Didnt get past the 70-647

Essendon

Damn, this exam is a beast. 6 scenarios, 5-7 questions each and then another barrage of 21 multiple choice questions. Almost ran out of time on the multiple choice questions. The scenarios actually took me by surprise, presented a whole lot of info on a company, most of which was irrelevant. Couldnt believe how much information had been given...

Still no excuse to have failed again on this one. I got hammered by Hyper-V and some weird-ass SAN and App-V/Med-V questions. I dumped all the stuff I could remember from the exam on my notebook and am slowly combing through it to determine where it all went south...I thought I had DNS and GPO done pretty solid, but the exam again proved otherwise. I have picked up the Group Policy Management book by Jeremy Moskowitz and will lab what the exam has proved I am weak on. I also had RODC done pretty well, and was comfortably able to answer the questions on them.

I did use a few resources:

1. TechNet
2. The Nuggets
3. The Unleashed 2008 R2 book
4. The Mastering 2008 R2 book
5. windowsnetworking.com

Anyone have tips on how to tackle the scenarios? Read the questions and then read the scenario? How did you guys about it?

This was my second shot, guess I cant take it again for another month. Gives me a while to lab up all my weak areas and really bury this sucker the next time I face it. Oh and I only managed a 576, mad at myself...

[Deleted User]

Did you feel that the Nuggets left you under prepared? I've been using the MS Press book in conjunction with the Nuggets. I haven't had any problem answering the end of chapter questions but it sounds as though they may not be an accurate representation of the test.

Asif Dasl

Hard Luck. A work colleague sat this recently and got a similar score, though he sat it once before and was only 50 points away the first time. Makes me think too many people have been passing the EA and they are making the exams artificially hard. It's a reminder that once I get my MCSE finished and do the upgrade exams that I must do the 2012 exams when they come out first otherwise I'll get hit with the R2 baton!

undomiel

Wow, that sounds substantially different than when I took the exam. I don't recall anything virtualization oriented being on it. It sounds like you need to go through some of the prep work for the 70-659 and that should help get you back on track. As for DNS and GPOs I think it would be a good idea to look at the 70-291 material for it. The MS Press and ExamCram books I found quite beneficial on it. The 2008 focused books seem to get more lost in all the "new" things that can tie in and really let the basics fall by the wayside.

marcels

I just sat this exam today and failed too, I scored 679, I must have missed the pass mark by 1 question.

From the experience I felt I knew the material but managed the exam wrong.

I had 19 multi-choice questions and 5 testlets, 4 with 6 questions and 1 with 7. There was a total of 50 questions.

It went wrong when got the 5 minute warning on the 19 question multi-choice section at question 15, I then rushed my answers to complete the section.

For the testlets I read the case study first and then focused on the requirements to work out my answer. I also had to reveiw the current state of the forest for each case study a few times.

The questions I got for the testlets were straight forward for me and I felt confident with my answers. I felt that I just screwed up the first section of the exam.

I think my failing is due to mismanaging my exam time, not due to lack of study and prep. I was drawing domain and OU layouts on the notepad and just taking too long to answer the first lot of questions. This then threw me off on the first testlet.

I'm trying to book a retake this week. Hopefully we both can nail this exam next time.

mikesz

Completely agree with previous posts. I had the same feeling when sat 70-647 - my brain was fried at the end of it. I used CBT and MSPress (this one does not include more than 50% of what you need for the exam). If you do not have hands on experience you will need a bit more to pass.
And by the way 649, from now at least is equally hard.

DO NOT SOLELY RELY ON MSPRESS.

Mikesz

Tijs

It's a rough exam so don't feel too bad about not passing it the first (few) tries.

I passed it last week with 812 points, which isn't a great score considering I have quite a bit of experience with Server 2008 R2.

The testlets caught me off guard the first time I encountered them last month during the 70-662 (Exchange 2010) exam, which I failed with 678 or so. Time management is very important!

LCA

Essendon and Marcels,

Sorry to read this beastly exam came out the winner, it is definitely the hardest of the MCITP:EA exams by a long way. It is a hard exam to prepare for as it's not always possible to lab stuff on vm's. I found training videos not very helpful and mostly read Technet instead

I do remember getting hammered with questions on virtualization and how Windows Server 2008 R2 interacts with other technologies.

Re the scenarios I strangely enough did well with the last one which had 11 questions though by that stage I'd given up worrying about whether or not I could pass and I started to relax a lot more. I did read the the long scenario's very carefully even though as Essendon noted they're rather verbose and try and bog you down in too much detail.

