Failed the 291. Help!

Shaun5419

I took the 291 test Last Saturday and failed with a 565. I had 18 Sims, i thought that was a bit overwhelming. Anyways my worse sections were Security and RRAS anybody have a suggestion on what material to study to improve on those areas. Also i wanted to know what practice test software to use. I used cbt nuggets and transender and a lot of the stuff i saw wasn't on either.

Thanks for the help

gateway

CBT Nuggets & Transcender are probably the best resource out there for this exam. To be honest, I would go over the nuggets again for your weak areas and make sure you know them inside out. The next best resource for this exam is to lab RRAS if you can.

undomiel

If you're finding yourself scared by the sims then you need to get into the lab and practice as much as you can. Get yourself very comfortable with working in everything in there. Set up RRAS, try out everything in DNS, etc. Once you've got a good comfort level there then you won't find the sims so scary. Not to mention it will help you understand the other exam areas better as well.

xenodamus

I've used the TestOut course for every MS exam so far (on my 3rd), and I love it.

I'm also using the MS Press books and CBT Nuggets, but TestOut has been my best source.

vwtech

Sorry that you didn't pass , I'm studying for also.
I'm studying in the following direction:
Make sure I can do and understand the exam objectives list (while reading Sybex study guide on 70-291).
I do this by making notes on how to complete each objective.
Then I actually do them in a vm using Virtualbox.
Then use transcender.
Then finally a few days before the test I complete all the objectives again using Virtualbox.

I configure on DC, on member server and a XP virtual machine.
DC- will have AD, DHCP and other servers that are on the objective
Member Server will have-WSUS
XP - will be a dhcp and WSUS client

Hope this helps. This is my plan of attack.

Jarhead2011

sorry to hear that, but you'll get it next time.

I've used the MS Press book, CBT Nuggets and then Testout.
Must say testout helped me allot. And hands on labs experience on
DNS, RRAS and WSUS helped me allot.

Shaun5419

Thanks for the help everyone. I will be purchasing test out. Also I just setup a VMware server to help me study RRAS.

mikedisd2

Shaun5419 wrote: »

Thanks for the help everyone. I will be purchasing test out. Also I just setup a VMware server to help me study RRAS.

Top stuff, Testout is the best for the MCSE. I found Zach to be an excellent instructor. I failed 291 6x times and then used Testout. Everything suddenly made sense and I passed the exam easily. Testout also has a fantastic simulator engine.

Be aware that Testout won't cover WSUS which you will need to know.

BTW, 18 sims? You hit the jackpot.

Shaun5419

mikedisd2 wrote: »

Top stuff, Testout is the best for the MCSE. I found Zach to be an excellent instructor. I failed 291 6x times and then used Testout. Everything suddenly made sense and I passed the exam easily. Testout also has a fantastic simulator engine.

Be aware that Testout won't cover WSUS which you will need to know.

BTW, 18 sims? You hit the jackpot.

What did you use to study for the WSUS stuff ?

sschmidlap

You can't just read and watch videos and "lab" stuff on a couple of virtual machines on the same physical box to full comprehend 291 much less know how to handle the sims. You gotta go full throttle and run multiple virtual machines on at least 2 physcial boxes and implement everything yourself getting hands on experience. Can you set up two virtual subnets on seperate boxes and get a domain controllers in each subnet talking to each other via Active Directory Replication? Have you set up a real, live VPN server and tested it by connecting from the external network? Have you deployed a PKI infrastructure so that you can enforce L2TP/IPSEC connections? Have you implemented, tested and verified a working WSUS infrastructure? You want to pass these Microsoft exams on the first try you got to spend 80 percent or more of your "study time" doing rather than reading or watching. Working through the solutions and implementing as close to real world as possible. It takes a lot of time and effort at first, but before you know it, you have a live corporate domain network that you can leave up and running and just maintain with tweaks and upgrades now and then. Read the objectives and make a decision to "do" for yourself every possible thing there is to do with each component like DNS, DHCP, RRAS (VPN), etc. The more MS Exams I take now the easier and easier they seem because in so many cases the question is describing a network topology that just about matches my own that I work in every day and/or the scenario they are describing is something I have dealth with and solved for myself already in the lab sometimes multiple times. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to gain hands on, real world, life experience working with and battling with all the moving parts!

kamikaze_worm

Sounds like alot of the material here goes on to 298 which i am doing now. PKI i am beggining to loath. Any suggestions for studying PKI.

Sorry to Hijack your post.

I found that you can answer a Sim even if you don't exactly know how to do it. By clicking around you'll find that certain areas are restricted and you can click around and work out how to do it and then reset the sim and do it properly. I would only recommend this as backup if there are one or two sims that throw you!

Good Luck!

LordQarlyn

Shaun5419 wrote: »

I took the 291 test Last Saturday and failed with a 565. I had 18 Sims, i thought that was a bit overwhelming. Anyways my worse sections were Security and RRAS anybody have a suggestion on what material to study to improve on those areas. Also i wanted to know what practice test software to use. I used cbt nuggets and transender and a lot of the stuff i saw wasn't on either.

Thanks for the help

Between my second attempt (failed) in 2008 and 3rd last week (PASSED!!), I did see a huge increase in simulation questions - and none that I remember seeing in 2008. Probably done to try to make it harder to braindump the tests - a good thing, since people braindumping lowers the value of certification.

All I did was constantly read the MS book, and take practice tests over and over. Each time I got a question wrong, I would write out the question, and write the answer, and even write the explanation (if given). In absence of having a job that would give me hands on experience with 2003, that was the only method that worked for me.