Taking 83-640 Today

earweed

Hopefully I do OK. I've studied and labbed a lot. While reviewing this last weekend I kept finding more things I was weak on. Did a LOT of practice tests (Measure-up from the MS Press book, ExamForce, and U-Certify) scoring in the 700's and then scoring higher on retakes due to remembering questions I had reviewed.
I used the MS Press self paced training kit, Sybex, and Labsim.
5 Hours and counting..tick..tock..tick..tock

ecstasyofagony

Good luck! Let us know how it went. This is my next test and I am a bit nervous on the use of VM's vs sims.

Devilsbane

I'm sure you passed. You don't want to make memorization your primary means of studying, but if you pick up a little it still might help you in the test.

earweed

Well, it's done.
All that labbing I had done and still choked a little on the sims. I couldn't figure how to do 3 of the tasks. The way they were worded I still don't know how to do 2 of them and frankly can't remember what the questions even asked. 1 of the Sim tasks I just brainfarted on as I remembered how to do it while I was doing the multiple choice questions. I'd done it several times on my VM's at home while studying.
I honestly thought, while doing the Multiple choice questions, that I was gonna fail. There were about 5 or 6 really easy questions then 10 or 15 I was confident about and the rest were just plain hard to figure out. 1 question on certificate services stated there were 3 answers to be checked but I even checked when I got home and 4 of the answers were required to do it so I don't know if I got that question right or wrong.
Final score 783. Should have scored higher but it's a pass.

ecstasyofagony

Those sims can be brutal. I remember choking on a couple for the CCNA. You did it though, grats!

impelse

Congrats

Devilsbane

earweed

Devilsbane wrote: »

I'm sure you passed. You don't want to make memorization your primary means of studying, but if you pick up a little it still might help you in the test.

I actually did all the labs in the MS Press book and the labsims

za3bour

Congratulations, a pass is a pass and that's what's important. I'm studying for 70-642 now and 70-640 is my next exam.

Piers

Congrats! Pass is a Pass, it's true!

Here's a small piece of advice (while too late for you, and you passed without, might help others) for the sims..

Windows Help! I brainfarted too on at least one task in each sim, and one where I knew what I needed, but for the life of me couldn't find it anywhere.. Sites, no. Users, no. $#(*&$#. Pulled up the Help menu, typed in the requested action, and it guided me in the right direction.. Very real life, imo.

earweed wrote: »

Well, it's done.
All that labbing I had done and still choked a little on the sims. I couldn't figure how to do 3 of the tasks. The way they were worded I still don't know how to do 2 of them and frankly can't remember what the questions even asked. 1 of the Sim tasks I just brainfarted on as I remembered how to do it while I was doing the multiple choice questions. I'd done it several times on my VM's at home while studying..

Devilsbane

I have always been told the help menu's were disabled. They were on the Office 2007 exam I took last year as well.

contentpros

Devilsbane wrote: »

I have always been told the help menu's were disabled. They were on the Office 2007 exam I took last year as well.

nope in the 83-640 you have access to windows help so feel free to use it!

etbjr182

Congrats!!! as everyone else said pass is a pass

earweed

Piers wrote: »

Congrats! Pass is a Pass, it's true!

Here's a small piece of advice (while too late for you, and you passed without, might help others) for the sims..

Windows Help! I brainfarted too on at least one task in each sim, and one where I knew what I needed, but for the life of me couldn't find it anywhere.. Sites, no. Users, no. $#(*&$#. Pulled up the Help menu, typed in the requested action, and it guided me in the right direction.. Very real life, imo.

I used it, believe me. I was running out of time (and you have a lot of time) and didn't get done with the three tasks as I went ahead and clicked complete before my time was up. Would have hated for it to throw out everything if I was doing something when the time ran out.
I started the test at 1 PM and was in my car, happy to have passed, at 3:45 so I used a lot of time on the sims.

earweed

Devilsbane wrote: »

I have always been told the help menu's were disabled. They were on the Office 2007 exam I took last year as well.

They are for the limited simulations. The Vista Configuration test I took in January had so much disabled I could almost only go in the correct direction. The 83 series of MS tests use what MS calls an emulator which is basically a VM you're logged into. About the only limitation you have is by what you know how to do, what you can gleen from windows help, and oh yeah I didn't try it but I don't think you can google to find how to solve a problem..lol

Lunchbocks

Congrats. Glad to hear some feedback on the sims. The sims on my CCNA whooped me pretty good on the first sitting. Knowing what to expect helps out tremendously.

Devilsbane

contentpros wrote: »

nope in the 83-640 you have access to windows help so feel free to use it!

Too bad you don't have internet access too. I never get much help from the help menus so I stopped using them.

jalu6

I'm set to take this on Friday. Did you notice any technical problems while taking the exam? I've read a lot of horror stories online about the sims crashing and people having to reschedule. I'm a little worried myself because the Prometric center I took my last few exams at closed so I'm trying out a new one.

Devilsbane

Other than extemely slow loading times, I have never had a problem.

earweed

jalu6 wrote: »

I'm set to take this on Friday. Did you notice any technical problems while taking the exam? I've read a lot of horror stories online about the sims crashing and people having to reschedule. I'm a little worried myself because the Prometric center I took my last few exams at closed so I'm trying out a new one.

One thing different with this one is that the testing center even had a warning on their schedule for the test that if they launched the test early the sims would probably not work corrrectly resulting in a failure. So don't start your test early.