MickQ

Guys, my condolences on the results. So close yet that painful bit short.

Those damn scenario testlets are the worst. At least when you're on the job you can easily filter out the junk info and ask relevant questions to find out what you need.

Can I ask you, how does the timing scheme go on those scenarios and the multiple choices? When I sat the 70-646 it was just one continuous sitting. Is there now a set time for each scenario and multiple choice? Eg. 20 minutes per testlet, and the rest of the time for the multiple choice?

Essendon

xmalachi wrote: »

Did you feel that the Nuggets left you under prepared?

The Nuggets though good in their own right, are just one of the resources you should have for a cert exam. Besides, the Nuggets have not been updated with R2. But they sure lack in more than a few areas. Virtualisation, for example, was tested quite heavily on my exam, while Conrad just scratched the surface on this topic

Can I ask you, how does the timing scheme go on those scenarios and the multiple choices? When I sat the 70-646 it was just one continuous sitting. Is there now a set time for each scenario and multiple choice? Eg. 20 minutes per testlet, and the rest of the time for the multiple choice?

Yeah, I had about 22 minutes on average per testlet. Once you have completed a testlet it lest you review them, but once you go past one testlet, there isnt any coming back to it. The multiple-choice ones work out to just over 2 minutes a question. Like a previous poster said, time management is key. You shouldnt let a question bog you down, just go with what you feel is "most" correct choice and move one.

Ah well, atleast now I know what to expect and what to study. I have had the flu since Friday and it certainly didnt help at the exam. As undomiel said, I need to hit the basics again on a few topics, DNS was one, GPO's was another (although to a lesser extent).

Thank you for all your suggestions and advice guys, much appreciated.

I'll book it again for a month from now. Back to the books and the flu tablets...

marcels

MickQ wrote: »

Can I ask you, how does the timing scheme go on those scenarios and the multiple choices? When I sat the 70-646 it was just one continuous sitting. Is there now a set time for each scenario and multiple choice? Eg. 20 minutes per testlet, and the rest of the time for the multiple choice?

I had fixed time slots for each section.

With the testlest I had 23 mins for the 6 question testlets, and 25 for the 7 question.

Each section had a question review at the end, but this was also included in the total time for that section. Once I finished a section I could not go back and review my answers.

I'm trying to remember how long I had for the multi-choice section, I'm thinking around 30 or 45 minutes. Whatever it was I didn't have enough, I had to rush my last 4 or so answers and had no time to review.

I felt less rushed with the testlest and had around 5 - 8 mins left at the end of each one, but it did take me at least 5 - 7 mins for the 1st read of the case study.

Thinking back about the exam its apparent that the fixed time per section was a real pressure for me.

za3bour

Essendon wrote: »

Damn, this exam is a beast. 6 scenarios, 5-7 questions each and then another barrage of 21 multiple choice questions. Almost ran out of time on the multiple choice questions. The scenarios actually took me by surprise, presented a whole lot of info on a company, most of which was irrelevant. Couldnt believe how much information had been given...

Still no excuse to have failed again on this one. I got hammered by Hyper-V and some weird-ass SAN and App-V/Med-V questions. I dumped all the stuff I could remember from the exam on my notebook and am slowly combing through it to determine where it all went south...I thought I had DNS and GPO done pretty solid, but the exam again proved otherwise. I have picked up the Group Policy Management book by Jeremy Moskowitz and will lab what the exam has proved I am weak on. I also had RODC done pretty well, and was comfortably able to answer the questions on them.

I did use a few resources:

1. TechNet
2. The Nuggets
3. The Unleashed 2008 R2 book
4. The Mastering 2008 R2 book
5. windowsnetworking.com

Anyone have tips on how to tackle the scenarios? Read the questions and then read the scenario? How did you guys about it?

This was my second shot, guess I cant take it again for another month. Gives me a while to lab up all my weak areas and really bury this sucker the next time I face it. Oh and I only managed a 576, mad at myself...

Sorry to hear that you failed, this is not what I got when I sat my exam last month I only got multiple questions however I had the same situation with 70-646 and I barely passed.

You will have to read the scenario really well I usually write down some details and put on some charts to help me understand the real situation then I try to answer the question one by one. I don't usually read the whole questions just one by one.

You will have to manage your time, put like 5 minutes for reading/understanding the scenario then divide the time left to the reamaining questions.

I recommend you read MS book or/and Sybex book if you can they're good resources.

earweed

Sorry to hear you didn't make it on this try. I'm taking it next week and hope I have better luck. I used the MS Press book, Technet articles, 2008 R2 unleashed, Labsim, and Transcender.