70-299 scheduled for next week

Devilsbane

I have 2 vouchers left of a 4 pack that need to be used up before the end of June. I could have used these for the MCDST, but instead used a free student voucher and bought the other student voucher for $60.

Next week, I intend to take both the 298 and the 299 (I'll be taking the 299 first). I was probably 75% ready for this duo a couple months ago but then gave up because I didn't have the time to keep the foot on the gas. Last week I picked the books back up and the videos and have been going full speed ahead to meet the deadline nextweek.

Since the money is already spent, the worst case is that I take 2 cracks at each of these and walk away with 2 previews of each test thanks to the free retakes.

My biggest concern here is that since I'm using the same voucher code, I can't book the 298 until after the 299. As usual, I also can't book a retake until I fail. So I fear that come time to book there might not be any times available. Time will tell, study study study and don't worry about things that are out of my control.

Asif Dasl

Good luck with the tests!

earweed

Good luck!

RobertKaucher

earweed wrote: »

Good luck!

When I saw earweeds post on the home page I knew who the originator of the topic was going to be and I got quite excited. I really hope you knock the 99 and 98 out of the park and that you get noticed by a company who will give you the chance you deserve to get of the help desk.

Good luck, D. We are all rooting for you!

Essendon

Wish you all the luck you need to get that coveted MCSE:S moniker!

Psoasman

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing those Pass! threads. Keep in mind the material is very similar, just different test formats.

Shadly1

Wonderful. A guinea pig...

I have about three weeks to go before this sucker so post up the helpful tips as usual

Devilsbane

Any tips/advice that won't violate the NDA would be accepted with arms wide open

Book for 299 is nearly done. Watching CBT's today and tomorrow and I'll be buying Transcender today. I should have enough time to hit everything except maybe some labbing. But I've already labbed a lot of this stuff from previous exams. I have a CA, IPSec, security templates. It would be nice for a refresher but I don't think that should break me.

Shadly1

I have a VM lab available to me but I have no idea even how to lab for security. I can fiddle with settings I guess. No sims to mess with on this one...

Devilsbane

Shadly1 wrote: »

I have a VM lab available to me but I have no idea even how to lab for security. I can fiddle with settings I guess. No sims to mess with on this one...

No sims on the 299? Or are you referring to the 298

Shadly1

Devilsbane wrote: »

No sims on the 299? Or are you referring to the 298

Sorry, 298. From what I've heard from others, you just read a long scenario and answer a couple questions about it. A couple of groups of that.

Psoasman

When I took the 299,it was mostly multiple choice. A straight forward test for MS. Make sure to read the questions carefully, looking for the MS way of doing things. It has been about 2 years since I took this exam, so things might have changed, though.

Devilsbane

299 was this morning.

It didn't go very well. I don't want to give away too many specifics but I'll share some pointers I learned that might help the other victims. I expected this test to be difficult, security is not easy. This is the only exam I have taken so far where time was an issue. Normally I have 45 minutes to an hour left when I end the exam. This exam allows about 2 minutes per question. I finished my first swipe through with 7 minutes to spare.

The content of questions were harder than normal. Normally you can bank on somewhere around 10 simulation questions that are nearly gimme's. This wasn't the case for me. There were still some questions that required you to tick the correct boxes, but these aren't nearly as easy. There were also a multitude of choose 2 and choose 3 questions that are of course much more difficult than the normal multiple choice questions.

I'm not sure what the plan right now is. I was hoping/planning to do the 298 on Friday, but that depends on my work schedule. After today, it almost sounds like suicide to try it.

I'm going to shoot for a retake next Monday.

DragonNOA1

Were you close? I got a 700 on my 299 so I hear ya that it isn't the easiest.

Did you review the Microsoft Exam objectives for the test so that you know you are studying the right topics?

I feel these security exams are where one day you fail and the very next day you could pass. Just depends on the question set. Stay confident and focused, you can do it!

Devilsbane

DragonNOA1 wrote: »

I feel these security exams are where one day you fail and the very next day you could pass. Just depends on the question set. Stay confident and focused, you can do it!

I agree with that. I'm already in the process of looking into a couple topics that I had covered but not to the degree that may have been needed.

