Failed 70-290 and confused

mishy

I failed the 70-290 with a score of 656 today and I dont even know where to start to re-organise myself. I have 3 exams to do, this 290 then 291 plus the upgrade before June 31 so I am in a tough situation.

I have never seen as many simulations as I have seen and one of them only had a few buttons enabled which I didnt think were the answers to my questions. Is it normal to have 15 simulation questions in an exam with 44 questions. I did score a 100% on Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices + Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment.

I feel the simulation will hit me again on my second shot but hey it has to be done.

Essendon

That sucks man but if you cant get the sims right, there may be a problem with your preparation. Are you labbing up the material? If you arent, you really need to do it, setup a few VM's, play around with the settings, reproduce the labs in the books in your lab. What all are you using for preparation? If the MS Press book is the only material you have, it aint going to be enough. Back when I did the 290 about 5 years ago, I found mark Minasi's book really good. It explained stuff in a much better way compared to the MS Press one. Use TechNet too to fill in the gaps. Good luck on the retake.

May I ask why you arent working on the 2008 certs? Reason I ask is even if you pass the 3 tests, there isnt an direct upgrade path to the 2012 certs (if you decide to do them). If you did the 2008 certs, you could still do the upgrade the 2012 even though the 2008 certs will not be available to do after June 30.

mishy

Essendon wrote: »

May I ask why you arent working on the 2008 certs? Reason I ask is even if you pass the 3 tests, there isnt an direct upgrade path to the 2012 certs (if you decide to do them). If you did the 2008 certs, you could still do the upgrade the 2012 even though the 2008 certs will not be available to do after June 30.

I am doing the 290 and 291, then I will upgrade that to 2008 then upgrade 2008 to 2012. I have been working mostly with Windows 2000 server and a bit of 2003 hence I am sitting for exams that are about to retire since I am more familiar with them. I hoping when I go to 2008 I will just be learning the changes rather than learning everything. I think the upgrade path from 2008 to 2012 will remain open for a bit longer than the 2008 exams.

I saw in the exam that the MS Press book is not just adequate enough on its own. I have a second shot that I will try again this weekend, I know its too soon but I have a lot to go through and I do not want to forget what I had already prepared for the exam.

Essendon

That's a tough path you've chosen. Not discouraging you or anything, but the upgrade exams are NOT easy. Lemme repeat, they are NOT easy. Not impossible to pass, but aint easy for sure. Based on your current path you have 290 + 291 (MCSA here) + 648 + 646 (SA here) + 417 (become an MCSA: 2012). That's 5 exams, the 291's a little beast, the 648 is a bigger beast and so is the 646. Then the 417 is an even bigger beast. Honestly, I'd find that daunting. I'd rather do the 640 + 642 + 646 to become an MCSA:2008 and then do the 417 upgrade. That makes it only 2 difficult tests (the 646 and the 417). Better still, just do the Server 2012 tests if you dont intend to get a new job in the near future. In a year or two, people will begin to move to 2012. My company is already looking at 2012.

Again, not being a jerk, just giving you something to ponder upon.

mishy

I think for the server exams I will struggle and the reason why I am taking the route I am taking is that I have been working on win 2k servers at work so I know most of the stuff I will see on win2003 will not be very different hence the exams will be easier. I am also doing it just to grasp the basic concept of server admin.

I think one of the main reasons for going for the 290 and 291 is that it is something I set out to do 5 years ago and never achieved and I am one of those guys who hates to buy books and then throw them away without reading and I might have to do that because I have a whole set of the MCSE 2003 books which I had expected to finish by now.

Do not be surprised to hear that there is still a few companies still using win 2000 because I just left one last year November so I can imagine if I do the 2008 in 5 years time it will still be around. 2012 is very good and I am very keen to get to grips with Powershell but I am still very light on a few things so I think before I take that head on I will master 2003.

Like you said I do realise with these exams the MS Press book are not sufficient enough on their own.

Essendon

I used to think quite the same and over the years found myself to be constantly chasing developments in technology. I was always 2, sometimes 3, product iterations behind. By the looks of it, if Server 2000 certs were around, you'd still do them. You are doing the first cert in the 2003 track, it makes you 3 behind since your just starting. By the time you get around to 2012, Microsoft will have released Server 2042. No ridicule in this man, so dont it take it that way. I do realize that products done change drastically, so what you will pick up while doing the 2003 track will help you do the 2012 certs. But why do something that's years old and even the certs of which will be expired.

mishy

I finally managed to squeeze in a pass on Saturday with 750. I guess the simulations on the first try scared me and I never gained my confidence but glad I passed.

Onto the beast now, will give it all I have (70-291)

blackkite

mishy wrote: »

I finally managed to squeeze in a pass on Saturday with 750. I guess the simulations on the first try scared me and I never gained my confidence but glad I passed.

Onto the beast now, will give it all I have (70-291)

anytips on what materials i might need? just finished studying mspress books.. but as what i've read, this are still not enough...

mishy

I used the exam cram - MCSA/MCSE 70-290 Exam Cram: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment: Amazon.co.uk: Dan Balter, Patrick Regan: Books the exam is not very hard but very tricky and what I will recommend is that you try the exercises in the book like resetting passwords, group policy, wsus etc because there is a lot of simulations I had around 15 in my first attempt.

Still quite a long way to go, 291 then the upgrade to 2008 before June 31 so you just have to jump in even when you are not ready.