taking 70-640 on Friday....

DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
in MCTS / MCITP on Windows 2008 General
I'm anxious and cautious but I need to take the test eventually....

Been studying since July after getting Network + and I've read three books so far and I've labbing the frig out of my VMware 5.1 lab at home. I'm starting to get into the instances when I take the practice tests that I'm not trusting my gut and getting questions wrong so I think that's a sign I'm over studying and just need to take the dam thing already.

I work in a 3 sites single domain network of 2008 R2 and I manage all aspects of it 24/6 and sometimes 24/7 for 750+ users so I think I'm overly paranoid that it will be a extremely hard test. I got like this right before the Network + exam and I took it and got a really good score.

I'm also reading the Exam Cram tear-out sheet for 70-640 in my leisure...

Any pointers from anyone? - I've been reading the 70-640 thread from Technet in this part of the forums as of the late so I'm just like overly paranoid I think....
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Comments

  • gibbers82gibbers82 Member Posts: 20 ■□□□□□□□□□
    You have been studying 7/8 months im sure you are more than ready for it.

    Good luck !!
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  • JasminLandryJasminLandry Member Posts: 601 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I'm also taking the 70-640 tomorrow. But I've only been studying for 3-4 months and I feel the exact same way as you do. Maybe you've studied too much and I haven't studied enough. What are you weak areas?
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  • TybTyb Member Posts: 207 ■■■□□□□□□□
    It is a hard test imo, but if you are comfortable with all the areas you should be fine.
    WGU BS:IT Security (March 2015)
    WGU MS:ISA (February 2016 )
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    JasminLandry wrote: »
    I'm also taking the 70-640 tomorrow. But I've only been studying for 3-4 months and I feel the exact same way as you do. Maybe you've studied too much and I haven't studied enough. What are you weak areas?

    probably my weakest would be AD CS. I understand the concepts but it's the hardest to really lab successfully. Everything else I use on a daily basis at work including AD FS / RMS.

    I'm probably just paranoid, Friday will gauge though....

    my biggest issue will be by-the-book Microsoft compared to what-actually-happens. By-the-book Microsoft and how stuff should work normally doesn't in a production setting, so a ton of my administrator skills the past 4 years at my day job goes out the window since it's not well the "right way" of fixing things sometimes, lol! - if any of you "are" hands-on administrators you know what I'm talking about... LOL!
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  • JasminLandryJasminLandry Member Posts: 601 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Deathmage wrote: »
    my biggest issue will be by-the-book Microsoft compared to what-actually-happens. By-the-book Microsoft and how stuff should work normally doesn't in a production setting, so a ton of my administrator skills the past 4 years at my day job goes out the window since it's not well the "right way" of fixing things sometimes, lol! - if any of you "are" hands-on administrators you know what I'm talking about... LOL!

    That's so true! I was actually really surprised reading that before joining a computer to a domain you had to create the account first. That's not even what I had learned at school.

    You're really lucky to be able to work with ADFS & RMS. I had never worked with that before and we don't use it at work. So it's tough to really do labs with it when you don't have a real environment.
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    JasminLandry wrote: »
    That's so true! I was actually really surprised reading that before joining a computer to a domain you had to create the account first. That's not even what I had learned at school.

    You're really lucky to be able to work with ADFS & RMS. I had never worked with that before and we don't use it at work. So it's tough to really do labs with it when you don't have a real environment.

    I concur and in order for AD FS & RMS to work you need certain hardware and fiscal constraints in order for it to work something hard to do successfully in a lab. Even AD CS is hard to do in a lab minus setting up the basis the rest is just fundamentals unless you are actually making a entire AD DS network from the ground up all the time in reality most of us won't have this opportunity.

    It will be hard in the simple fact that you need this certification for a company to hire you to setup a AD DS network but lol in order to do it all you need hands-on experience, it's a bloody catch 22, lol....

    Ironically, I do more work in a HP Procurve's, Adtran routers, and Cisco Autonomous/LW AP's that I could probably as scary as it may-be bang out my CCENT/CCNA in like a month since networking if you know CLI and can google you can learn networking fast. Microsoft on the other hand in a royal pain-in-the-ass to get real legit by-the-book experience. I mean in reality how often does any one IT person build a network from scratch, lol! - unless you work for a outsource IT firm.

