Failed the 70-640 -- Twice....

toxic84

After the first fail I waited about 2 months before trying again. My only study materials for the first test was Transcender for the most part on the old 2008 Self Paced tests, not R2 unfortunately. After the first fail I did procure the CBT Nuggets videos which did help quite a bit, I improved by about 80-90 points, but still only had a 635, so not too far off. My question is, do I just wait the two weeks and try to dive back in to the 640? Try another test? Actually get the R2 book and do some labs as I see so many people suggesting (just beefed up my home system, so I should be able to run VMware there). I had a some quesitons I knew no problems, 2-3 I had no idea, but some of them I was able to narrow down to two...but would have some trouble from there, my weakest area by far was Creating and Mainting AD Objects, if I would of done better in this topic, I probably could of pulled it off. Thanks for any feedback...just feeling deflated. I work as a Server Admin, however our operation is so small, I had to learn a lot of this material from scratch, pretty much a blank slate -- I've learned a lot, but just not quite enough it seems. If this posts comes up in one tight paragraph I'm sorry, work system doesn't seem to seperate out the paragraphs.

lsud00d

Sorry to hear that toxic, but don't give up!

Labbing is IMHO extremely important in this exam since so much is covered. There are a lot of things in the details for this exam so it's important to get your feet wet and actually run through the scenarios. Just like admin'ing other things, once you get that "muscle memory" of creating objects in AD Users and Computers, setting up new site connections in AD Sites and Services, raising the DFL/FFL in CMD...etc. Lots to do with your own hands!

Bloogen

I definitely recommend going through a full book and doing all the labs and supplementing with Technet on your weaker areas. The 640 is definitely a tough test without thorough studying and getting some hands on.

The 70-640 Self-Paced is good for the lab they map out for you though I would not say it would fully prepare you. I supplemented with videos and the MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide book, focusing on chapters were I felt I needed improvement.

UPDATE:
I also failed once by the way. Make sure you get your second shot voucher to get a free retake.

toxic84

That's what I'll aim on doing.Even after the second test, it really is mind boggling how it's even possible to fit that amount of material in to 50 questions, I'd rather do more questions.

Chitownjedi

Lab it up.. I've just re done my lab because I didn't feel my last one was as adequate as I hoped... plus i want experience using Hyper V since im off to 2012 afterwards.. But just get back at it...you got this.

toxic84

Chitownjedi wrote: »

Lab it up.. I've just re done my lab because I didn't feel my last one was as adequate as I hoped... plus i want experience using Hyper V since im off to 2012 afterwards.. But just get back at it...you got this.

Any guides or recommendations on a lab setup? Just use a VM viewer? Get the client? My homebox is an i7 2500 with 16gigs of RAM and plenty of HD space -- I don't have another machine to setup VM on, so I'm hoping to get it done with this.Any just to double check the 2008 R2 Book, get it, and run through all the labs? Thanks for all the help -- just frustrated obviously.

lsud00d

That will be fine to lab with...I have the i7 2600k and 16gb RAM and I could run 5 VM's simultaneously for various labs. But I use VMWare Workstation instead of one of the single client VM's, and I had to enable hardware virtualization in BIOS.

Bloogen

I use VMware Workstation for my labs and think It's worth buying especially with an education discount of applicable to you.

My recommendations for labs are:
1) Straight from books such as the Self Paced Kit books

2) Based on the exam objectives and your own experience. Just setup a basic AD domain and explore different options in the different consoles and take it form there. Ask yourself questions like, how do I enabled DNS scavenging how do I configure DNS replication and zone transfers? How do I create a granular password policy? how do I take and then mount a database snapshot?

Every time you are not 100% confident, force yourself to go into your VM and answer the question hands on.

3) For some advanced topics to get hands on you can Google it. For example. "Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V Cluster step by step". 5 mins of research will get you hands on with even the most difficult topics. After you go through it once, even if you followed a step by step guide you will learn very quickly.

theodoxa

Bloogen wrote: »

I definitely recommend going through a full book and doing all the labs and supplementing with Technet on your weaker areas. The 640 is definitely a tough test without thorough studying and getting some hands on.

The 70-640 Self-Paced is good for the lab they map out for you though I would not say it would fully prepare you. I supplemented with videos and the MCTS 70-640 Cert Guide book, focusing on chapters were I felt I needed improvement.

UPDATE:
I also failed once by the way. Make sure you get your second shot voucher to get a free retake.

