Poll on difficulty level of the exam

NPA24

Hey everybody I was just wondering what you guys think the difficulty level of this exam is. Can people that have passed or failed this exam post their test scores and also fill out the poll so we can see some statistics for this particular test. Thanks!



Edit by Webmaster: The average difficulty level on February 4, 2006 was 6.7

Webmaster

I made this a Sticky post, as I'd really like to see some more people vote, and post their passing score here.

woodworm

Well I voted 5 - but that's probably because I passed, so really this is just relative to the amount of time and effort you have put in ... I mean, I failed the 290 exam so I think it's difficult, but hopefully when I pass it at the next bash I will find it easy .....

My 270 score was 814 ...

And I haven't done any other exams (apart from the one failed 290) to compare it against ...

garv221

I voted 5 being it wasn't hard but wasn't exactly easy (NET+ is a 1). 70-290 was harder, but again not really THAT hard, its a suped up version of XP.

woodworm

Any chance of having a similar poll in each section?

NPA24

woodworm wrote:

Any chance of having a similar poll in each section?

That would be a great idea!

telthenipper

Can anyone tell me how hard this exam is compared to A+ Hardware/Software ?

awaisyboy

i use xp pro at home so i knew about 25% of it..most of the theory stuff is quite easy .....its all about practicing the other stuff such as setting up accounts/turning on quotas /remote assistance etc and command lines for rollouts etc

telthenipper

Thanks for the info, that's made me feel a lot better. The thing that freaked my out about the 70-270 exam is the length of questions, there like whole paragraphs. After passing both the A+ exams and then looking at some sample questions for the 70-270 it threw it makes the exam look a lot harder than the 2 A pluses.

What do you think?

tel

spike_tomahawk

I got a 715, not trying for excuses but I was studying and then got ready to move across the country and wanted to get it done with. So I guess I could have done better, but a lot of things were going on in my life right then.

Now, not so hetic, I just took 271 and 272 passed both with 800 scores. I voted 7 for 270 but then I would give 271 and 272 a 6 at least. The content on 270 was harder but the wording and wadeing though all the long questions and deciphering the info was right on track with all three of them.

rphann

It really depends on how hard you study and know the materials. The more you study the easier the test. So for my personal opinion I gave it a 7.

lvnvrgnia

I took the 70-270 test on Monday and passed with a 954. I don't think we can say whether it was easy or not. It all depends what you know and how well you studied. I work with XP daily and group policies, desktop support and several operating systems in this environment. I also studied for a month straight every free moment I had to include the whole weekend before I took the test. When I finished I had an hour and ten minutes still left. To me it was easy but I was also well prepared.

medic

I have not yet taken this test but I'm thinking it will be my next one.

That said, I will answer the pole question with the same answer I give when asked about ANY test:

"It's only hard if you don't know the answers."

DeadProphet

I gave it a 7 on the vote, I feel that Hands-On Experience of XP Pro is one of the most impotant things for this test, sadly I did not have Hands-On Experience to the degree I wanted, but, phew, I passed anyway.

spudnik

I gave it a 7, passed with 794, but thought it was quite hard, found the 290 easier, could be that the questions were long (full on essays)

jbollyn

lvnvrgnia wrote:

I took the 70-270 test on Monday and passed with a 954. I don't think we can say whether it was easy or not. It all depends what you know and how well you studied. I work with XP daily and group policies, desktop support and several operating systems in this environment. I also studied for a month straight every free moment I had to include the whole weekend before I took the test. When I finished I had an hour and ten minutes still left. To me it was easy but I was also well prepared.

The above quote describes me, too, with slight tweaks as follows:

I only scored 952.

My job is similar to Ivan's, except I have been doing PC operations and network administration since 1981, for several different employers.

Ivan must think (or read) faster than me. I only had 15 minutes left at the end of the exam.

I did not participate in the poll, because I really did not understand what we were supposed to compare the 70-270 exam with. I have not taken any other certification exams. I did not want my poll response to skew the results. We all know that bad data is worse than meaningless - it is potentially misleading.

In addition, I have server responsibilities, both stand-alone and win2k3 AD domain stuff.

I hit the books pretty hard for three weeks, every day including weekends. Resources: MS Press 70-270 book (the new edition which includes SP2), the ExamCram2 book, and of course this website, for which we are all grateful. The exam questions on the MS Press CD are very good.

Bottom line: IT stuff is my life's work. I work hard at it because I enjoy it, and I like to see what I can do. I just think it is time for me to be MS-certified, without regard to future job opportunities.

- Jay MCP

nickmdi

Mine was 58 questions.

barely with 731 but I'll take it.

N

Silver Bullet

I gave it a 5 and scored 907

Metaldave

jbollyn wrote:

Resources: MS Press 70-270 book (the new edition which includes SP2), the ExamCram2 book, and of course this website, for which we are all grateful.

They are the same books I'm using. Will have to up the work Im putting in though.

roninmagik1

I just took it and i passed with a 778. Man it was hard, i have to study alot more if i hope to pass the next one, 70-290!!!!

Webmaster

Congrats!

jkstech

i took it today, got a 794 it was a pretty thorough exam, not simple, but not impossible if you study up

leefdaddy

I gave it a 6 took it yesterday and passed with a 826. Only book I read was Exam Cram 2. I didn't really take many practice tests for this exam either. Like 25 questions of the one here and went through a 50 question one on the cd i got with the book once.

The questions are just so long, I got bored with the practice tests lol.

I also work professionaly with XP daily so that helps.

zenboy

I give it a 8. Passed it with 731, and wondering how I've made it. Gotta give it to those Who passed it with high marks. Had been in IT for 7 years as pc tech/sys adm., I feel this test demands at least 3 years of experience on desktop support for those who wants to pass this test. Studied for 1 1/2 months (used XP Pro for the last 3 years) with 3 different books.
Well I'm off to 70-290 next.

Mirage11

Found this website and used some info for my 70-270 exam today, but the most important study information i got from ****, i'm in the IT business for about 6 years and did not study very hard, about 4 hours a week three weeks long. Was surprised that it was a very easy to understand exam, had 58 questions and was done in 45 minutes.
My score was beleive it or not 984. I think i had 1 or 2 questions wrong.
Just study enough and take the practice exams and think the microsoft way during your exam than you surely pass.

mvastarelli

I'm giving this one a 7. It wasn't impossibly hard, but it certainly wasn't a cakewalk either.

Kevin_cambs_uk

Got 810.

Its difficult because the volume of knowledge you need. The book is 20 chapters long and theres a hell of a lot of info in there

cwright

I gave this a 7 but it was the first exam ive done so dont have much to compare to. Passed with 873. Doing exchange 2003 next, got the book today, looks harder than XP at first glance but I guess it wont be once ive studied an awful lot.

Ahriakin

Looks like I'm copying Cwright but.... 7, passed with 873. I'd say the exam was tricky more than the material being hard. I used CBTNuggets, Exam Cram and the notes here. Slowly read the Exam Cram over a month (was in the middle of a move, didnt have much time). Then hammered the rest of the materials over a week.

kanundra

I think the hardest part of this test is it's most people's first Microsoft test. We all know how it is to get used to the wording they use.

itdaddy

roninmagik1

A+, Network+, Bachelors Degree in Information Technology(I.T.)....my friend works 2 nights a week as a bartender and still makes more than me.....

you are not serious about the baretending thing; i do agree that IT personnel are way underpaid what Hell we have to go through to get there.