ERPadmin's MCITP:EA Experiences

erpadmin

Well guys, I'm a MCITP:EA! I made my pass post in the WGU thread but now I'm gonna get into the exam itself.

The good news is that I did pass with a 760. But what I found disturbing about this exam was that I while I was extremely comfortable with my answers, I had gotten a low score. I had figured that since I basically put my life into passing this one test (in fact all of them, though none moreso than the 643) I would have thought I'd get at least an 800.

Don't get me wrong, I know a pass is a pass, but now I can say with certainty that MS's Adapative Testing is pure bullcrap!! If you mess up all of your questions and then go back and answer correctly, hypothetically, you still fail. In fact, if you are about 20-30 questions in and you get 100% wrong, you still fail even if you went back and corrected them. Of course, one would have to be sure that they're right to begin with, but still.......it took me four tries to finally pass this exam.

I had gotten a good amount of Sharepoint and IIS questions. Did real strong on those as now I have a full power bar. RDS ended being my weakest, Deploying Servers and Configuring Network Application Servers were pretty strong as well. I sat for this exam for a good hour.

In any event, I am now officially an MCITP:EA (and college graduate! ). I really thank you guys for being in my corner. I'm more happy that I'm a college graduate but the fact that I also have an MCSE-like cert in a current Microsoft O/S is just as good. My next Microsoft endeavor will be SQL Server 2008 (DBA). I'm going to have to figure out when I'm going for that, but it will be fun to study for now that I have a server that's capable of it (and Technet subscription!).

Thank you all!! It feels good to finally get this done...and it was NOT easy!!!

vCole

Big congrats!

MentholMoose

That's fantastic, congrats!! Your hard work and effort have paid off.

N2IT

erpadmin wrote: »

Well guys, I'm a MCITP:EA! I made my pass post in the WGU thread but now I'm gonna get into the exam itself.

The good news is that I did pass with a 760. But what I found disturbing about this exam was that I while I was extremely comfortable with my answers, I had gotten a low score. I had figured that since I basically put my life into passing this one test (in fact all of them, though none moreso than the 643) I would have thought I'd get at least an 800.

Don't get me wrong, I know a pass is a pass, but now I can say with certainty that MS's Adapative Testing is pure bullcrap!! If you mess up all of your questions and then go back and answer correctly, hypothetically, you still fail. In fact, if you are about 20-30 questions in and you get 100% wrong, you still fail even if you went back and corrected them. Of course, one would have to be sure that they're right to begin with, but still.......it took me four tries to finally pass this exam.

I had gotten a good amount of Sharepoint and IIS questions. Did real strong on those as now I have a full power bar. RDS ended being my weakest, Deploying Servers and Configuring Network Application Servers were pretty strong as well. I sat for this exam for a good hour.

In any event, I am now officially an MCITP:EA (and college graduate! ). I really thank you guys for being in my corner. I'm more happy that I'm a college graduate but the fact that I also have an MCSE-like cert in a current Microsoft O/S is just as good. My next Microsoft endeavor will be SQL Server 2008 (DBA). I'm going to have to figure out when I'm going for that, but it will be fun to study for now that I have a server that's capable of it (and Technet subscription!).

Thank you all!! It feels good to finally get this done...and it was NOT easy!!!

Well done man!

TLeTourneau

Congratulations and welcome to the club! It can be difficult but worth it.

ptilsen

Congrats!

What did you end up doing to fill the gaps on 70-643? I'm still at such a loss for why I failed both times and what to do about it that I've been procrastinating for weeks on my third attempt.

erpadmin

ptilsen wrote: »

Congrats!

What did you end up doing to fill the gaps on 70-643? I'm still at such a loss for why I failed both times and what to do about it that I've been procrastinating for weeks on my third attempt.

I went back to the stuff I had and took different notes based on what I could remember from the various questions I had from the prior three attempts (after awhile, you start getting "a-ha" moments...and I don't mean "Take on Me" either...[cheese])

What I used/reused were Mastering Windows Server 2008 R2 and focused on RDS and Hyper-V (I did get Hyper-V questions, but not a lot). It helped me fill in the blanks for failover clustering with VMs and what to enable. (I'll be stopping right there...)

Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed really helped bring home IIS. Coupled that With the Sybex 70-640, 70-642 and 70-643 guide. (Read the 70-643 guide.)

The depth of this exam (and with 50 questions to boot) is what kills people. I had to literally find quiet spots at work to read chapters (it is not light reading). Then using some lab exercises provided in those books at home.......it was rough a deal. But my final attempt had paid off. I just couldn't understand why I was failing these exams in my earlier attempts (the first attempt was really bad, but once I buckled down I was still not bringing home the Gold!)

I do enjoy working under pressure...and no doubt I had added pressure because I still have work responsibilities! I really have rethought my decision to undertake this exam and if I had to do it all over again, I would have probably benefited from a much slower pace (financially and mentally.) Too many da-- gotchas! But Mastering and Unleashed really helped save the day, but again it is not light reading...even if you understand what's going on (and I do/did.)

What I will say is that procrastinating between attempts will hurt more than help. In my case, I had no choice but to do it every two weeks (I had to graduate.) Those who don't have WGU putting a gun to their head may not be so fortunate, but still......I'm effing drained as I type this....though that's overshadowed with the fact that I'm still pretty excited!

Psoasman

Congrats on that pass! Nice to be finished up!

Hypntick

Woo! Congrats Erp, so happy to hear this. You get a MCITP and a BS, in the same day. Very nicely done sir.

cyberguypr

Way to go! Double congrats!

Essendon

You've done very well dude!! Congrats!

Another fine example of perseverance paying off.

simtech

Congrats!

joshmadakor

Excellent! I hope I can say the same in less than a year

erpadmin

Thank you for all the congratulations! I am so looking forward to next week's three day weekend.

To those who have the MCITP:EA...I know a good reason why I can't find this thread is because I'm tired...I don't know where it is, but someone had posted about completing the requirements for an MCITP (I don't know if it was an EA, SA or what....but it was the full certification.)

Anyway, the MCP site has shown my pass for the 643 and it's part of my transcript. But I don't have the MCITP:EA yet. I was trying to find that thread to see if I have to contact India, I mean Microsoft, no, I mean India to see what's up with that or will the MCITP:EA just show up in a few days? I just find it weird that I have all five exams, but no MCITP logo/cert.

Should I just wait the week?

TLeTourneau

It takes a few days to update, at least it did for me.

simtech

Took me a few day to update as well. Just wait until a week or so. It'll show up

erpadmin

The EA finally showed up on my transcript this morning. I can at least say it took a few days for me as well.

simtech

Cool. That's great.

Nobylspoon

I've been off the forums for a few months but I was following this tread a lot before I left. I just wanted to pass a long a belated congratulations to you.