Worst exam experience ever (70-260)

7lowe

I went to sit this exam today and had a horrible experience.

First of all I didn't realize there'd be so many simulations, which wouldn't be a big deal if they worked right, but these didn't. It was obvious that lots of the graphical elements weren't being displayed. It said right clicking and keyboard shortcuts wouldn't work, but they didn't have any menus and some of the questions had nothing to click on whatsoever. On one question I just started clicking in the blank space and finally got what I was looking for.

Secondly, I got through the 8 pre-test survey questions and then the next question never loaded and they had to reboot the machine. I then made it through 15 before rebooting again. Had to reboot like 3 or 4 more times to make it to the half way point. By that time I'd been working on the test for about 2 hours half of which was spent waiting on them to reboot the PC and get the test going again (about 10 min. each time.)

Finally, she told me that if wanted to I could call it a day and call Prometric tomorrow and complain about it and get it rescheduled. So, hopefully that'll work out better than this time.

Anybody else have these kind of problems?

7

earweed

That's a problem with those types of sims, MS wants you to work them a certain way. Going at something in a different way will be blocked. I actually liked the sim part when I took the test.
The test not working is BS and Prometric should let you resit the test for free. In the meantime do some more of the practice exercises in the MS Press book, that's what helped me with the sims.
Good Luck on your retake.

AJJ28

That is terrible....you gear yourself up for this test and go in there only to have that happen it is unacceptable really. Good luck on your resit. What book are you using with Sims to prepare?

I am taking it myself in a 10 days and am stressed...hope I get on better with my PC then you did. Good luck again.

Micernest

I think the major problem was with your prometric center. Plus you didnt sound prepared cos if you were you would have been aware that the sims are much at times (ie hearing and reading other people's experience). So bottom line is be certain that the center is okay interms of pc wise,power wise etc. And be perpared for the exams...read through this forum and hear other people's experience. So sorry you had a terrible exams. Better luck next time.

7lowe

Prometric rescheduled me to take it at a different center.

Micernest, you are right that I didn't really look into other peoples experiences as far as how many of which types of questions as I prefer to concentrate on learning the objectives. The fact that were SIMS wasn't a problem except that they didn't work right. As I said, elements of the screen weren't displayed and I had to to click around in blank space until I found what I was I looking for. I was able to do that on some of them, but on some I never found anything that responded at all to clicks.

7

miller811

7lowe wrote: »

Prometric rescheduled me to take it at a different center.

Micernest, you are right that I didn't really look into other peoples experiences as far as how many of which types of questions as I prefer to concentrate on learning the objectives. The fact that were SIMS wasn't a problem except that they didn't work right. As I said, elements of the screen weren't displayed and I had to to click around in blank space until I found what I was I looking for. I was able to do that on some of them, but on some I never found anything that responded at all to clicks.

7

The sims on all MS exams are very specific, it is not like you are driving a running OS. They want you to complete the task in the way that they requested you to complete the task in the question asked.

Unless you had something completely off the wall, the sims were like any other MS exam.

Normally if you click a button, etc that they do not want you to use, it will state it is not active in the sim. This should not cause you any worries, it actually limits the chances to get things wrong.

Good luck on the retake.

mikedisd2

Similar happened to me on the 70-290 exam. There were 6x sims and none of them worked. After a few reboots and the receptionist calling Prometric, she told me to come back next week. Next week, the same thing happened again. She gave me a voucher and said to complain to Prometric. I asked if I could finish the exam to see what my score was; I got 700. I said I'll take that instead.

7lowe

Had my retest this morning. Did it at a different test center & everything went perfectly. SIMs are SO much easier when you can actually see the things you are supposed to be clicking. I still think some of the people here don't quite understand what I was seeing (or wasn't seeing to be more accurate.) I wish I could post some screenshots to illustrate, but don't want to get anywhere near possibly violating the NDA.

Anyway, it's done & behind me now and I'll just avoid that first test center in the future.

7

earweed

How did you do? If you passed congrats on the new cert.
Sorry about in my earlier post I didn't understand that the sims were indeed f'd up and not just giving you trouble.
earweed

7lowe

I did pass. On to 70-290 now I guess.

7

earweed

Congrats on the new cert!
I took the 70-620 as my client test also. It took me 2 tries but my reason was lack of preparation, not the exam messing up. I had a buncjh of sims on my test when I took it.

shusain

Same thing happen to me, I don't about simulation in 70-620, but now i got simulation videos available so it's quite hepful. If someone need any help please let
me know

Shahid
A+, N+, MCSE, MCSA, CCNA, MCTS, MCITP

thenoble06

7lowe wrote: »

Prometric rescheduled me to take it at a different center.

The fact that were SIMS wasn't a problem except that they didn't work right. As I said, elements of the screen weren't displayed and I had to to click around in blank space until I found what I was I looking for. I was able to do that on some of them, but on some I never found anything that responded at all to clicks.

7

Ahhhhh! I see. I did the 70-294 a couple of days ago and it was the first exam I have done that had sims. I had the same problem in that some of the options/menu items/icons were blank. Also on one sim I couldn't complete it as no matter where I clicked or what I did I got an error saying 'That part of the UI is not available in this simulation' or something similar. To be honest I just assumed that the sims had to be done in 1 specific way and I was trying to do the sims using options I didn't need to use - but after reading this thread I'm not so sure...

Since I passed I didn't really think much about it afterwards but this thread jogged my memory.

earweed

thenoble06 wrote: »

Ahhhhh! I see. I did the 70-294 a couple of days ago and it was the first exam I have done that had sims. I had the same problem in that some of the options/menu items/icons were blank. Also on one sim I couldn't complete it as no matter where I clicked or what I did I got an error saying 'That part of the UI is not available in this simulation' or something similar. To be honest I just assumed that the sims had to be done in 1 specific way and I was trying to do the sims using options I didn't need to use - but after reading this thread I'm not so sure...

Since I passed I didn't really think much about it afterwards but this thread jogged my memory.

Your situation sounds different from the OP. The sims are set up for you to only be able for you to accomplish the task one or 2 ways (usually only 1) and will not let you take certain avenues to accomplish the task. This is MS's way of making the exam harder (much harder to ****)
The OP actually hard real issues with the sims not loading on his test correctly.