Passed "the beast" today

I took the 70-291 test today for the first time and passed with a score of 905. I have to agree with one of the recent posts from another member - this test was not a "beast" at all. Actually, I thought 70-290 was harder. There were 48 questions with only one simulation about adding a resource record, and all of the questions seemed to be very short and to the point. I used ******** and the MS-press CD questions mostly, along with the MS press book and the MCSE in a Nutshell and Examprep 70-291 books.

This link was also VERY valuable:

MCSE 70-291 Study Guide - Proprofs

I would definitely recommend knowing RRAS inside and out, and be sure and know the basic tabs and what is on each of them for each option (VPN, NAT, Demand-dial). Understand DNS and the different zone types, and make sure you know what the Icons mean for DHCP for the scope and server. Also understand how scopes and DHCP relay agent work. And be sure and know how to work with services...

And I would know all of the commands (ping, pathping, tracert, nslookup, dnscmd, net, and netsh) and each of the options with them along with the output. Just knowing the commands is not good enough - play around with each command and option and KNOW what the output means...

The main thing is to just know the material.

I know that sounds simple, but many of the questions were just quirky - but not too hard. Out of the 48 questions, I probably knew 40 of them with no problem. And I then was able to narrow down the other 8 to 2 choices and pretty much flip a coin.

Good luck to everyone else who has yet to take this test. It's on to 70-293 now...

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mrmcmint

Todd, congrats on the pass and the good score, just be careful what study materials you use... when things are *ed out this is generally not good and can be classed as cheating.

Check your study materials with certguard.com first before you use them.

Todd Burrell

Actually, the software that was ******** out was something that did not help much, so I will not use it again for 70-293 and beyond. MS-press was actually pretty helpful - especially the CD that came with the books.

But thanks for the certgard info. I will check with it on anything else I plan to use first - I didn't know about it.

mrmcmint

No worries. Glad the info helped. Congrats again on the pass, and thanks for sharing your experience. It was by no means a dig, but people who **** really stand out here (not that i am implying you have cheated, i'm sure you know the material very well). 99% of these forum members spend many hours perfecting their skills and also spend many hours helping out others. This forum has been invaluable to me and every time i log onto it, it gives me motivation to keep going and study more, be recognised and to help people where i can. There are some very knowledgable people on here from all over the world who go out of their way to help, and i hope i can assist like they have one day.

anyway....

I have spent about 3 solid weeks on DNS now and i think i have got my head round it, however i already work with it a bit and had a little knowledge on it (literally only a little), and now i have the joys of rras which i have never used/seen before let alone work with. I need to really take my time on this one to fully understand it.

I have 2 trial servers on virtual pc setup ready to go through some labs. It's a really odd topic to have a huge part of the exam that even ms know that not many people use, even though it probably does the job very well. still... head in

and keep on it. I reckon another month of 4 hours study a day will do it. Shame second shot isn't here!

Good luck with the 293!

Todd Burrell

I certainly did not take your comment as a dig. I don't ever want to do anything that could be take as "cheating", so your info was good to know.

As far as some advice for the 291, I setup a server at home that has EVERYTHING running on it for the 291 test. It's a DC with DNS, DHCP, and most of RRAS on it was well as WINS. Some of the stuff is not really running, but it helps to be able to play around. I also installed WSUS and MBSA on it, along with the admin tools.

I would recommend just learning as much as possible about each of the different ways RRAS can work. There are a lot of different options, and some of the options on the General and IP tabs have to be on before certain options can work. I totaly immersed myself into RRAS for about a week before the test, because this was my weak link of the 5 areas - and it paid off on the test. This is a big area and the work will pay off. Play around with each scenario and you'll do great.

Good luck...

tonydotigr

Congrats and thanks for the info!

I've been using TestOut/CBT Videos lately and recently purchased Boson Audio learning for on the road. Still need to make sure I hit the reading up too ... sometimes its just nice to have an alternate method to learn.

mrmcmint

Todd Burrell wrote: »

I certainly did not take your comment as a dig. I don't ever want to do anything that could be take as "cheating", so your info was good to know.

As far as some advice for the 291, I setup a server at home that has EVERYTHING running on it for the 291 test. It's a DC with DNS, DHCP, and most of RRAS on it was well as WINS. Some of the stuff is not really running, but it helps to be able to play around. I also installed WSUS and MBSA on it, along with the admin tools.

I would recommend just learning as much as possible about each of the different ways RRAS can work. There are a lot of different options, and some of the options on the General and IP tabs have to be on before certain options can work. I totaly immersed myself into RRAS for about a week before the test, because this was my weak link of the 5 areas - and it paid off on the test. This is a big area and the work will pay off. Play around with each scenario and you'll do great.

Good luck...

yup, thats pretty much what i intend to do. i hope it pays off in the same way it did for you

i will have to immerse myself into it... i cant believe how many options there are, it seems almost never ending. good to know though! i implemented wsus on a test box for the 290 exam and messed about quite a bit with it. i still had it running recently until i had to get rid of it to make room for labs for this exam

All the best.

mrmcmint

tonydotigr wrote: »

Congrats and thanks for the info!

I've been using TestOut/CBT Videos lately and recently purchased Boson Audio learning for on the road. Still need to make sure I hit the reading up too ... sometimes its just nice to have an alternate method to learn.

Agreed - James Conrad is awesome, although he talks reallllly quickly going through these vids on this series!