Failed the 70-647

ElwoodBlues

I knew I was under prepared by 3 weeks and an additional resource; however my vourcher expired today. I flet pretty good thruout the test, but I was not completely sure on several questions.

None the less, I missed the pass mark by a few questions. In looking at the sectional resutls, I did not do that bad (but not good enough).

Hopefully I can get this going again and retake it while I still remember the material I'm weak in.

earweed

Sorry to hear that. Now just brush up on your weak areas and nail it.

za3bour

Hope you can make it next time, how tough was it on scale of 1-10 ? comparing to other exams you've done. How much time do you think it needs to pass ?

ElwoodBlues

Its not the toughest test I've ever taken (that would be the 294), but it's very inclusive. You need more than 3 weeks (which is how long I prepared) and you need to fully understand the material. I missed the pass mark by about 4-5 questions, which I think is pretty good considering I knew I was under prepared.

I'm going back in 2-3 weeks and I'm gonna knock it out.

za3bour

ElwoodBlues wrote: »

Its not the toughest test I've ever taken (that would be the 294), but it's very inclusive. You need more than 3 weeks (which is how long I prepared) and you need to fully understand the material. I missed the pass mark by about 4-5 questions, which I think is pretty good considering I knew I was under prepared.

I'm going back in 2-3 weeks and I'm gonna knock it out.

Thanks for the info, I'm sure you will nail it next time

Nobylspoon

You'll get it next time. Best of luck to you!

ElwoodBlues

Scheduled for 10am on 8-24; going for the gold!

Essendon

I wish you luck, I am prepping for this one myself. It's not an easy one, atleast by my standards.

earweed

Good luck to you!

ElwoodBlues

I failed that stupid exam yet again. Nothing really else to say other than the exam was more difficult than the Transcender Practice Tests (yes, I failed it with Transcender). I hit 100% yesterday on a random exam and I felt that I knew my stuff. Even going over the matherial I did not know that well, I was still above 70%.

Perhaps this MS path is not for me anymore. I'm over 80% in the 2 middle components, about 60 on the first and 50 on the last.

That is the hardest test I have taken and I felt that there was no way I should have failed that test being as prepared as I was.

earweed

Sorry to hear that. What books were you using? I'd like to know so I know what books not to really bother reading as I have several books covering this exam. I've heard that test is so much different from the other tests and some people have said it was easy while others (like you) have had problems with it.
I've got the MS Press Training Kit, Syngress prep kit (surprisingly good so far), Sybex (dry but informative), and Darril Gibson's book (easy to read, expensive, and better as a textbook than as exam prep IMO)

Hyper-Me

i think its a pretty "easy" exam if you have been around active directory for a while. The terminology, designs/topoplogies,etc just havnt changed all that much from 2003.

Having said that, the 647 is more of a birds eye view of true AD design, unlike some of the MCSE tests. So its definitely a passable exam.

ElwoodBlues

Well, if it is an easy exam, then I need to look at career change. The exam I had previous to this one was much clearer than the one I took today.

Hyper-Me

I just noticed you are an MCSE 03 + MCTS Exch07.

If you did well on those exams, I can only imagine that its just nerves or stress getting the best of you here. The exam is very passable, just relax and review your material and let it sink in some more.

nrs

Dude - don't give up. Seriously. You failed it twice - so what. 647 is one of the hardest exams I have ever taken. The length and detail of the questions and answers is insane. That was one of my biggest problems. Keep studying, keep trying and don't give up. Let us all know if there are specific items you are having trouble with.

ElwoodBlues

I need to look at my business continuity and Data Avalibility and refine netowrk and application services. Both of these actually went down since the last exam as the other 2 went up; one significantly.

I think the data avaiibility type questions were so enlongated that I was not understaning that they were even asking.

I made a 606 the first time and a 630 this time, there is appparently alot that I'm missing.

nrs

ElwoodBlues wrote: »

I need to look at my business continuity and Data Avalibility and refine netowrk and application services. Both of these actually went down since the last exam as the other 2 went up; one significantly.

I think the data avaiibility type questions were so enlongated that I was not understaning that they were even asking.

I made a 606 the first time and a 630 this time, there is appparently alot that I'm missing.

In my preparation and experiences with practice tests (which may or may not reflect the actual exam because of course we can't talk about it) I found the majority of the service availability seemed to stem from a few key points. (These are way over simplified and theres a lot more to know, but it helped me out)

• Network Load Balancing / Load Balancing
  • Traffic distributed to all servers at all times
  • Good for Web Services, Bad for database
    • IIS = SQL =
• Fail over Clustering
  • Traffic distributed to one server until it fails (over) to the other server
  • Data distributed from first server mirrored to secondary servers
  • Everything is kept in sync so it's great for databases, doesn't effectively distribute load so it's bad for web services
    • SQL = IIS =

I don't know .. maybe some of that helps, maybe it doesn't. Let me know - you'll pass the darn test!

