Facing the beast in about 30 minutes

arwes

I forgot to reschedule my exam until yesterday evening which was too late (whoops), so I'll be taking a practice swing at the beast at 2PM! Oh well, at least I've got the Second Shot but hopefully I'll knock it out of the park on the first try. I work with Server 2003 on a daily basis, but rarely spend any time dealing with subnetting, DNS or DHCP as that was all set up by a contractor and I never have to deal with it (other than looking at leases to see who owns the IP that's hogging bandwidth). Should be interesting!

phoeneous

Good luck! Hopefully youre MCSA by the time you get back

Devilsbane

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

gateway

Good luck!!

arwes

764!! Wow, I was shocked when I saw that! They threw at least 10 sims at me, and the software crashed in the middle of one of them. Couple that with their lawn maintenance people distracting me with their leaf blowers, it's amazing I did that well. I'm going to forge on for the MCSE, which one should I tackle next?

earweed

Congrats on a job well done!

Devilsbane

Congrats on the pass. Did you start before your scheduled exam time?

Devilsbane

Logically, I think the next exam would be the 293.

arwes

Well I got there at 1:45, but the test administrator had problems booting up the first test machine, and had to boot the second one. They're running P4's, and it took a good 3-5 minutes to get it all situated.

Devilsbane

I've heard many stories with systems crashing if the test starts before the scheduled time. The last test center I was at would not let you start early because they were told by microsoft that if your test screws up, you go home, and don't get your money back.

The test center I went to 2 tests ago had no problem letting me start early.

phoeneous

Congrats! How bad was RRAS?

arwes

phoeneous wrote: »

Congrats! How bad was RRAS?

I think I had maybe 2-3 questions that dealt with that, and I got through them by the process of elimination.

rogue2shadow

congrats!!!!

gateway

Congrats on the pass and the new credential!!
Yup - 293 next logical step, prepare for lots of PKI and clustering

citinerd

Congrats!!! Now you should do 293 or 294.

Kikode

Devilsbane wrote: »

I've heard many stories with systems crashing if the test starts before the scheduled time. The last test center I was at would not let you start early because they were told by microsoft that if your test screws up, you go home, and don't get your money back.

The test center I went to 2 tests ago had no problem letting me start early.

Hmm you may be on to something I started about 30 minutes early on mine when I took the 70-270 and it crashed on me. They were able to restore me without having to type in all my answers again though. When I take the 70-291 I think Im gonna play it safe just to be sure.

Devilsbane

Kikode wrote: »

Hmm you may be on to something I started about 30 minutes early on mine when I took the 70-270 and it crashed on me. They were able to restore me without having to type in all my answers again though. When I take the 70-291 I think Im gonna play it safe just to be sure.

70-270 didn't use any sims, and I also started mine early with no issues. But for 290/291, just wait. I get there 30-60 mins ahead of schedule like you are supposed to. But the I just sit out in my car reviewing notes until about 15 minutes before the test. Then I hit the bathroom and go in.

If you have never been to the testing center before, allow more time. You don't want to go in 15 minutes prior and then spend 10 minutes looking for the bathroom. (You also don't want to be driving around looking for the center 10 minutes before your test starts.) For me, about the only thing that stresses me out is running late and being in a hurry. And being stressed and in a hurry prior to a test is not a good situation to be in.

[Deleted User]

Kikode wrote: »

Hmm you may be on to something I started about 30 minutes early on mine when I took the 70-270 and it crashed on me. They were able to restore me without having to type in all my answers again though. When I take the 70-291 I think Im gonna play it safe just to be sure.

Almost every exam that I have taken I've started anywhere from 15-45 minutes early and never had a problem with crashing. In fact, I haven't had a test crash on me at all. Now that I've cursed myself when I go to take 291 in August it will crash and burn haha.

earweed

The main ones I've heard have had problems if you start early are the 83-xxx exams. MS even had a disclaimer at the testing center when I went to take the 83-640 that if I started early and the test crashed it was basically a fail and I would have to reschedule and pay again. When I started the test I had to nwait after the initial survey you do for the correct time so that if it crashed I'd be covered.
Every other test I have started early on with no problems.

Kikode

The most annoying thing about taking the 70-270 was at the end they had a survey to fill out before you see if you passes or failed. Made it even more stresfful having to wait that much longer to see that I passed LOL. And So far I have always got to the test center early with my notes review everything and it helps you stay focused on deciphering the paragraphs of questions and not remembering the small stuff.

ssampier

Kikode wrote: »

The most annoying thing about taking the 70-270 was at the end they had a survey to fill out before you see if you passes or failed. Made it even more stresfful having to wait that much longer to see that I passed LOL. And So far I have always got to the test center early with my notes review everything and it helps you stay focused on deciphering the paragraphs of questions and not remembering the small stuff.

Strange you say that. Mine gave me a survey with 70-270, 70-299 (taken 2 weeks ago), and 70-291 taken today.