Time Limit and Question Count

70-680 will be my first MS exam, and my Google -- err Bing -- fu must be rusty. I've discovered that question count can vary between 40-60? And time limit is 120 minutes? I can't find an official answer, and I like to know these things prior to walking into an exam. I read here on TechExams that time management is key for 680, and I don't want to mess that up. But if I seriously have 2 hours to do just 40-60 questions AND I'm allowed to mark questions and jump around, that relieves a lot of anxiety.

Also, are the labs on the exam hard? Is it just "do this task, here's a command prompt and virtual GUI"?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Xyro

"It is a violation of the NDA to disclose ANY information about the exam, including but not limited to number of questions, type of questions and topics of questions."

exam 70-680 number of questions??

Cert Poor

So I'm pretty much right on. 40-60ish. And just paid for the exam, with the appointment length 2:15, so I assume I'll have 2 hours. 2 hours to do 40-60 questions seems like a ton of time, so I'm scared that people are still saying that time management is important or that they failed. I hope folks aren't making this exam to be a "beast" when really it isn't. I dunno...

SweenMachine

Cert Poor wrote: »

So I'm pretty much right on. 40-60ish. And just paid for the exam, with the appointment length 2:15, so I assume I'll have 2 hours. 2 hours to do 40-60 questions seems like a ton of time, so I'm scared that people are still saying that time management is important or that they failed. I hope folks aren't making this exam to be a "beast" when really it isn't. I dunno...

They give you a ton of time for those..

I haven't done the 680, but I did the 681.. 2 hours, and I had it done in like, 20 mins.. haha

mokaiba

Xyro wrote: »

"It is a violation of the NDA to disclose ANY information about the exam, including but not limited to number of questions, type of questions and topics of questions."

exam 70-680 number of questions??

But you can link to technet articles based on exam objectives.

Expand the objectives under Skills measured and click on the links under Preparation resources: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/exam-70-680.aspx

mr_tech_uk

Having passed 70-680 70-685

70-680 there is enough

70 -685 pushed the limit

Good luck

Cert Poor

Ugh, I don't feel ready. I don't have all the command switches memorized. In the real world, I would simply do a quick /? and go from there. Somehow I have little faith that Microsoft will allow /? in a simulated environment, almost unrealistically expecting you to have everything memorized.

I also don't remember how to subnet in IPv6.

mokaiba

Cert Poor wrote: »

Ugh, I don't feel ready. I don't have all the command switches memorized. In the real world, I would simply do a quick /? and go from there. Somehow I have little faith that Microsoft will allow /? in a simulated environment, almost unrealistically expecting you to have everything memorized.

I also don't remember how to subnet in IPv6.

its the same with server 2012 powershell cmdlets. In the real world I would just use gcm to find the command I wanted but for the exam they expect you to have it all memorized. As for IPv6, I forget how to do anything with it after taking any exam that had it in its study material. Most places I intend on working still use IPv4 anyway and if I ever needed to its nothing a quick read up couldnt fix.

Peterm44

With command switches I feel the same way, if you can tell them apart or at least rule out the fake options and clearly wrong ones then you are on the right track.
With the exams I have never felt like I would run out of time, 2 hours for about 50 questions is plenty considering you will answer a few within a minute. Try not to worry about time per question etc.

Cert Poor

661. My first failure!

Reasons contributing to the score:
* Only prepared 2-4 days.
* Only watched Professor Messer videos and took notes.
* No labbing. No time for Poulton book. No time to watch CBT Nuggets.
* 3 hours sleep.

As far as pacing goes, there was PLENTY of time. I went at a slow, careful pace and still had 30+ minutes at the end to go back and review the ones I marked. I also changed a few answers that I had marked, possibly second-guessing correct answers.

I suppose it's not bad for essentially "winging" the exam. I did use a Second Shot voucher, so I have two months to re-take. What I will do right now to remedy things in order to break the 700 barrier:

* Read the Don Poulton book in its entirety.
* Watch CBT Nuggets videos.
* Go absolutely crazy on memorizing command line stuff.
* Lab using Technet and Virtual Academy.
* Memorize more GUI screens/options/tabs. A MS exam is not written like the real world where you can look at a GUI and find things. They expect you to visually have the GUI memorized, which is quite silly.

Without violating the NDA, I will say that there is no such thing as overkill for this exam. Better to be overprepared and score a 900 than be underprepared and score just below 700. Many of the questions are absurdly nitpicky. You just want to smack the question author.

I hope to be ready for re-take within 1 week, but I won't schedule the re-take until I am ready and rested.