ElwoodBlues

nrs wrote: »

In my preparation and experiences with practice tests (which may or may not reflect the actual exam because of course we can't talk about it) I found the majority of the service availability seemed to stem from a few key points. (These are way over simplified and theres a lot more to know, but it helped me out)

• Network Load Balancing / Load Balancing
  • Traffic distributed to all servers at all times
  • Good for Web Services, Bad for database
    • IIS = SQL =
• Fail over Clustering
  • Traffic distributed to one server until it fails (over) to the other server
  • Data distributed from first server mirrored to secondary servers
  • Everything is kept in sync so it's great for databases, doesn't effectively distribute load so it's bad for web services
    • SQL = IIS =

I don't know .. maybe some of that helps, maybe it doesn't. Let me know - you'll pass the darn test!

I actually have that down (when to load balance and when to cluster); however my downfall on this is when they go to virtual/physical and placement.

I've also had this hangup from a practice exam that absolutely makes little sense to me. When an exam question asks something (speaking of practice exams), are they even considering the "best practice" model? For example, this question had at least 2 methods to acomplish the goal. I know why one was correct by using the "easiest" method, however one that was a few additional "clicks" was more effective as it did not grant excessive privledges.

Does this make sense?

Claymoore

I assume you have already passed the prerequisite exams 640, 642, and 643 or taken the 649 upgrade exam. What methods did you use to study for these exams? What were your weak areas on those exams?

There was no training kit for the 649 when I took it, and instead of using the training kits for the individual exams I relied on Resource Kits for the individual products. I believe that reading chapters out of resource kits gave me a better overall understanding of the technologies as opposed to the focused training kits. That set me up well for the 647.

If you are having trouble deciding when to use a particular feature or setting, try reading through some of the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides. I really believe they can be useful study tools as they work you through a design scenario using Microsoft's best practices, which is exactly what the 647 exam requires. If you need more information about a feature or why it was chosen, the guides include links to technet articles for deeper dives.

ElwoodBlues

Claymoore wrote: »

I assume you have already passed the prerequisite exams 640, 642, and 643 or taken the 649 upgrade exam. What methods did you use to study for these exams? What were your weak areas on those exams?

There was no training kit for the 649 when I took it, and instead of using the training kits for the individual exams I relied on Resource Kits for the individual products. I believe that reading chapters out of resource kits gave me a better overall understanding of the technologies as opposed to the focused training kits. That set me up well for the 647.

If you are having trouble deciding when to use a particular feature or setting, try reading through some of the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides. I really believe they can be useful study tools as they work you through a design scenario using Microsoft's best practices, which is exactly what the 647 exam requires. If you need more information about a feature or why it was chosen, the guides include links to technet articles for deeper dives.

I read the MS Press 649 book and only used the measure up included in the book to pass:

AD configuring: 880
Network Innfrastucture: 775
Applications Innfrastucture 730

I was actually not as prepared for this as I would have liked, but I had to take the exam due to my voucher expiring. Until I took this exam, I had always thought that AD is my weak point (and somehow I still feel that way).

In looking back at all of this, I'm really not sure where to focus my attention or when I feel that I should retake the exam.

Bottom Line: If I was at 606 before and only 630 after I felt like I asorbed the Transcender Practice Exams topics; I'm really confused.

nrs

I'm not trying to be cocky and I'm only sharing my personal experiences but (and trying to be helpful.. I'm saying all of this with the best of intentions) ...

In my experience every question I have seen related to a Microsoft examination especially scenario based questions in which I thought there were two correct answers; I have been wrong. There really should be only one correct answer. Often two answers will be similar and accomplish mostly the same thing but there will be one small caveat in your scenario that validates one answer or the other.

A lot of the basis of the 646 and 647 exams is AD and your 640 score was strong so that's a great thing. Obviously it costs money to take and re-take exams and I am not telling you to give up but have you considered taking the 646 exam as a prep for the 647? I took (in this order) 70-640 (twice, failed it the first time.. quite the learning experience), 70-642, 70-646 and finally 70-647. I took 647 very soon after taking 646 since so much of the two tests are similar. They are not identical tests and 646 is far from being a "647 lite" but if you go out the Microsoft learning website and compare the skills measured for both exams you'll find a lot of similarities.

