Test Tomorrow! (Aug.20th)

swat

I studied my ass off for 291 and passed with flying colours back in April. Summer got in the way of what was originally supposed to be a "few weeks" of downtime before I hit 293. Funny how that works.

I've gone through the MS Press book a few times. Heard reports on here that it sucked, so I got the Syngress one as well - Syngress went way, way more in-depth than the MS Press. Been going through labs on both, doing some Transcenders and other practice tests.

I'm not totally sure how I'm going to do on this one. I didn't slaughter myself this time around (I hit 291 really, really hard) but I remember most of the concepts from 291, so it's been a bit easier. Touching up on DNS was a must. Security, IPSec, and Policy touch ups helped.

As for PKI, I think I've got a pretty firm grasp on it. Clustering/NLB I feel so-so on - I'm not sure if I liked learning PKI more so it gelled a bit better, but Clustering/NLB seemed the most bland to work through in this material.

I've been sucking on the Transcenders, mostly 65% and such - but mostly due to wording or other silly mistakes. I remember getting a solid 70-75% on them last time around and got 875 on 291, so hopefully this time around the test will be a bit easier to digest than those Transcender questions. If I have a more "rushed" mentality taking them, I find I make more mistakes because I know it's not the "real" test yet. All psychological.

I plan on getting some more cramming in tonight, but then going to be at a reasonable time. It's all about remaining calm. Serenity now! Hopefully I will have good news tomorrow, but if not I'll spill the gory details.

Psoasman

Good luck. be familiar with GPOs.

dynamik

If you're solid on Transcender and the Syngress book, you should be in pretty good shape. Good luck!

mikedisd2

swat wrote: »

I've been sucking on the Transcenders, mostly 65% and such - but mostly due to wording or other silly mistakes.

I'm currently sucking at PKI. So how'd it go, good or gore?

swat

mikedisd2 wrote: »

I'm currently sucking at PKI. So how'd it go, good or gore?

I'll let you know tomorrow afternoon

Running through more Transcenders, trying to keep focus but it's getting a bit late here, might be time to rest the eyeballs.

Ahh, those wiley Transcenders. I love the questions that try to throw you off, like "what is the command line utility to capture network traffic"

a) netcap
b) start netmon
c) ...
d) ...

So without thinking too hard, I go "oh that's easy, netcap is command line and network monitor is via GUI". Netmon was the right answer. Jerks.

Johnny Johnson

Good luck to you! My appointment with the Beast Jr. is Saturday.

swat

I passed!

That's the short version.

Here's the rest of my tale. I show up at the testing center at 10:55, my appointment was at 11:30. Prometric says to always show up 30 minutes before. I hadn't been to this one before, it was in a mall, but it was closer to work so I took it there instead of my regular one downtown.

I have to cough to get the lady's attention behind the desk. She turns around and doesn't say anything. I tell her I have an appointment at 11:30 and she just flat out says "Well, come back at 11:30 then" and fires me a glare. Then she tries to sell me more tests. She says she has up to 10 MS ones, only $100 CDN. I tell her I'm more interested in the test I'm about to take than purchasing new ones right now - she didn't like that answer.

So anyway, I take a stroll to get some Starbucks, down it, and come back "on time". The room they put me in was very warm. As in hot. Not a lot of ventilation. Plywood dividers, very crammed, and several other people squished in the room. During the test, they came in several times and bumped my chair, trying to fix the PC's and whispering about why they wouldn't boot, etc. At the end of my test, I got some funky general exception error, but at least MS had popped up saying I had passed, and it printed somehow - whatever. I get my paper, no congratulations, and it looked like it had been printed off some generic ink-jet printer from the mid-90s - all smeared, fuzzy - but again, that's a minor complaint.

As for the test..

I completely underestimated this one. I got an 857 on 291 (after studying my ass off) but this one I just barely scraped by with a 713. I'm not kidding when I say that there were probably about 5 "easy" (as in 4 answers, one paragraph, multiple choice) questions followed by 5-6 hard sims and the rest were full on multi-paragraph, click on the exhibit, multiple-choice page-long kinda questions. Think the really, really long ones from Transcenders - and just as elusive. It was a reading comprehension workout to the max.

A bunch on DNS. A whole lot of trickier Group Policy situations. Lots on Certificates, but oddly enough barely any NLB/Clustering. There might have been about 3 NLB/Clustering questions on the test. A few RRAS ones. A bunch on IPSec/Policy.

Sims were CA configurations, and believe me when I say, get very, very comfortable with configuring templates, certificates and enrollment, and don't be afraid to get to a very granular level. I was surprised thinking I would have some generic CA setups (ie, like the Syngress/MS Lab stuff) but it was a bit more hardcore than that. The other sims were GP situations, make sure to put on your extra big GP cap and do many labs that include multiple levels, etc.

This is more of a brain barf than anything, I'll try to contribute a bit more once the head decompresses, and let me know if anything needs to be taken out NDA wise but I think I remained somewhat vague.

I wish everyone the best of luck with this one, please don't underestimate it!

dynamik

When will you be releasing an extended director's cut of your exam experience?

That sounds like it sucked, but I guess seeing that pass made it all worthwhile. Congratulations!

Psoasman

Sorry to hear you have a rough experience, but at least you passed! Nice work.

mikedisd2

Wow I guess that was both good and gore. Thanks for the heads up; was kinda hoping for a revised, more concise exam like the 291 I did a few weeks back.

I once had the training centre manager walk in when I was in the middle of an exam and start chatting to me. He was so friendly and cheerful I couldn't really tell him to shut up.

Johnny Johnson

Congratulations on the pass and thanks for the heads up on what to expect during the exam. I'm currently going over some last minute items. I'm really not looking forward to this one.

Psoasman

JJ-
Make sure you know your GPOs for any questions you may run across.