70-642 kicked my behind

Was not expecting the test questions I received, I don't know if this was normal but I had 12 questions on WSUS, 18 involving command line, and quite a few on port numbers. This was a wake up call to me as I have never failed a certification exam before. I knew after the 8th question I was not going to pass the exam so I spent the entire time getting to understand the questions given to prepare me for the next time.

I plan on taking it again before Christmas...and hopefully I am better prepared.

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Comments

DoubleNNs

That's unfortunate to hear. I'm sure you'll do better next time tho.

Seems like it was your first MS exam?

WilliamK99

yes, my first MS exam, wasn't prepared for their way of questioning. Each vendor has a unique way of asking questions.

Unforg1ven

I was curious myself about the adaptive nature of the MCTS level exams. Did you choose to answer all those questions on WSUS or just skip over to go back to at another time?

Rule of thumb for all certs, if you feel weak about a concept/cmdline/switches etc.... STUDY STUDY STUDY it before sitting for the exam. It will come back to bite you on the test.

What resources have you used so far this one?

WilliamK99

I have used the MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit, Lab Sim, Skillport, and practiced my skills using virtual machines.

I don't think the tests were adaptive as I was able to go back and change answers. I answered the WSUS questions to the best of my ability. I am now going to redouble my efforts and continue training with the above resources but have been debating using CBT Nuggets as well...

theodoxa

I received completely different questions when I took 72-642. I did not receive even a single question on WSUS. I had studied Server Core heavily, expecting alot of command line questions, but the ones I did receive only wanted to know the tool (e.g. wecutil, dnscmd, etc...) to use (usually it would offer the option of the MMC Console and the CLI tool and you would have to look closely at the question to see if it said it was Server Core or not. I also studied File Services and VPN heavily...only to find that I received only 1 or 2 questions on each. I received a 2-3 questions on IP Addressing and they were all using IPv6. I did receive 2 or 3 questions on port numbers. When I took it, the test was something like this:

45% DNS
45% Managing and Maintaining (Logging, Builtin Groups, etc...)
10% Everything Else (1-3 questions each on File Services, RRAS/VPN, etc...)
0% WSUS, WDS

I asked a friend who had taken the test after my experience and he said he received alot of questions on WSUS like you did. I was later told by an instructor that the test is designed so that if you get one question wrong on a topic, it will keep asking you questions about that topic until you get some right or you fail horribly, which is probably why I received so many questions on which Builtin Group to make a person a member of in such and such a scenario, yet received so few questions on much more important topics.