From a test taking stand point 647 is the most difficult exam I've taken to date. They are very advanced questions and require a lot of thought into putting the entire scenario together in your head to arrive at the correct answer. What I'm saying is there are hard questions and there are easy questions - both can measure the exact same knowledge. The 647 seems to be full of very difficult questions, while in my opinion the 646 had slightly easier questions. For that reason too, 646 might be a good prep tool.

In addition to improving your knowledge in certain areas perhaps improving your test taking skills would help. Every book or video series I have ever used has always had the one dumb chapter where they explain how to register for the exam, go over (nearly verbatim) the skills measured for the exam and give tips for taking the exam (get a good nights sleep, eat breakfast, etc etc etc.) and in the past I had never ever paid any attention. But one day I actually read through one of those chapters and was amazed at how much it helped. Test taking skills are actually quite important - I have met many people who are quite intelligent but have awful test taking skills and could never pass any cert exams. One of the better things on test taking skills I have ever seen is this video over at informit.com the link is here. It's actually geared towards the 70-640 exam but I think it applies to all exams really.

texasit

I haven taken both the 646 and 647 and I thought they were two different animals.The 647 to me was not as difficult as the 646.I failed the 647 the first time I took it though.I felt confident I had passed with a great score just to find out I failed by 1-2 questions.Don't give up man if you were able to obtain your MCSE 2003 then I know you can get the MCITP EA.I don't know if you are using any training videos but I found the Testout videos very helpful.

ElwoodBlues

I think my main problem is the fact that I'm over analyzing the possible answers and the verbage. For the most part, I did know most of the material.

I'm gonna give it anouther try in about 2 weeks.

neathneathneath

nrs wrote: »

I'm not trying to be cocky and I'm only sharing my personal experiences but (and trying to be helpful.. I'm saying all of this with the best of intentions) ...

In my experience every question I have seen related to a Microsoft examination especially scenario based questions in which I thought there were two correct answers; I have been wrong. There really should be only one correct answer. Often two answers will be similar and accomplish mostly the same thing but there will be one small caveat in your scenario that validates one answer or the other.

One of the better things on test taking skills I have ever seen is this video over at informit.com the link is here. It's actually geared towards the 70-640 exam but I think it applies to all exams really.

Some very good observations here.

I'm in a similar boat but with the 70-646.
I've failed it three times, 55%,55%, and yes 65%

I am improving and each time looking at better ways of tackling the exam and focusing on weak areas.

I found on my last exam, about six questions that were down to two choices. whether I picked the right or wrong options, only Microsoft will know.

I also found some of the scenario based questions a bit tricky.

Not sure about the 647 but the 646 is proving a bit of a hurdle.

I agree that its not time to give up. Each fails motivates me more towards that magic 700 -I would gladly settle for membership of that esteemed club.

Anyway, back to the books / CBT / Transcenders - got a retake in three weeks time

earweed

@neathneathneath- have you tried the Sybex book as those have helped me with all of my MS exams so far. Don't forget that the 646 and 647 are diferent from the other MCTS exams in that they want to know the why as opposed to the how. Having read some of the posts about the 647 I'm getting a bit nervous about it myself.
Good luck on your retake!

za3bour

earweed wrote: »

. Having read some of the posts about the 647 I'm getting a bit nervous about it myself.
Good luck on your retake!

Well having read about 70-646 I'm also nervous, I have to say that it's the toughest study so far I did finish reading both books (quick) and now i'm reviewing them starting with MS one. I think these too need better reading and more preparation than any other exam.

earweed

I have 4 books MS Press, Syngress, Sybex, and Darril Gibson's book. I've started Darril's book already and find it a good read but the end of chapter questions are quite hard and the book doesn't include the answers for you to check. The Syngress I've heard good and bad about and the Sybex looks like any Sybex as a good supplement to the MS Press book.
I'm planning to read all 4 and also watch the Train Signal Videos and do the elearning courses I have through IT Academy. I need a lot to compensate for my lack of real world experience.

za3bour

I have only two books and not planning to get anything else (it will take a lot of time/money) so I'm stick with these too.

earweed

Got the books and the TS video provided by the VA and IT Academy by WGU. I speed read a lot so the reading part wont take a lot of time plus Ican read a little at work.

za3bour

Me too I do read at work but most of the time it's not efficient

neathneathneath

earweed wrote: »

@neathneathneath- have you tried the Sybex book as those have helped me with all of my MS exams so far. Good luck on your retake!

Thanks, I used the 70-646 Sybex Book for my last attempt and achieved quite a bit of an improvement as its an easier read than the MS press. I am going through some of the MS press book at present but will finish off on the Sybex.