I guess I forgot to mention my score, 662. Very close indeed, but in this scenario close just isn't good enough. I knew that this test would be difficult. I didn't expect it to be as hard as it was but I wouldn't say that I underestimated it. From Friday to Sunday I spent 33 hours studying. Reading, googling, watching cbt's and some transcendering.

Due to the way things fall, I won't be able to do the 298 on Friday which is probably just as well. I'm thinking next Monday for the retake (need to get my retake voucher in the mail before I can make it official) and then the 298 for late next week.

Psoasman

Sorry to hear, you were pretty close, probably a couple of questions away.

Devilsbane

Here we go boys and girls.

299 retake is scheduled for this Saturday.

298 is scheduled for next Monday. (This one might move as I have some other stuff going on, but I at least wanted to get the spot reserved while I sort out my other stuff.)

Essendon

Good luck to you D. Knock 'em dead!

Cisco Inferno

good luck buddy! you got this!

apoole15

Good luck Db - knock it out of the park!

DragonNOA1

Do whatever you need to stay focused during the exam. Stretch, look around the room for a few seconds, remember a song. Sounds funny but those are all things I did when I started to zone out and not keep up with answering the questions quickly. Worked for me! Good luck!

Devilsbane

I met with the 299 again today.

Same number of questions and time limit as last time. It put up a valiant effort and again took me the entire time. This is very strange for me, in highschool I was that person that would finish the quiz before the teacher finished handing it out. Then there were other students that took 30 minutes. I don't know how those people are going to pass this test.

I felt very confident. I kept nailing question after question and having a very high confidence that it was correct. Of course there were a few that tripped me up and I wasn't completely positive on, but ruling out other possibilities gave me a pretty clear answer. I ended up only marking 3 questions for review and I only changed one of them.

With less than 2 minutes to spare I submitted my work. I was pretty confident that I had put forth enough to pass, but I was still nervous that I would see a failure screen. Thankfully all the work I had done paid off. 833/1000

I really felt that I understood the material better. On Monday I was answering questions based on the process of elimination. Today many of them were answered knowing what the answer was.

Next up is the 298 on Monday. I know that I know enough to pass, but it will be more difficult than today.

Thanks for all of your support

Asif Dasl

Congrats! And good luck on Monday too!

apoole15

WTG and Good Luck on Monday!

DragonNOA1

So you just studied more or got a better set of questions? Good job on that pass.

Devilsbane

DragonNOA1 wrote: »

So you just studied more or got a better set of questions? Good job on that pass.

A lot of the same questions actually. A couple of which I have since discovered the correct answers to and some that I had never remembered to go seek out the answer for but was able to answer more confidently from the extra study and practice.

I think the difference was knowledge vs understanding. I knew all of these things well enough that I could recognize which was the favorite under optimal circumstances. But I didn't have the complete understanding for when optimal conditions are not possible due to a bad policy or due to an incompatible infrastructure. The extra week of review helped to solidify that.

Essendon

Nicely done and good luck with the other one on Monday!

Devilsbane

Is it possible to get a commercial CA (such as verisign) to give you a certificate that you can use as a CA certificate to issue certificates?

I wouldn't think so, because now your enterprise would be allowed to create certificates that would be trusted by everyone. If you have bad policies in place and one of the certs you issued gets compromised, then Verisign could take a lot of heat on that.

But that is exactly what Transcender says to do.

To support digitally signed e-mail transmissions for both local and Internet-based users, a commercially signed root certificate should be purchased.

Psoasman

Congrats on passing! The biggest issue I had with the 298 was time. It helped to read the answers first, then work my way up in the question. Good luck!

Devilsbane

Please welcome the newest member to club MCSE and to the 700 club!

This was by far the hardest test I've ever taken. I was expecting 4-5 testlets for a total of 40 questions or so. In actuallity, it was about double on both. Throughout the test I was quite confident that I had not only failed, but would never be able to pass it. When the score popped up I said aloud "oh my God". I used the full time on all of the testlets except maybe 1 or 2 where I had a minute or 2 to spare.

Treated myself to lunch and now at work for the last couple hours. Can't wait for my transcript to be updated with MCSE:Security!!!

DragonNOA1

Awesome job fellow 700 club & MCSE:S member! Feels great, huh?