70-643 Passed!!

drainey

Passed with a 907. This test was much harder than the 83-640 (when it's working) and the 70-642 in my opinion. But it's out of the way now so on to 70-647. Maybe 70-646 after that, maybe sec+, we'll see when I get that far.

sebster

Congrats!

dfosbenner

Congrats on a great score !

Hyper-Me

Are you actually learning anything in this bootcamp?

I am weary of a 1 day course that yeilds 900s every time.

ipconfig.all

Congratulation on passing !!!

jamesp1983

congrats!

drainey

@ hyper-me Yes I had a great instructor so I learned a lot. However I would agree with what I believe to be your real concern. There are many people who attend a boot camp who cram enough information into their short term memory to pass that end up being paper tigers.

In my class there was 1 guy completely new to IT, he struggled with many concepts and asked me many questions on the side. He passed his exams but I'm would not hire him above the help desk level, until he has some experience to warrant a higher level position. We also had 3 or 4 people who paid little attention in class, doing just enough to get a passing score (usually in the low 700's). But for the rest of us, who meet MS recommendations of 3-5 years of experience in the field doing a job that uses the material to be learned, then I'd say the class was very informative and we learned quite a bit.

I've never been one to go to a boot camp before (for the very reason that I didn't belive they really taught anything) and went to this one only because my job said I should and paid for it. But I also went with the intention to learn (and understand) the material presented and to that end I'd say that I believe I earned my high scores.

drainey

@ everyone else. Thanks.

dfosbenner

In 1999 I went to a 16 day camp to get my MCSE on NT 4.0. At the time, I had been working with computers for 16 years, had 10 years of experience with Novell, and about 4 years with NT. I wanted to get certified, my company was willing to foot the bill, so I went to a place in Colorado called ACREW (which is no longer around).

It was grueling, but I passed all 6 exams on the first take. I learned a tremendous amount, it was an awesome experience. There were others in the class with a lot less experience who also passed. Some of them had the cert, but I wouldn't let them near a production server just yet!

Since the camp, I self-studied for the MCSE on Windows 2000 and 2003, which was a much slower pace spread over 3-6 months, and I'm self-studying for the MCITP:SA & EA right now.

I doubt I'll ever get back to another camp, but it would be cool to do it again. I think the real value is up to the student, and what you want to make out of it. It's a way to get out of the block fast, but you need to build on it and solidify the new knowledge for it to have lasting value.