70-293 ...ouch!

I've never taken a MS exam that took longer thant 75 minutes for me to complete. I had 2 minutes left on this one and got a 646.

This was no 70-291 v2 exam, this was it's own exam with questions sprinkled with material you are expected to know from the 291 in order to answer the question. Ouch!

My mistake: Clustering. I didn't think I would get hit that hard with it but I ended up with 10 NLB/Clustering questions.

Needless to say, I have a feeling a got a few wrong as I only studied that chapter once. Ouch!

All of my categories except 'Plan, Implement & Maintain Server Availability' were at about the 60% mark or higher, with this category ending up around the 30% mark. Ouch!

Finally, the one thing that might have tipped me over was on a CA sim I needed to request a particular type of certificate through the web-based console and couldn't remember for the life of me, the default URL. I entered "http://<server_name>/certreq". Needless to say that wasn't it and I have a feeling I lost a lot of points because of that one.

Anyway, enough about that. I feel good about the majority of the materials but at 50 questions w/5 sim's & 3 Drag/Drop questions, I am not looking forward to taking it again. I will be however, with a target date of May-15th, God willing.

Good luck to the rest of 'Rat Pack' that is on course to take this exam!!!

p.s. This was my First FAIL and boy did it sting to see that screen!

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whatthehell

Best of luck and hope you nail it next time!

Big Jizay

Sorry to hear about your result. It is not uncommon for people to fail this test. At least that's what I've seen on TechExams. I think you missed passing by like 2 or 3 questions, so you're pretty close. Thanks for sharing your experience with us on here! It really helps.

Wedge is going to post more notes this weekend for the 293 in another thread. Definitely check those out. He makes good notes! Good luck on your studies and I'm sure that I'll be speaking to you again soon as I will be asking the Rat Pack several questions about this dang 293

genXrcist

Thanks for the comments guys.

I've rescheduled for Tuesday, May 13th. Although the 293 dished me up a big bowl of humility soup I too have something for it. Revenge... revenge is a dish best served cold as they say.

I should also add that I went into this exam a little arrogant. I skipped 3 chapters in my Sybex book (Ch 5-Wins, Ch 7-Server Security & Ch 10-Planning Net Monitoring, Remote Admin & Recovery) because I thought I knew them well enough to be able to pass.

Lesson learned? Don't cut corners. I'm reading them now, as well as doing all the practice exams in the books (which I also skipped for the 1st time) and there is a lot of information in there that was on the exam.

So basically, I strayed from my proven formula in order to rush through the exam and get the MCSE. Ugh. How many times do we have to learn that when we try to rush through things we end up making mistakes and it takes twice as long? I guess the answer is, until we actually learn it. Lol

Anyway, I plan on using the same materials, just using 100% of them and making sure I'm 100% prepared for the test on May 13th.

Back to the books.....

Super99

You'll be better prepared next time.

nielpeel

Sorry to hear about the fail, you were pretty close though so I'm sure you'll get it next time! It sounds like you got the same exam as me, 50 questions and 5 sims, quite a gruelling exam I agree.

My preparation for the 70-293 exam included re-reading all of my notes from my 70-291 exam, more than once, and also repeating some of the labs from the 70-291 book whilst building my VM lab for the 70-293 lab scenarios.

At least you know where you under-studied and can put things to rights on the re-take!

As for the CA URL, use http://127.0.0.1/certsrv if you are accessing the CA console locally (although you probably know that now already).

genXrcist

nielpeel wrote: »

As for the CA URL, use http://127.0.0.1/certsrv if you are accessing the CA console locally (although you probably know that now already).

I'm aware of those three letters (srv) all too painfully well. LOL

Thanks for the encouragement. Now I don't just wanna pass, I want a 900+.....

nielpeel

genXrcist wrote: »

Thanks for the encouragement. Now I don't just wanna pass, I want a 900+.....

That's the spirit! The 70-293 is a diluted version of 70-291 with PKI, NLB & Clustering bolted on - you've done a lot of the work passing 70-291, so just make sure you know the new stuff as well and you'll be fine!

JBrown

nielpeel wrote: »

As for the CA URL, use http://127.0.0.1/certsrv if you are accessing the CA console locally (although you probably know that now already).

As a matter of fact I saw this post a few days ago and had this same question on my test yesterday (which i failed miserably with 484) and the above did not work at all.

