Passed 70-640!
sratakhin
Member Posts: 818
Just came back from the testing center. I was so relived when I saw my score - 746! I was 90% sure that I would fail this exam. I had 7 questions that I didn't know the answer for and wasn't sure about 6 questions. Most of the questions were about AD CS, DNS, AD RMS, different AD command-line tools and other.
Breakdown of the scores:
DNS - 85% - knew it pretty well after passing both 70-291 and 642.
AD Infrastructure - about 50%. My weakest area. I have some AD experience, but we only have 3 DCs in one domain in one site. I'm not a Domain Admin, so there is limited amount of stuff I can do at work.
AD Roles and Services - 90%. Was really surprised to see the score here. I didn't lab any AD RMS, FS, and LDS related stuff as I didn't have much time. Only knew what it's used for and what different snap-ins and commands do (hint - study it well, make sure you know all the screens).
Creating and maintaining AD objects - 100% - knew it very well. This is stuff I get to touch sometimes.
Maintaining AD - 90%. Pretty easy. The most common answer to questions in this area is NTDSUtil
Configuring AD CS - 70%. Also was surprised with my score. I only briefly read the AD CS chapter in the MS Press book and didn't do any labs.
It took me about 3 weeks of studying to pass the exam. I knew about 50% already (MCSA 2003 + 70-642), but I found 640 much more difficult than any of the other MS exams. First two weeks I read like 7 or 8 chapters in the MS Press book, labbing everything I could and really memorizing material. I took 70-642 then and passed it. After a few days, I bought a $75 voucher and quickly regretted it. I had to read 10 chapters in the book and my brain just froze after several hours every day. This stuff is sooo boring.
Sometimes I even wondered whether the exam was worth it. I learnt a lot by doing MCSA 2003 and 70-642 because this is stuff I can apply almost every day. 70-640, on the other hand, tests a lot of obscure things that I've never even seen before. So, I was wondering, what's the point of having a certification in something I don't do and will quickly forget after passing the exam? If I had failed the exam, I probably wouldn't have continued the MCSA 2008 path and started VCP instead.
P.S. I'm not going to be home for a week, otherwise I would have shared my notes.
Breakdown of the scores:
DNS - 85% - knew it pretty well after passing both 70-291 and 642.
AD Infrastructure - about 50%. My weakest area. I have some AD experience, but we only have 3 DCs in one domain in one site. I'm not a Domain Admin, so there is limited amount of stuff I can do at work.
AD Roles and Services - 90%. Was really surprised to see the score here. I didn't lab any AD RMS, FS, and LDS related stuff as I didn't have much time. Only knew what it's used for and what different snap-ins and commands do (hint - study it well, make sure you know all the screens).
Creating and maintaining AD objects - 100% - knew it very well. This is stuff I get to touch sometimes.
Maintaining AD - 90%. Pretty easy. The most common answer to questions in this area is NTDSUtil
Configuring AD CS - 70%. Also was surprised with my score. I only briefly read the AD CS chapter in the MS Press book and didn't do any labs.
It took me about 3 weeks of studying to pass the exam. I knew about 50% already (MCSA 2003 + 70-642), but I found 640 much more difficult than any of the other MS exams. First two weeks I read like 7 or 8 chapters in the MS Press book, labbing everything I could and really memorizing material. I took 70-642 then and passed it. After a few days, I bought a $75 voucher and quickly regretted it. I had to read 10 chapters in the book and my brain just froze after several hours every day. This stuff is sooo boring.
Sometimes I even wondered whether the exam was worth it. I learnt a lot by doing MCSA 2003 and 70-642 because this is stuff I can apply almost every day. 70-640, on the other hand, tests a lot of obscure things that I've never even seen before. So, I was wondering, what's the point of having a certification in something I don't do and will quickly forget after passing the exam? If I had failed the exam, I probably wouldn't have continued the MCSA 2008 path and started VCP instead.
P.S. I'm not going to be home for a week, otherwise I would have shared my notes.
Comments
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olaHalo
Member Posts: 748 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats man.
I know the feeling of thinking you've failed.
I plan on only studying 4 weeks for the this exam and seeing how you did it in only 3 weeks gives me hope. -
sratakhin
Member Posts: 818
Please, don't do it. You will hate it.
I'm going to read Don Poulton's book and lab stuff that I didn't. Even though I managed to pass 640, there is 646 ahead and it builds on 640 and 642. -
netsysllc
Member Posts: 479 ■■■■□□□□□□
646 basically just tests to see if you know what technology to use for a given situation. It is not hard and just requires a good understanding of the server offerings. For example you might have to decide if XP-mode, med-v or RDP is the proper solution to a problem. Overall it is a very easy test. 640 and 642 were hard.
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netsysllc
Member Posts: 479 ■■■■□□□□□□
I skimmed the MS Press book and looked through Technet at a high level on the features of Windows Server such as App-v and Med-v