Failed 640 :(

pixa241

Ok so I just took the test today and failed with a score of 565. I was hoping to do better since I went throught the Microsoft press book and cbt nuggets but guees I need to study some more. The test center was having problems printing out my results so I am not sure what i need to work on. I know the exams are goi ng to expire . May. Should I use my second shot and giveit another try or should I just wait foe yhe exams to expire and just go the 2012 route. I also start WGU on 1/1/2013. I paid for this exam ouy of pocket. Any suggestions guys ?

DoubleNNs

The 640 exam is NOT going to expire. It's just going get a name change. Everything else is staying the same, and the exam will probably stay available for years to come.

Bloogen

I don't believe the exam is expiring any time soon. What is expiring is the MCITP designation but the 70-640 will continue to count towards the MCSA 2008. I would strongly suggest you study again and use your second shot but not until you can identify and work on your weaknesses.

Try to get your results from the testing center to try to find your weaknesses. Have you tried the practice exams that came with the MS Press book? How did you do on each section?

pixa241

Ok so the exams will still work but the MCITP route is whats going to change. But yes I did and I did good on all of them. I think I need to do some more labbing but all I have is a desktop setup with virtualbox but when I try to setup some vms to connect to yhe domain it would always bsod on me in the VM would restart and repaet so I was never able to fully do the pracrice labs in the hook whenever I needed additional servers or clients.

sratakhin

I would be surprised if anybody passed MS exams without any labbing or work experience.

bgold87

pixa241 wrote: »

Ok so the exams will still work but the MCITP route is whats going to change. But yes I did and I did good on all of them. I think I need to do some more labbing but all I have is a desktop setup with virtualbox but when I try to setup some vms to connect to yhe domain it would always bsod on me in the VM would restart and repaet so I was never able to fully do the pracrice labs in the hook whenever I needed additional servers or clients.

I got VMware Workstation free for 30 days when I was studying, and you can usually download 120 day trial versions of Windows OS's.
VMware Workstation: Run Multiple OS, Linux, Windows 8 & More
Download Windows Server 2008 Enterprise from Official Microsoft Download Center

pixa241

What are some other good places to take some practice questions other than the ones in the MS Press book. I am reading the Sybex book now to just use as many resources as I can.

cruwl

The Transcender Test really helped me focus on my weak areas. As important as those tests were to helping me pass so where my labs, the labs are very important.

pixa241

cruwl wrote: »

The Transcender Test really helped me focus on my weak areas. As important as those tests were to helping me pass so where my labs, the labs are very important.

Yes i have been doing all the labs in the MS Press books. Where are some other labs or guides with labs that I can do?

Bloogen

I thought you said the labs BSOD on you in your VM? The tests that come with MS Press are usually not very easy so unless you simply repeated them 20 times until you memorized them I'm sure they should have some indication of your weak spots.

Once you determine your weak spots you can know how to reinforce your knowledge and what to lab with. To be honest sometimes just looking around the MMC's for the different tools and making sure you know what all the tabs and settings are for is as good as you need for labbing. Assuming you are honest about what you do and don't know and look things up on technet often.

You need to give someone a hint on your weaknesses before we can give better suggestions. Show us the breakdown on some of your early results from a full session on the MS Press exam simulation. That may help you study more efficiently.

pixa241

Bloogen wrote: »

I thought you said the labs BSOD on you in your VM? The tests that come with MS Press are usually not very easy so unless you simply repeated them 20 times until you memorized them I'm sure they should have some indication of your weak spots.

Once you determine your weak spots you can know how to reinforce your knowledge and what to lab with. To be honest sometimes just looking around the MMC's for the different tools and making sure you know what all the tabs and settings are for is as good as you need for labbing. Assuming you are honest about what you do and don't know and look things up on technet often.

You need to give someone a hint on your weaknesses before we can give better suggestions. Show us the breakdown on some of your early results from a full session on the MS Press exam simulation. That may help you study more efficiently.

Yeah it would BSOD in the VM's toward the last chapters when I need to create additional Domains and File server, but everything before that was fine. I did well on the questions. I couldn't get my results form the test so I can not confirm what my weaknesses were, but I feel based on the test my weaknesses were probably AD FS, AD RMS, and some DNS. i was pretty comfortable with the rest, but I also had a few Certificate questions which is also a weaker area.

Bloogen

What about your results on the simulated exam form the MS Press Kit? If you haven't done one in a while or for some reason don't have access to the test history I would start by doing a full 50 question simulated exam and post your total score and results in each section. I used MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide book which I found to be very good that you may be interested in.

With certificate services I would say it's definitely important tor review as most people have little experience or knowledge and this area and I found the 70-640 very heavy on them. I would recommend looking through all the articles on Technet on areas you are weak and as I mentioned you can supplement with MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide. If you have access to Safari books which I highly recommend, you can get it there.

To be honest I didn't really lab with CS, FS, RMS but I did review the book chapters at least twice, watched videos and read technet on the topics.

pixa241

Bloogen wrote: »

What about your results on the simulated exam form the MS Press Kit? If you haven't done one in a while or for some reason don't have access to the test history I would start by doing a full 50 question simulated exam and post your total score and results in each section. I used MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide book which I found to be very good that you may be interested in.

With certificate services I would say it's definitely important tor review as most people have little experience or knowledge and this area and I found the 70-640 very heavy on them. I would recommend looking through all the articles on Technet on areas you are weak and as I mentioned you can supplement with MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide. If you have access to Safari books which I highly recommend, you can get it there.

To be honest I didn't really lab with CS, FS, RMS but I did review the book chapters at least twice, watched videos and read technet on the topics.

Yes I just started the MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide as well and so far after reading 3 chapters I have aced all the practice questions up until this point. I think I am getting a lot better understanding with this book and will be ready once I finish it. I am going to schedule my retake for Friday and hope I do well. Thanks for the help

TechNArchitecture

I failed my 70-640 a couple of weeks ago with a 552. My 3 weakest areas were section 3 (AD Server Roles) which covers AD FS, RMS, LDS, RODCs. DNS and AD CS were the other 2 weak points. I've been through Transcenders so much that I know the answers to the questions. I'm looking for another good practice test that is similar to the exam. I would appreciate any help.

DoubleNNs

Measure Up.

Learnsmart also has a deal right now - $1 printable practice exams. The one for 640 is well over a hundred pages tho.

cruwl

@pixa241 and TechNArchitecture, you both say you have weak areas in DNS. I suggest a lot of DNS labbing. It helped me tons. Be able to setup Standalone DNS servers by the command line only, setup 2-3 DNS servers, Setup zone transfers and secondary zones ect all by the command line. then setup a fully AD integrated one, then setup a mixture of AD DNS and standalone DNS. Dont use the books if you can.

I setup and tore down a lab like that 2-3 different times. and DNS ended up being my strongest area by the time I finally passed the exam.
I also highly suggest the Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed book.