Failed the 640 and currently studying 642 - general ideas

zombie fred

Hi guys, just signed up after finding this very useful site after failing my 640.

I got 450/700 points after taking the test and I can easily say that I failed from not labbing enough and just focusing on the practice book tests I had (R2) and skipping CS/FS, where a lot of questions amusingly was on CS, but I did understand the gist of the questions but the answers provided didn't have enough memory on some of the commands to answer.

I am already half way through the second practice book of 642 and it has helped a lot on DNS and a few other things (currently just about to go onto IPSEC) and thanks to the resources here I have nuggets for video reference and plan to get through all the book by the end of this month and then spend an entire month (looking at 4/5 hours over 5 days a week on average) of February of memorising all glossary meanings of commands and labbing on each lab test from the practice book and some online things.

I generally have great memory and understanding of IT stuff, having being an IT Technician and working in three schools (still working in one now as a network coordinator) and started this since I was 17 (22 now). Do you think with the above plan of spending a month of labbing and learning all commands should be reasonable enough if I have a feel of things? I plan to go back to 640 after I passed and actually read the final 200 pages I discarded (Damn you CS) and watch the nuggets with it and do more labbing for a month on that. I will also do a course for the 646:server admin and then revise on the book because I want to get my ITP certification before it expires at the end of July. Hopefully then with 6 years experience and my enthusiasm/passion for server administration I can then jump onto the next posistion and then reap the benifits of being able to live more comfortably

Thanks in advance guys, sorry for the rant ^^

Devilsbane

Sorry to hear.

Microsoft tests aren't based on Memory like CompTIA tests are, but rather on principles. Sure, sometimes numbers come into play but for the most part you just need to understand the theories. CBT nuggets help with those because it simulates labbing it up, but sometimes you need to just play around and see what happens.

I don't know that skipping the 640 and moving to the 642 was really the best idea. Sure, if you had several attempts at the 640 and couldn't get by it then maybe it would be best to return later. But you have already invested some time into 640, in my mind I would want to keep pushing forward rather than risk coming back to it and having to start from scratch.

Good luck in your studies and welcome to TE

lsud00d

zombie fred wrote: »

skipping CS/FS

This would have been enough to fail my test as well, I had a good bit of CS and some FS!

I agree with Devilsbane that I would go for the 70-640 again instead of going to the 70-642 first....the 70-640 isn't huge on DNS and yourself being a network coordinator (admin?) should be familiar with most of the concepts! Just grab some free copies of Win2kr2, spin up some VM's, and get to labbing! Good luck!

zombie fred

Devilsbane wrote: »

Sorry to hear.

Microsoft tests aren't based on Memory like CompTIA tests are, but rather on principles. Sure, sometimes numbers come into play but for the most part you just need to understand the theories. CBT nuggets help with those because it simulates labbing it up, but sometimes you need to just play around and see what happens.

I don't know that skipping the 640 and moving to the 642 was really the best idea. Sure, if you had several attempts at the 640 and couldn't get by it then maybe it would be best to return later. But you have already invested some time into 640, in my mind I would want to keep pushing forward rather than risk coming back to it and having to start from scratch.

Good luck in your studies and welcome to TE

Thanks man Yes, theory and understanding is the core part of learning and that's what I meant in terms of "memory", my mind can soak up a lot of information well on all the understandings, I just need to translate that into "muscle memory" more with a lot more labbing.

As for the jump to 642 from 640, I underestimated what the test would be like, when I was mastering the practicetest questions and got around the 100 percent pass rate each time, I thought it was under like that, but the questions I was provided and the answers provided were a lot more different than I had thought, and I am half way through the practicebook and combing that with nuggets so I see no reason to go back to the first one now untill I've finished this and passed this exam. The benifit of doing this is all the topics from this chapter that are in 640 will help a lot and I can just focus on the areas I need to improve on (like CS/FMS/RMS and then going through all labs again and soaking all the commands). I think I should be ok, I hope my plan with nuggets + labbing with going through all the practicebook and then test software will help, with labbing/learning commands and meanings from glossary for a whole month (about 150 hours worth) will help.

lsud00d wrote: »

This would have been enough to fail my test as well, I had a good bit of CS and some FS!

