70-649 First Shot on Monday

tbgree00

I'm taking my first crack at the 649 on Monday morning. I've read through articles on Technet and watched the CBT nuggets for the 649 exam and some parts of the individual exams. I also labbed all along the way with the videos. I'm going in expecting to give it my best shot but I don't feel tons of pressure since I have my second shot safety net.

This weekend I plan to go through Server 2008 R2 unleashed in one hand and the Skills Measured list in the other and read the sections about AD LDS, ADFS, RMS, NAP, and the networking roles. Those are the major parts from the Skills Measured that I don't really work with on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Has anyone taken it recently? I know there are a couple of us working toward it right now but I didn't see any post from someone who tried it in the past few weeks.

RomBUS

What testing engine did you use? I am at the beginning of studing for this as well (watching CBT Nuggets) and need to get a book next to supplement. To be honest, I haven't seen any threads regarding this cumulative exam but actually have seen people going for the individual exams for this track

Essendon

Good luck on Monday. Those topics you mentioned are the ones they heavily test on in the individual exams, so I'd expect them on the 649 too. These composite exams arent easy, you fail one of them and you fail the whole thing. You appear to have prepared enough, you'll do fine.

tbgree00

RomBUS wrote: »

What testing engine did you use? I am at the beginning of studing for this as well (watching CBT Nuggets) and need to get a book next to supplement. To be honest, I haven't seen any threads regarding this cumulative exam but actually have seen people going for the individual exams for this track

The CBT Nuggets streaming subscription comes with examprep so I am going to click through one of those. I have decided that practice tests give me a false sense of security on these things but I want to get in the testing mindspace.

I have a copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 unleashed which isn't an exam book but is an exhaustive look at the OS. I've been fairly happy with the detail but think technet is just as good of a resource if you follow links from the sticky threads. If work is paying though, I recommend it as a good reference.

tbgree00

Essendon wrote: »

Good luck on Monday. Those topics you mentioned are the ones they heavily test on in the individual exams, so I'd expect them on the 649 too. These composite exams arent easy, you fail one of them and you fail the whole thing. You appear to have prepared enough, you'll do fine.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I had a horrible time with the last test in the MCSE:2003 which was a three part test. I'm expecting to get close. I've done enough Microsoft testing to know they're going to throw a few curve balls.

tbgree00

I have been given the opportunity to use my second shot voucher to complete this exam. I came very close with 617/700/622 as my final scores. Obviously I just about got it so I am not too discouraged. Any one else planning to take this test would be well advised to know the earlier mentioned technologies along with IIS and HyperV. I expected some basics of Hyper-V theory but they really hit hard on advanced concepts. I'm not sure how I will be able to lab those when I have a VMware server at home and I'm not sure how to easily do the conversion.

Essendon

Damn man, that's close! Sometimes it's almost like that they gave you a failing score on purpose. You may need to switch from ESXi to Hyper-v to lab up for this one. I blew away my well setup ESXi lab to study up for the 659 (Hyper-v/VMM 2008 R2 cert) and the 246 (Private Cloud cert). Didnt want to do it, but had to. There's no way I could learn it all without labbing up. How much time did you have on the exam? Are the sections individually timed?

jamzhill

Good luck man. Looks like you've got until July 31, if things don't go well. You'll probably pass just because the pressure is off. Let us know how it went.

tbgree00

jamzhill wrote: »

Good luck man. Looks like you've got until July 31, if things don't go well. You'll probably pass just because the pressure is off. Let us know how it went.

My second shot voucher expires 5/31. I plan to retake it in a week or two.

The exam was 71 questions and each section was individually timed. I had around 2.5 minutes per question I think. It was a fair amount of time and I didn't feel overly rushed I guess. One of the sections seemed a little shorter and the time limit snuck up on me but I was just doing a final review.

Since I want to do this exam and move on to the 2012 test I think hyper-V may be the way to go. Did you install the "bare metal" version or the full datacenter and install Hyper-V as a server role? Did you have a domain set up in ESXi? I've made the mistake of making it the DHCP and DNS server for my house. I may transfer that back to my home router though.

tbgree00

I have rescheduled for Tuesday 2/12. To prepare I made a study guide from the objectives. I copied the relevant links from the stickies into a OneNote and have been using that. I also went to the individual nuggets and am watching the videos that are part of this exam. I really learn well from James Conrad and these are more focused than Tim Warner's 649 class. I'm glad I watched that one though.

My biggest challenge will be remembering where each of the roles services and options are within the NPS, NAP, and RRAS.

tbgree00

So I passed it today. I spent a total of 50 extra hours of studying at least since the fail. The main thing I did was break each test into the concepts I hadn't ever seen and wrote a few pages in Penultimate drawing out the topology and writing down terms and permissions, etc. It really helped me out.

Onward to 647!

cruwl

Congrats on the pass!

Essendon

Congrats on passing a difficult exam! Almost there eh?!

tbgree00

Essendon wrote: »

Congrats on passing a difficult exam! Almost there eh?!

Thanks. Yeah I'm close. I hadn't taken an MS test in 2 years and have only set 1 test total in that time so it feels good to get the rust out. I have no idea what to expect on the 647 but my good buddy James Conrad will get me there.