Passed 284

with an 810. Fair bit of DNS on this too. But I brushed up my DNS before I sat this test, so I think it helped me. Just a few on clustering and I must say I was lucky, since clustering was the only thing I didnt lab up. I was hoping for more questions on recovery, but got only a couple and they were tricky. Without violating the NDA, there was one question on connectors, the question in iself was simple but all four choices seemed correct. Couldnt really use the process of elimination as each choice seemed better than the previous. Guessed and moved on.

My strongest area on the score sheet was Managing Recipients and Address Lists at 100%, which was not surprising. The weakest being Managing and Troubleshooting. I was hoping to score higher, but I changed 3-4 answers so maybe they lowered my score or maybe got me over the line, I'll never know.

Resources: Dont go near the Sybex book, read the exam blueprint and read TechNet, repeat in a loop. Dont spend money on a book for this test. I havent read the MS Press book so I cant comment about it. I used TechNet predominantly for text. My work provides the CBT Nuggets for any exam. The Nuggets arent good enough, use the webcasts link that royal posted in his sticky. The webcasts are good. For practice exams it was Transcender and the Test-Out. I was told by skrpune about the 7 day free trial offer going at Test-Out. My recommendation about Test-Out: While the practice exams are definitely exam quality, some explanations to the questions are wrong. In one answer, they say servers can be dragged across admin groups, which isnt true. The trainer at one point says that Novell Groupwise 6.0 connectors are not supported by Exchange 2003. I looked up TechNet and they are supported. I'd recommend to stick with Transcender.

It took me about a month and a half to prepare for this one. To others who write this test, make sure you brush up your DNS. Ensure you know when to use SMTP virtual servers or connectors. Be ready for some tricky questions on DNS and backup.

On to 620 in 12 days to get me the MCSA:M.

Thank you to all the forum members, royal, your MVP status is definitely a huge inspiration. HerPsycho and Claymoore, you guys too inspire me with the knowledge you have. astorrs, undomiel, dynamik, all of you are a motivation. skrpune, thank you for letting me in on the 7day trial at Test-Out. In fact, this site is a motivation, especially with a couple of guys attaining the CCIE.

Before anything else, it's BEER time.