I agree with Devilsbane that I would go for the 70-640 again instead of going to the 70-642 first....the 70-640 isn't huge on DNS and yourself being a network coordinator (admin?) should be familiar with most of the concepts! Just grab some free copies of Win2kr2, spin up some VM's, and get to labbing! Good luck!

If you read above then you can see why I am on 642 and then why I will jump back onto 640 after I have worked in three different schools as an IT Technician and then doing a lot of AD/GP and networking (putty/telent/cabling) kind of areas and virtual server remoting and little things made me that kind of role at the current employment now. I understand networking concepts on physical switches and vlans you see. My plan is to do those three certificates so I am Microsoft Certfied as the start of wanting to go into the windows server admin role and then expand on my certifications and areas from there.

My current lab setup is oracle vm on my PC (and at work) via portable hard drive and I have all the isos and things I need thanks to work being a Microsoft license customer with access to everything of the volume licensing site

cruwl

In my opinion the tests that come with the book are nothing more then a check to see if you understood the material you read, not to prepare you for the actual test. I too failed my first attempt at the 640 is a hard test. When you go back to it concentrate a lot on DNS, AD DS, and CS. CS is huge, or at least it was on mine.

Labs are your best friend.

If you really want practice tests I would look at buying the transcender tests. and dont take them over and over and over, use them like real tests. if you score good on those then you will likely score well on the real one.

Also before you take you next test look at Microsofts Second shot program, its like test insurance if you fail you can take the test again for free.

Devilsbane

zombie fred wrote: »

when I was mastering the practicetest questions and got around the 100 percent pass rate each time, I thought it was under like that, but the questions I was provided and the answers provided were a lot more different than I had thought, and I am half way through the practicebook and combing that with nuggets so I see no reason to go back to the first one now untill I've finished this and passed this exam.

You do need to be very careful with practice exams. They can be valuable tools to assess where you're at, but if you rely too heavily on them you will eventually develop some sort of question/answer recognition and start to see your scores start going up. The trouble comes when you take the real test, they switch things up and word questions differently, and now your recognition is gone and your answers are wrong. I'm a big fan of Transcender, I've used it for nearly every test I've taken. Just need to be careful and use it for a benchmark/learning tool and not as a study tool.

Always nice to make your mistakes on a test that doesn't count

zombie fred

Devilsbane wrote: »

You do need to be very careful with practice exams. They can be valuable tools to assess where you're at, but if you rely too heavily on them you will eventually develop some sort of question/answer recognition and start to see your scores start going up. The trouble comes when you take the real test, they switch things up and word questions differently, and now your recognition is gone and your answers are wrong. I'm a big fan of Transcender, I've used it for nearly every test I've taken. Just need to be careful and use it for a benchmark/learning tool and not as a study tool.

Always nice to make your mistakes on a test that doesn't count

Are the Transcender tests worth getting? They're about 100 quid each (money is not a problem) so just wanted to hear from guys here. Does it really add to being able to pass in many ways? (not for study of course but for benchmarking)

cruwl

It helped me identify my weakest areas. I would then study those areas for 2 weeks or so and take another random test from the transcender and could see i improved. I then would study my weakest areas again. Take the test and scored in the 90s. I then took the real one and passed.

The test question in my opinion were a lot like the real ones.

zombie fred

Excellent, by the sounds of it then combining the labbing with the nuggets and that after going through all the book and practices should really help. Looks like batman prep plan will help a lot !

Devilsbane

I think there is an option for a 30 day access that is less than $100, if memory serves its $60 or so. The best feature of these tests is that it tells which answer is right, why it is right, and why the others are wrong. And the really best feature is there is a link right there to contact Transcender right there if you feel they are wrong. You'll get an email back in about 2 days either (99% of the time) further explaining the correct answer based on your comments or (very rarely) telling you that you are correct and then changing the question. Twice I've made corrections to Transcender

I mentioned CBT Nuggets above, so I should add that if you get the yearly streaming subscription, you also get access to all the Transcenders. $1188 per year, so only take that route if you're serious and plan on doing several exams this year.

zombie fred

I've got CBT nuggets for 640/642 and I'll most likely will get the Transcender as well to help for the exams. I'm fully committed to getting my ITP for server Admin and then will go onto EA (but that'll be on the new certification body since those would most likely be done past Summer but at least I'll have the ITP body for SA first) and then I'd feel much good my level of skill