For 70-640, it's might be possible to cover the topics to some degree in 50 questions. But, I don't think its enough for tests such as 70-642, 70-646, 70-647, or 70-643 which cover more topics. With my luck, if they added more questions they'd probably be all AD FS and AD RMS. Personally, I would like to see Microsoft start using Simulations. This would be a better gauge of actual ability and would also eliminate the "Paper MCSE". They had simulations on our tests in Intro. to Computer Science 13 years ago!!! Why can't Microsoft implement something that a state University has been doing for at least 13 years?

theodoxa

BTW, as others have said labbing is essential. It is almost certainly what made the difference between passing and not passing for me. I practiced DNS using the command line the night before my test based on suggestions from this site and wouldn't you know I received at least 3 questions on dnscmd switches. Figuring that each question is about 20 points (1000 Points Possible / 50 Questions) that was basically the margin I passed by. I also received a few questions where I had seen the error they were asking about while doing a lab.

dreamer86

Hello,

actually I prepare to exam 70-640 I already finished self-paced training kit and watched CBT Nuggets. Every day I perform Testprep 70-640 because I have access to these materials in my job. I have question to people who are currently after exam. Could you tell me how many questions is 50 ? And are there on exam labs or something more except questions ? I ask because I have different infos form MCT`s. I plan to take an exam in two weeks I want to repeat some topics and labs form TK and then go to take an exam.

Please forgive me any mistakes my english is not perfect.

MrNetTek

You need to treat this like mission impossible...and then accomplish it; complete the mission. How?

First, what are weak areas? Really target those areas. I recommend buying books (MSPress from Amazon), and training videos (from CBTNuggets). Take notes, repeat areas over and over again, until your can recite them easily. Use mnemonics if you have trouble remembering the order of items/options/funtions/features, etc.

Second, buy good testing software. I recommend testing software from here Transcender IT Certification Prep Training Products - Practice Exams and More.

Third, as already stated, build a decent lab...and not just go through the motions, learn the why and how. Go through all the labs in a book, taking notes if you have to. The idea is eventually you should be able to run through that lab without the material in front of you.

Feel free to email me any questions you have about learning. MrNetTek2000@yahoo.com

Lunchbocks

Definitely get the Microsoft Self Paced Training Kit for 2008 R2? There is enough difference between 2008 and 2008 R2 that the 2008 study book will not prepare you for the current exam.

CBT Nuggerts are a geat addition. Go through all of them again, and maybe again, especially in the areas relating to Creating and Maintaining AD Objects. But don't neglect DNS and the other roles either (AD CS, AD FS, and AD RMS).

Look in this forum for the study guides I posted late last year. They are what I used to do my main studying and they worked for me. The information was acquired from multiple books, other peoples study guides, and Technet.

Finally, get the Transcender practice tests and use them to see where you sit. After thorough studying, I think you will be surprised what you still missed. I know I was.

Good luck and keep us posted. The 640 is a rough exam, but you can do it. You already know what to expect, you just have to continue learning the right stuff.

thenoble06

I just passed this yesterday (just!) after failing it the first time. Its defo the hardest Microsoft exam I've done.

And as other users have said - lab it up. Lab Lab Lab! And get down with CA. I found CA really hard for some reason - but just lab it until your confident on it. Also, I found a lot (well, some) questions are testing if you know what is available feature wise with the different DFL/FFL and 2008 vs 2008 R2.

I can't stress it enough though - lab until you can lab no more

Lunchbocks

Congrats on the pass! Are you on to the 642 exam?

kj0

Yeah, CA is currently my downfall at the moment. Just to self sign a certificate took me three hours of labbing the other day.

blackbelt080

I took the exam three times.
First time, I just used the book for Widows 2008 Active Directory configuring/some nuggets and I got a 403.
Second time, I used online resources and flash cards as well as making flash cards myself and I got a 407. Also, I purchased a book with Amazon on AD Configuring, etc.
Third time, I bought Transcender Online for aiding. I got a 379.
Fourth time, I am continuing Transcender, and continue using Amazon book plus another book. May consider boot camp too.

It's a hard test but certainly not impossible. I hope to utilize the labs more on a VM in my home network.

Chev Chellios

Thanks for the reminder, I need to get this one in the bag myself. Barely touched anything for it since failing last year, need to get back on it. Good luck for the re-sit whenever it may be!