Passed Server+ SK0-003, But Barely

shaX 07

As the title states, I passed Server+ (SK0-003) today but barely. I skimmed by with a 754. Not sure why I did so poorly. I got my A+, Net+, Sec+ in late 2010, been working in IT for over 3 years, have decent PC experience, little bit of networking and some Server experience but nothing crazy.

I got a lot of questions on Software RAID, which took me by surprise. Also saw RAID 10 alot, more so than other more common RAID levels.

Saw NTP twice, and had a lot of really dumb questions. I mean literally dumb. I've been cramming for this exam for the past 5 days, using primarily these online courses provided by the Army e-Learn system, which are actually awesome and well laid out with current and up to date information that actually makes sense, but I don't feel like they prepared me too well for this exam (But at the same time I feel like the courses themselves provide a lot of really good info for real world, down to earth application).

But there were a lot of questions that just didn't make sense to me and of course many of them have 4 answers, all of which are correct but they simply want "the Next step" or "The BEST choice" when all choices are really good.

I do have the Server+ ExamCram Book for the SK0-002 exam, of which I barely used but in hindsight i'm thinking they may have been a better study tool than the Army e-Learn courses (again, if anybody on here is in the Army and has access to that system, I highly recommend the content for real world knowledge).

I sort of feel like the content in the Army e-Learn system was more thorough and difficult and maybe it caused me to over-think alot of the questions on the actual exam...

dragonshiz

Congrats! I wouldnt worry too much about the score a pass is a pass. I would agree with you that, the exam did seem a little bit out of sorts when you compare it with the CompTIA A+, N+, Sec+ trifecta.

shaX 07

dragonshiz wrote: »

Congrats! I wouldnt worry too much about the score a pass is a pass. I would agree with you that, the exam did seem a little bit out of sorts when you compare it with the CompTIA A+, N+, Sec+ trifecta.

Yeah no doubt. I mean, I literally had a question where I had to calculate remaining HDD space in an array after utilizing 2 of 6 HDDs for an OS Mirror, yet the question didn't tell me which HDDs were to be used for the OS Mirrior, and 2 of the HDDs were a different size than the other 4. I was baffled as to how they would expect you to be able to properly calculate this without the proper information.

As you said, score is less relevant than the fact that I passed so that is all that matters, though I am still disappointing by my score. I know that I know a good 85% of the material that is needed for this exam, and was expecting a score around 825 or so but it doesn't matter at this point.

For others reading this who plan to take this exam, I definitely recommend you base your study plan directly from the exam Objectives. I did not do this, and have never done this with a Cert but I read a lot of people do it this way and it works for them. I feel you could be more successful just by doing that.

Eqmmickey

This cert is on my list to complete. How long did you study? and did u have an previous experience with servers?

pumbaa_g

@shaX 07 please let us know the resources that you used, preferably civilian

I am thinking of giving this a go sometime in the future but finding a dearth of good material available for this exam.

I have been recommended the book by Joanathan Lau but it cover only SK0-002 and not the SK0-003 objectives. I am trying to go through some EMC reference material in the meantime.

BTW Congrats on your pass

hrspk733

Congratulations!!! Again....A Pass is a Pass.
Your Certificate won't have a score printed on it, just the date you earned the Certificate.

lawrence_of_arabia

Congrats on the pass! Certified is certified.. I will begin studying for this exam in the weeks ahead, but like pumbaa_g, I have only been able to find resources thus far for the SKO-002 objectives.. Any suggested literature?

pumbaa_g

I started with the First section in Skillport for NOS and felt like throwing myself under a server Horrible and really irritatingly obsolete

Maccabee

Yeah, this exam is no pushover. I'm both A+, Network+, with 5 plus years in IT.....and this test kicked my hiney. Failed with 744, just shy of the 750 needed. Studied with the Axzo Press "Comptia Server+ Certification, 2009 Ed."., and looking up topics on the internet...and there were a lot of topics not covered in depth enough for this exam.
I have to agree with Shax, many of the questions intended to set up a trouble-shooting scenario, but often didn't give enough information to make a definitive choice between three or even four very good possibilities. A few questions seemed to have been written by someone who is genuinely sadistic, or someone trying to impress Comptia with his ability to rack up their re-take revenues. I had flashbacks to my macroeconomics exams.
Again, any recent publications that seem promising or have yielded good results *lately*.
There were so many questions on management of virtualized servers, and VLAN diagnostics, I felt like I had studied the wrong book. Looking online now, it doesn't seem that there are that many books on this exam. Do the publishers feel like this exam isn't worth writing on and trying to sell books for? At $253 a pop now, I'm ready to buy another book and dig in for a few weeks before I retake it.
I see some in the forums favor Exam Cram...any other suggestions for something current? Thanks. Anything older than 2009 is definitely obsolete.

pumbaa_g

I have put this one on hold till its revised, working on the VCP5 and using EMC ISM V2 Book for reference. Will come back to Server+ later

sratakhin

Lau's book covers most objective for Server+. I had some experience with servers and passed the exam with 846 after reading the book for about a week. Of course, I also used Wikipedia and other materials to find more about several topics that were not covered thoroughly.