Look who has their MCSE now.

ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I passed!

By the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.

I took the 70-298 first. Started attacking it like it was a speed test but then realized that the time limit really wasn't that pressing. I had 5 testlets and 35 questions. I felt pretty good on that test though I ran into a few surprises. Definitely be sure you read the questions on this one and then look through the case studies several times to make sure you didn't miss anything. I'm a little bit disappointed in my score but that's ok. This test didn't feel as well written as Microsoft's other tests. It had a bit of the ambiguity surrounding the Security+. But all in all if you understand everything you learned in the core tests then you shouldn't have too much of a problem with this test. Don't let the testlet format throw you. This is also the only Microsoft test that I actually maxed out a section bar on! Creating the conceptual design for network infrastructure security by gathering and analyzing business and technical requirements. I scored a 757

Then I turned around and stepped right back in for the 70-294. My momentum was immediately killed by the first question because I was sure of exactly how to deal with the presented situation efficiently and correctly, but none of the answers fit! Back to doing it the Microsoft way. I couldn't build up steam through this test either. 42 questions with 3 simulations. The first half was really boring. I'll be quite happy to not look at a site diagram for a while! The second half got better and was a lot more enjoyable. I had problems with the drag and drop questions on several though. They felt like they didn't include all of the information that was supposed to be there. For several I felt like I was just throwing darts at a dartboard. It was very odd. Of course it could have just been me not quite understanding. I scraped by this test with my worst test score so far: 700.

Completely excited to finally have my MCSE now! Video games and anime for today then updating the resume and job searching for this weekend!

Oh and I wanted to add my thank list as well. Thanks to snadam for all of the study materials! Thanks to dynamik for being himself (take it as you will). Thanks to TE for all of the help. Thanks to my wife for putting up with me. And of course thanks to God for without Him I would have fallen flat on my face from day one.

Total time for MCSE: 7 months, 8 if you count my aborted study attempt in December for the Security+.

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Comments

undomiel

snadam wrote:

undomiel wrote:

snadam wrote:

Technowiz wrote:

Congrats undomiel! That is quite a pace to do the full track in 7 months! It's taken me nearly 18!

Im on 20...

Would it help if excluding the Security+ and accounting for only all of the Microsoft exams themselves my transcript shows just 4 months?

nope, not at all

I tried!

1MeanAdmin

Congrats, Undomiel!
Job well done!

Technowiz

undomiel wrote:

snadam wrote:

Technowiz wrote:

Congrats undomiel! That is quite a pace to do the full track in 7 months! It's taken me nearly 18!

Im on 20...

Would it help if excluding the Security+ and accounting for only all of the Microsoft exams themselves my transcript shows just 4 months?

Show off!

How much experience did you have with server 2003 before starting on this?

undomiel

Never touched Server 2003 before October last year. Got a huge crash course in it on the first weeks of the job. Viruses rampant on the network, Exchange going down all the time, the ISP calling up threatening to cut off our internet access if we don't take care of the spyware that was cracking other people's systems, back-ups that would take nearly 1 day to back-up everything. I was the only IT person as well, for they fired the previous one a while back and had never hired a replacement. I nearly fled back to help desk. Sticking out though got me some of the best experience you can get in damage control and learning AD and Exchange really fast. It really paid off so that's why I didn't have too much difficulty with the 290 and 291.

Technowiz

Ah trial by fire! Definitely tends to make things stick in your mind. Well you're an inspiration to me to keep studying and advancing my skill set.

undomiel

Glad I could help!

I know I still have plenty of gaps in my knowledge but I'm working on discovering and filling them. Plus picking up as much new stuff as I can. It's all fun anyhow! Well, except for that 294 material. Yawn!

Go and knock out that MCSE Technowiz, I know you can do it.