passed 70-271

larry64

scored a 766 and all i have to say is omg, i don't know how i passed this exam. i felt like i didn't have a clue with most of the questions, either i got very lucky and guessed the right answers or i did know enough to pick the right answers, or a little of both. had a couple sp2 questions and the material i used to study didn't really cover that, they were like sp2 was installed and something or another doesn't work now but did before.

i had 61 questions, took about an hour and a half to complete. there wasn't a lot of installation, hardware or desktop/user enviroment questions, seemed to be a lot of accessing/troubleshooting resources and network protocol questions.

Chivalry1

Congrats. What books did you use to study. I used the MS Press books, and they really did not cover the material for the exam. But I passed.

larry64

same thing, ms press and cram exam2 for the 270 since i already had it. i have the ms press for the 272 and now i'm wondering if i'll need something more to get ready for that exam.

TeKniques

Exam Cram 2 prepared me well for 271 but not for 272. I really don't know what to say other than just know the MS Office Suite extensively as well IE settings as almost 80% of my exam covered those topics.

jmc724

Congarts.

Solution is prep tests. I have noticed that the books do cover what you need to know and does gives you step by step instructions. But it doesnt test your knowledge. In order to do that, you need prep tests to simulate the exam.

Just my 2.5 cents.

larry64

i think the books give you the fundamentals and it's up to us to apply them when it comes to the exam questions, but i think the books could also be a little more through since they are supposed to be study guides. i'm wondering if using the resource kit books would be better to use, even though they are like 1700 pages.

i think using the practice tests that come on the cd's helps, i made it a point to make sure i read why the right answer was right and why the wrong ones are wrong, i think you can learn more from that and sticks better, even though my score doesn't seem to reflect that lol.

Chivalry1

Considering the Books is published by Microsoft, and the name is "MCDST Self-Paced Training Kit", I expect more. Not that I want them to give me the answers to actual test questions, I want to learn. But make them more realistic. The questions they have at the end of each sections are simply a JOKE. Questions like: "What are the RAM requirements for installing Windows XP"? Come on, that questions a JOKE. Give me more advance complex questions that challange the mind, like the ones that are on the test. Many people cant afford going out and getting 3 or 4 books, so they should keep this in mind.

If I did not have real world experience, I would have not passed. Back to SYBEX books. Sorry M$, I am already paying you for the test and your software!!

shudap

i used Sybex's MCDST Certification book, combined with Transcenders for 271 and 272. pulled off 933 & 913 respectivly.

basically, i dont think that taught me nothing, alot of the stuff on the two exams i find is very easy when you've done it before, just a year exprienece with the OS should get you propely prepared.

=]


i mean, privacy/security settings in OE/IE are important things any techie should understand, firewall, i mean, ICF, its basic, its makes one file, pfirewall.log, and u open ports to allow services, stuff like that. Alot of the harder topics are really easy, you just need to have the exprience of doing them often.

larry64

if i were to get another book for the 70-272 exam, i already have the ms press, which one should i get? i looked at the reviews at amazon and none of the books get great reviews. i know i'm going to have to spend some time working with office 2003 since i really don't know it.

jmc724

Buy prep tests and start testing your knowledge. Try and try again and re-read the objectives.