass the exam. The first candidate might score higher, but then doesn't know a thing about one of the topics at all. I'll take the second person any day to work with.

I do think dynamik overreacted/misinterpretted Jordus here. I know Jordus deserves it (JK), but seriously, can't we all just get along?

Jordus

HeroPsycho wrote: »

I do think dynamik overreacted/misinterpretted Jordus here. I know Jordus deserves it (JK), but seriously, can't we all just get along?

Sure we can

I just dont want to be labeled a dumper or someone who just passes to pass. I do it to learn, first, and have a credential, second.

Granted, I wont learn as much about one topic as perhaps another, but thats not intentional, and usually stems from the fact that something like AD-CS is 100 times more difficult and granular than something like DHCP. I think i learn each topic enough to know how to jump in there and work with it in a fairly short amount of time, as well as a good enough understand of where and how it should/could be used.

Piers

congrats on your great score flurrball, and thanks for the review

babixg

Thanks for your thoughts on the exam. So is the big bulk of the exam simulations? Or is it just simulations like the Vista exam (except having to do with Server 2008 and harder)?
Thanks

flurrball

I haven't taken the vista exam, so I can't speak for it, but I would say both of the sims took me less than 15 minutes. They were WAY easier than I thought they would be.

Claymoore

Jordus wrote: »

I was commenting on the fact that most people say the test is "heavy" or "has lots of" DNS and AD CS, when in reality there arent that many questions on CS. Yes, the questions themselves are fairly difficult, but there is no reason to give the impression that there is more CS questions than there really is.

I believe that because the examiner finds the questions in an area are more difficult, this causes them to give the impression there are more questions in area than there really are. I took the 70-649 exam last year and I can't remember any of the topics covered in the 642 section. I spent about a weekend studying for it, and scored an 880 or so on the section, but I can't remember what topics were on it. Not because I don't understand the topics, but because none of the questions were challenging enough to be memorable. In contrast, I remember the 643 section to be full of Terminal Services questions. There were probably just as many questions on IIS, but because I don't have as much experience with Terminal Services I found the questions more challenging and thus more memorable. Few people have a lot of experience with certificates, so the AD CS questions are more difficult and that causes people to remember them. If you walk out of the test and only remember 10 questions - 6 of which are on CS - you are going to falsely give the impression that 60% of the test was on CS.

Jordus wrote: »

I went into the exam with the fear that id have 40 questios on CS and 2 on everything else, a fear that was founded by over exaggeration on other posters behalf. A fear that I shouldnt have had, because there were exactly as many CS questions as MS disclosed.

Perhaps this is why MS now discloses the relative weight of the objective areas on the exam. They only do this with the new exams, though - compare the Skills Measured section of the 70-290 exam vs the Skills Measured section of the 70-640:

Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment
TS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring

dynamik

HeroPsycho wrote: »

I do think dynamik overreacted/misinterpretted Jordus here. I know Jordus deserves it (JK), but seriously, can't we all just get along?

I was just saying that's a respectable percentage of the exam; the other 87% isn't exactly a given. PKI is an enormous topic that warrants its own book, and the exam only takes a rudimentary look at it. I don't think people stressing the need to study it is at all odd. Nothing I said was intended to be a personal attack (though I'm honored you took it that way

).

I'm not sure why this even came up since the OP only mentioned it in passing and didn't make a big deal about it...

flurrball

dynamik wrote: »

I'm not sure why this even came up since the OP only mentioned it in passing and didn't make a big deal about it...

Heh, yea I was trying to figure that out too.

Btw, nice plug on that book, didn't even know about it.

Jordus

It wasnt purposely commented towards flurrball. I had just noticed it in thread after thread after thread and finally made a comment. Just happened to be here

HeroPsycho

dynamik wrote: »

I was just saying that's a respectable percentage of the exam; the other 87% isn't exactly a given.

Yeah, but he's actually making that very point. After I read his post, he's just saying it's 13% of the exam, not 50%, or 25%. It's not like he turned you into a newt!

(...you got better...)