Eaten by The Beast.

Hi guys...

Well... i took "the beast" (216) today, and failed it.
I´m an MCP, and have considerable experience in the field. Working my way to SE.
This exam was really writen by the devil himself.
As someone said around here before, i also felt like getting up, and walking out in the middle of the exam!
The test had 60 questions, and only 135 min. to answer them. I finished it, with only 1min and 40 sec left.
So... 2.25min. is enough for each question? Not if you consider the fact that EVERY question was "screen-filling", and that a regular human being takes more than that just to READ the question.
About 80% of the questions had multiple answers ( "choose two" , "choose three" , "choose all that apply" ..) in witch you have to point an entire "procedure" to solve a problem, and if you get one detail wrong... ...OR , the type of question in witch they present you a scenario, and say what you already did, and ask you to point the efects of what you already did.
There were a few about subnetting...but quite tough...
There were LOTS of question in witch the screen was divided in 3 (and you had to look at the exhibit too ! ) ...and you had to drag and drop...that makes it a lot harder , cuz you have to scroll thru all 3 "pieces" of the screen and "store" the info in your memory, to answer them.

What also made a huge difference in making this test even MORE difficult, is that the questions was not as "straight-forward" as they used to be in other exams...i mean ..if they wanna ask you something about DNS, for example, then don´t even mention it in the question...but they present you with a scenario, and induce you to beleive that the whole situation happens because of DHCP , WINS , and some other service....BUT you have to "guess" that, that one thing that is going wrong...might be caused by a misconfiguration of a dependent service that supports the others and that is not even mentioned in the question... got it? ...

Anyway...i hope that this helps the ones who are about to take the test , in preparing for it... my advice? ..take ALL the simulations as you can, stay away of the $%&@# **** , and study everything you tought they weren´t gonna ask..because that´s exactly what they are gonna ask.. (and that includes.. LOTS of PKI and CA´s)

I´m gonna retake the exam in about 2 weeks... and restarted studying like hell, already...

You really have to know this stuff, if you wanna pass this one.

Take care, everyone.

Richard.

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Comments

carolina

Thank you so much for writing about your exam experience with the "Beast". I'm working on the 218 right now, but wanted to tackle the 216 next. I want to take it as my first exam on the MCSE track because I hear it is the Beast from you know where@!

It was really nice of you to give us so much insight and I sincerely appreciate it. I'm not a braniac and need all the help I can get. I work in IT and have for 20 years and I know seasoned Network Guru's that are top notched that have failed that test twice. But, like you, they go for it again.

Like I've heard "it's not called a Premiere Cert' for nothing"...

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

SolarWing

Well , i´m glad i could help you, Carolina...
(and i´m glad that someone finally posted a reply...lol )

And i understand your will to take this one first, and then the others...like... eating the worse part of the cookie first, to save the best for last...

but...i really think that you should take the other ones first... (210,215,217,21

...why? ...because that´ll get you "trained" in the MS exams "way" ...;) and the experience you´ll need to get for these ones, is going to help you alot to pass on the beast...and as a matter of fact... you´ll feel alot more confident in yourself, if you try 216 , knowing that you´ve passed the others already ..

Just make sure that you covered al the topics on the bottom of the MS page.. http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/exams/70-216.asp ...and, as i said before, take as much simulations as you can, to get used to the type of questions. ..if you have a solid base in subnetting...it´ll give you 4 ...5 questions for free.... ...remember... time IS an issue here....
Study all the procedures your experience tells you it´s important..like ..database disaster/corruption recovery, transfers, backups..etc... for DNS, DHCP , and WINS ...and also try to be familiar with the command-line tools for performing maintenance tasks in all of this aspects. (reg keys too)

Well, i hope i helped you a little more...

Take care.

carolina

I have passed the 210 and the 215 and have scheduled the 218 for this Friday, although I'd admit this one is a bit more difficult for me than the 2 I passed. I also passed A+ and Network+ to refresh my memory of the good old days <grin>. Anyway, you recommed the 217 before the 216?? I guess I could do the 217 first since I have the other's out of the way, but that "Beast" test is bothering me. I'm tempted to look at my cbtnugget on it, but have held myself back until I manage to pass the 218. I hear it is very wordy.

Let me know when you reschedule the Beast and kick his @$$ <GRIN>

Carolina

SolarWing

I just took the 218 today , and passed it....i tought it was the easiest one so far...take a look at my post about it , in the 218 section...
Congrats for passing in the exams, way to go!
My next try on the beast, will be on the 23rd (next wednesday) ...lets see what happens....

Good luck when you give it a try...

carolina

Great job on the 218! I take mine today and am nervous as heck. I'm sure you'll do fine on the beast since you've already started the slaying!

SolarWing

Thanks!! Actually, i suddenly started trainning for the CCNA ...lol ...i mean , i had an offer to buy the CCNA course with a big discount, so i did... i´ll be in this training this next week... and then, i´ll restart my studies to the beast..