I even tried the http://<IP of CA>/certenroll/ none worked at all.

on top of everything the workstations froze on number of occasions with nothing but white screen for upto 1-2 mins.

randsmountney

Sorry to hear about the failure. I recently just passed the 291 with a 700. I am taking the 293 on the 15th and after barely passing the 291, I am putting forth more effort to make sure I pass the 293 on the first shot. I appreciate all the input you guys have. Knowledge is power, and the more people you have going through the same experiences you are helps to put things in to perspective and gives you more motivation to do your best. Good luck on the re-take.

genXrcist

JBrown wrote: »

As a matter of fact I saw this post a few days ago and had this same question on my test yesterday (which i failed miserably with 484) and the above did not work at all.

I even tried the http://<IP of CA>/certenroll/ none worked at all.

on top of everything the workstations froze on number of occasions with nothing but white screen for upto 1-2 mins.

That URL with 127.0.0.1 was just to indicate that you need to enter the name of the server. In this case it should be http://server01/certsrv

Better luck next time bro! I've got my retake on 5/13, when's yours?

JBrown

genXrcist wrote: »

That URL with 127.0.0.1 was just to indicate that you need to enter the name of the server. In this case it should be http://server01/certsrv

Better luck next time bro! I've got my retake on 5/13, when's yours?

I did try http://server01/certsrv(certenroll) and http://server01.contoso.com/certsrv(certenroll).
I failed at least 4 of the 5 sims. I would guess that is at least 30 points each.

I will retake it by end of the May, hopefully. Must have MCSA/E by June 30th.

genXrcist

Wait, did you put the (certenroll) in the URL as well? It works in my lab and it is what my book says.

Gaz79

Guys,

Hopefully without breaking the NDA but for that sim, there is an IE shortcut on the desktop that you need to open to request the cert ... i tried all the above and was about to give up until i noticed it.

genXrcist

Gaz79 wrote: »

Guys,

Hopefully without breaking the NDA but for that sim, there is an IE shortcut on the desktop that you need to open to request the cert ... i tried all the above and was about to give up until i noticed it.

Are you kidding me?! LOL Man, that is too funny. I would have noticed it too had I not been rushed to get the test completed. Which is of course my fault for not studying more. Ahh c'est la vie!

ElwoodBlues

Even though I didn't pass my second time, I did manage my time better. Which, I saw many of the questions differently and the infomraiton was there. With the exception of about 6-8 questions, I fully understood what they were asking for. Those 6-8 are still confusing me to this day.

JBrown

Gaz79 wrote: »

Guys,

Hopefully without breaking the NDA but for that sim, there is an IE shortcut on the desktop that you need to open to request the cert ... i tried all the above and was about to give up until i noticed it.

will keep in mind for next time. Thank you for the info.

genXrcist

ElwoodBlues wrote: »

Even though I didn't pass my second time, I did manage my time better. Which, I saw many of the questions differently and the infomraiton was there. With the exception of about 6-8 questions, I fully understood what they were asking for. Those 6-8 are still confusing me to this day.

No worries mate, 3rd times a charm!! When's your next test Date?

genXrcist

randsmountney wrote: »

Sorry to hear about the failure. I recently just passed the 291 with a 700. I am taking the 293 on the 15th and after barely passing the 291, I am putting forth more effort to make sure I pass the 293 on the first shot. I appreciate all the input you guys have. Knowledge is power, and the more people you have going through the same experiences you are helps to put things in to perspective and gives you more motivation to do your best. Good luck on the re-take.

So when's your test date? I always like to ask because marking a date pushes us a little harder imo.

ElwoodBlues

genXrcist wrote: »

No worries mate, 3rd times a charm!! When's your next test Date?

5-28-09. And when I do pass it, I am gonna stand up on the table and do the "chicken dance". If I don't pass it, I make take the workstation outside like the movie "Office Space".

motogpman

Been pretty busy here lately, haven't been on the forums. Sorry to hear about the fail Gen, but like the other tests, you at least know where you will need to study up in. I take my first try on the 11th, so I will be hitting the PKI/NLB/Clustering hard and heavy. I really hope that MS considers extending the second shot again.

The "Rat Pack" rules!

P.S. I think some of the post, although helpful, might be real close to breaking the Non dis agreement. Just my 2 cents though.