    I will admit this Exam Cram refined facts sheet is very helpful!
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    so anxious it's nuts! - just want it over so I can move on-to 642. I got so many terms in my brains it's nutso! - good thing though had a major issue at work and I was like a zombie with fixing it since I nuked my home lab 4 times over the weekend and had the exact same problem. :)

    I so want MCSA, Sec, and Server + this year; if possible I'd like CCNA.

    the suspense is intense!
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  • JasminLandryJasminLandry Member Posts: 601 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Well I just sat the exam, I was caught off guard a bit seeing that there were more questions and less time than what I thought. But I made it, I BARELY passed.. I got a score of 700. I really feel like I could've studied way more than I did but I'm glad it's over. Now off to the 70-642, I believe that one will be easier :D. It's funny that the questions that I gave myself moderate or low on the survey before the exam were the questions I had the most on the exam. Good luck on yours tomorrow.
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    JasminLandry wrote: »
    Well I just sat the exam, I was caught off guard a bit seeing that there were more questions and less time than what I thought. But I made it, I BARELY passed.. I got a score of 700. I really feel like I could've studied way more than I did but I'm glad it's over. Now off to the 70-642, I believe that one will be easier :D. It's funny that the questions that I gave myself moderate or low on the survey before the exam were the questions I had the most on the exam. Good luck on yours tomorrow.

    good to know! - thanks!

    I'm so ready for it; I guess as ready as I think, the test with well test me on this thought icon_lol.gif
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    I knew I wasn't going to pass. Wanted to gauge what I needed. 1st time taking it got a 425. I swear it was all CS questions. So much of it I just don't have the hands-on with. Not sure what to do differently.
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  • unfbilly11unfbilly11 Member Posts: 100 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Sorry to hear you didn't pass. The 70-640 is a VERY hard test. There are so many areas that you can get hit with and a lot of the stuff, as you pointed out, is hard to lab. I would really try to set up a two tier PKI hierarchy on some test labs, and watch any videos you can find on YouTube about certificates... that is what helped me improve on the CS questions. Also, make sure you know what snap ins you use for what procedure.. ie:What do you use the Certificate Authority snap in for as opposed to the Certificates snap in.


    Good luck with the exam. I absolutely hated the 70-640.
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  • JasminLandryJasminLandry Member Posts: 601 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Don't worry about it. Keep studying and doing some labs on you weak areas and you'll get it on your next try!
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    unfbilly11 wrote: »
    Sorry to hear you didn't pass. The 70-640 is a VERY hard test. There are so many areas that you can get hit with and a lot of the stuff, as you pointed out, is hard to lab. I would really try to set up a two tier PKI hierarchy on some test labs, and watch any videos you can find on YouTube about certificates... that is what helped me improve on the CS questions. Also, make sure you know what snap ins you use for what procedure.. ie:What do you use the Certificate Authority snap in for as opposed to the Certificates snap in.


    Good luck with the exam. I absolutely hated the 70-640.

    Thanks! - I really wanted to go to gauge what I'm doing and were I'm weak. I just didn't expect I'd get such a low score, it was also soooo much material covered in 66 questions.

    Going to just get some more spare computer at work and bring them home and make a network and just make a few vlans to mimic different networks and go to work. Just going to lab, lab, lab, and perhaps try some different study material.

    I only used Don's two books from Pearson's I think I need to broaden my study coverage.

    I may also just switch lanes altogether and re-read the Sec and Project + books and blown them away since the test center is 15 minutes from my job. networking is also I do a ton at work, CCENT/CCNA might be a better route for right now.
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  • gibbers82gibbers82 Member Posts: 20 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Have you got a second shot voucher?

    If so then you may as well give it another go, keep trying it will be worth it
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  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    I'm probably going to re-take this exam in a month or two after I pass the Sec + and CCENT exams. I recently just got 3 R610's that I just deployed ESXi 5.1 on them so I think once I get those other two certs done and I have less thought on my mind about topics I'll go back to 70-640 and studying again.

    The reason I got 3 used R610's is because I plan on doing VMware certs at some point and it will help me lab for the Microsoft exams since I can actually do a full scale network with more than 2 DC's on home-build computer's. That might have been my problem with the studying. Plus with VMware if I make a mistake I can reload a snapshot. :P
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