298 study! Advice please.

kamikaze_worm

Hi All

Some of you may have seen my post in general mcsa/mcse forum about failing 297 5 times. Well i've decided to call it a day on 297 and try 298.

Last week I started watching through the videos (first few) CBT nuggets & in all honesty i'm a bit concerned.

I didnt do 299 and last time I look at these subjects was about a year and half ago (290/291). Some of it is pretty straight forward but PKI and IPsec is worrying me a bit. Any recommendations for study material.

Do you recon its woth getting the 299 cbt nuggets even though I will not be taking that exam.

Any Advice would be great.

Kamikaze_worm

RomBUS

They say that if you do get the 299 material, its pretty much the same as 298. If you are planning to eventually go for 299, you can get the 299 material to study for the 298 AND 299 just to cover both costs for studying for these.

Try reading the Sybex book for 298/299. They explain a lot with IPSec and PKI, it helped me understand a lot and now I have good knowledge of both

kamikaze_worm

RomBUS wrote: »

They say that if you do get the 299 material, its pretty much the same as 298. If you are planning to eventually go for 299, you can get the 299 material to study for the 298 AND 299 just to cover both costs for studying for these.

I wasnt planning on going for the 299. I'm not doing the security specialization and I don't need 299 as an elective. I've spend so much wasted time on 297 I just wanna get my MCSE and have a little break before I take on 2008.

Kamikaze_worm

powerfool

If that is the case, I would recommend to stick with 297... you have been studying the material and have witnessed the exam five times... why move on to new material that you are worried about? It doesn't seem logical to me, especially if you aren't planning to do the Security specialization.

kamikaze_worm

Well as it goes there are only 2 subjects in this I can't get my head round after clearing all the CBT nugget videos in 2 weeks.

PKI (no supprise)
IPSec

Any suggestions for other material to look at these two areas.

Kamikaze_worm

Psoasman

If you are going to do the 298, you might as well do the 299 to get the specialization. They basically cover the same material. The 299 is more along the lines of "this is what it is" and the the 298 is "how to design it"
The 299 book will get you through both exams. The 298 book is fairly dry, but a good reference.

kamikaze_worm

Psoasman wrote: »

If you are going to do the 298, you might as well do the 299 to get the specialization. They basically cover the same material. The 299 is more along the lines of "this is what it is" and the the 298 is "how to design it"
The 299 book will get you through both exams. The 298 book is fairly dry, but a good reference.

The reason Im not going down that route is my employer pays for exams, course material ect and I wasted time and money on 297 (a year and 5 exams). They just want me to get my MCSE. Even if i pass 298 I am still missing 299 and sec+ for that.

My Main question here is...

Does it make 298 difficult to pass if you havent done 299. I recon I can still do it without. What do we think?

Kamikaze_worm

Psoasman

kamikaze_worm wrote: »

My Main question here is...

Does it make 298 difficult to pass if you havent done 299. I recon I can still do it without. What do we think?

Kamikaze_worm

I think it's passable. I would get the MS press 299 book to study, though. It's a smaller book and well written. You can get the book used on Amazon for very cheap. Look over the exam objectives for both exams, make sure you are comfortable with them, and you should be good.

Amazon.com: 70-299: Books

Devilsbane

As you have probably seen from my other thread, I'll be attempting this on Monday. Since this post is for study advice on the 298, it seems like a more accurate location for my post.

I've studied for the 299 (and passed the exam after my second crack) I intend to watch a few of the nuggets for review but most of my time shall be spent working with the case study format.

At first glance it is very overwhelming and I'm trying to develop a strategy to make it more manageable. When taking the exam, should I preview the questions first, jot some notes down on the topics and then go check out the case study, or read the case study and then go to questions.

I think it makes more sense to preview the questions. If these are like the normal Microsoft questions then the case study is 90% fluff and I should focus my attention to the topics that will be asked questions about. Skim to find what I need, and then take notes on that. And then finally answer the question.

Shadly1

Devilsbane wrote: »

At first glance it is very overwhelming and I'm trying to develop a strategy to make it more manageable. When taking the exam, should I preview the questions first, jot some notes down on the topics and then go check out the case study, or read the case study and then go to questions.

I think it makes more sense to preview the questions. If these are like the normal Microsoft questions then the case study is 90% fluff and I should focus my attention to the topics that will be asked questions about. Skim to find what I need, and then take notes on that. And then finally answer the question.

Is that how you ended up doing it? I finished my book and videos and just started on the MeasureUp today. I'm a little overwhelmed by it. I tried reading a whole case study and then answering the questions. That worked well for the first one but I got my case studies all mixed up when I got into the second one. Now what I'm doing is reading the question and scouring the case study for key words that were in the question. That seems to get me through it a little easier but I'm not happy with my accuracy that way. I tend to miss little tidbits that I probably would have caught if I read the whole case study. This is making me a little nervous...

Does the actual test layout allow for easy back and forth between the case study and question?

Devilsbane

Shadly1 wrote: »

Is that how you ended up doing it? I finished my book and videos and just started on the MeasureUp today. I'm a little overwhelmed by it. I tried reading a whole case study and then answering the questions. That worked well for the first one but I got my case studies all mixed up when I got into the second one. Now what I'm doing is reading the question and scouring the case study for key words that were in the question. That seems to get me through it a little easier but I'm not happy with my accuracy that way. I tend to miss little tidbits that I probably would have caught if I read the whole case study. This is making me a little nervous...

Does the actual test layout allow for easy back and forth between the case study and question?

I mixed it up. When I started that is how it happened. The further I got the less notes I took. My cloth stopped working so I wanted to save my space. I had no trouble mixing up case studies. You are moving so quickly that they don't really have time to stick. Even now I can only think back to a handful of things, it's mostly a blur. I still read the whole case study, just sometimes I pre read questions and jotted down notes (such as wireless or RRAS policies). That blur thing was the reason that I felt like not only had I failed the exam but that I would never pass.