70-297 Design Exam - Tips for the case studys

My will-power returned yesterday and i finaly began studying for my last mcse 2003 exam (70-297, booked for early January). Any how i am becoming a little concerned with the practice questions as they're very different to the other exams. Each case study seems to be full of valid info and I am finding it hard to identifiy the key points in order to answer the questions.

It's being a month since i sat 70-294, i guess i should have picked up the study books straight away as im struggling to get back in to 'study-mode'.

Anyone got any tips on how to tackle 70-297?

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sprkymrk

I have heard people recommend that on case study style exams, read the question first and then go back through the information with an eye open for the answer.

Marphyre

I'm scheduled to take 70-297 on Dec. 20th, it'll be the second case study based exam. I took 70-285 about a month ago, and was a little surprised by how hard it was - I passed, but I certainly like the other way of testing better. Anyway, time is of the essence if it's similar to 285 - I skimmed through the case study at the beginning so I'd know roughly where answers would lie, then started into the questions. Really, there is a lot of info in the case study that has nothing to do with the questions, so a quick skim at best just to know where to find info that you need. I usually had between 1 and 3 minutes left at the end of the case studies, except for some reason on the last one they gave me a lot more time. I'm just glad that second shot is going on right now - from the little bit I've read online there isn't much to go on going into 297, just to know how Microsoft likes AD to be set up and not necessarily what would be best in real world.

So best of luck to both of us - once I get a pass on this one I'll have my MCSE 2003 in Messaging!

preecy

thanks for the feed back guys. i think ill just keep going through the practive exams and the cbt & testout material

sounds like we're in the same boat Marphyre, i need this exam to complete my mcse too.
good luck and let me know how you got on

famosbrown

I read the question first because some of them could be answered without reading the Case Study. Caution...if any of the questions says according to business requirements, or someone's interview, etc., then you can't use that method. I went through the questions until I came accross a question that required me to revert back to the Cae Study...I then read the relevant sections that I thought related to the question.

This is my experience with 70-298...I have not taken 70-297, but do plan on taking it someday.

Marphyre

Well, that didn't go so well, scored a 531

The worst part of it for me was trying to figure out if the case study wanted a domain at each site/which sites, or if they really wanted it all under one domain, especially the cases where they were upgrading/migrating from NT 4.0 domains. The score page said I really need development on "Creating the Conceptual Design by Gathering and Analyzing Business and Technical Requirements", the bar is at about 15% on it, the other 3 areas look to be between 60% and 80%.

Time wasn't too bad of an issue, only 2 of the 5 case studies I had did I hit the 5 minute mark. Closest I came to running out of time was 2:55 left, and I reviewed all of those questions. One case I had 4 questions, they gave me 16 minutes, the others I had 7 or 8 questions and they gave me 24-26 minutes each.

Not too sure what I'm going to study up with yet - the MSPress book just has really simple overview stuff in it, maybe I'll look into the Sybex book or another one before I retake it in January.

No MCSE for me for Christmas

preecy

better luck next time Marphyre

hopefully you signed up for the free 2nd shot offer.

im still not feeling confident either. you're the third person i know who failed it first time. mines booked for 11th jan, now i just have to knuckle down over xmas and study.

Claymoore

Marphyre wrote:

Well, that didn't go so well, scored a 531

I know how you feel, I scored a 579 the first time I took it on 12/17 - that makes it one of 3 tests I have failed in my life. I got mad, hit the books hard for a few days, and passed it on 12/21 with the amazing score of 700. Yes, it is possible to get the exact passing score, but I don't recommend that you try it.

Real world experience, the training materials, the practice exams and the actual test aren't in the same ballpark - they aren't even the same sport. I did quite well on the other exams, so I wasn't worried about knowing the information for this test. I skimmed through a couple of books, then took the practice exam in the back of the Exam Cram 2 book and only missed 1 question out of 60. I then fired up one of my Measure Up tests and went through 3 case studies without missing a question. I figure I'm going to ace the test, so I went to bed early and walked into the test on Monday nice and relaxed. But once the test started, I knew I was in trouble. Fortunately I signed up for the Second Shot, and once Prometric got around to updating the status I was able to reschedule for that Friday.

The test covered a lot about NT 4.0 domains, and I needed some more information on upgrading them so I opened the MS Press Training Kit for 297. NT4 domains are covered on only one, single, solitary page (5-33). This is the biggest difference between Microsoft and Cisco exams (and one of the reasons I respect Cisco more than Microsoft) - Cisco believes that if there is a question about it on the exam then the concept must be important, therefore you should teach it. In this case, Microsoft failed to teach a concept they thought was important enough to ask several questions about. Perhaps they didn't put much effort into designing the exam becasue 2000 MCSE don't need to take it. Maybe the exam is bad because there are different opinions on how to design AD between the user community and within Microsoft. Maybe I am just an idiot.

Nah, it can't be that...

preecy

Congratulations on the pass claymoore... well done

It's strange how you've mentioned the 'nt4 upgrade' questions as i have also noticed a lot of these in practice exams. The study material im using however doesnt cover this in much depth so you get the impression its not a big/important subject.

Im still a little worried about this exam but at least i now know what to expect (sort of). My exam is two weeks today however i'd rather be sitting it tomorrow as im not realy sure what else i can do now other than keep hitting the practice questions. I felt quietly confident when walking into my last 4 or 5 exam, this is not the case for this one. I think time will be my biggest problem as i dont cope well with speed reading/skimming.

preecy

Well i finally sat 70-297 this morning and passed with a score of 863/1000. I was quite surprised as i had the feeling through-out the exam i was doing ok and would either fail with a score in the 600's or may just scrape by with a pass in the 700's. A lot of the questions were pretty easy however there were several where i could have went with two of the possible answers. Lucky enough most of my educated guesses must been correct.

My test consisted of 5 case studies (or testles as MS likes to call them) and a total of 42 questions. My first case study was 35 minutes long with 11 questions. The other 4 case studies were roughly 15-25 minutes in length and 4-7 questions each. My method was to quickly read the case study and then answer the questions i knew. I then referred back to the case study for the questions i was unsure about.

All 42 of my questions fell under one of the following areas:

- wins, dns & dhcp
- remote access (vpn, ias & encryption)
- dc's and gc's
- OU structures and GPO placement
- 2 questions on fsmo placement
- domain upgrades and migrations

This was my last 2003 exam and im now 2003 msce: messaging certified. I'm having a couple of weeks to chill and then im on two 2008 beta courses. Depending on how i feel after the courses, and what 2008 training material is available, i may sit my upgrade exam in the next couple of months

Almost forgot, i used the following material to prepare for this exam:

cbt nuggets
testout
sybex booklet

yurkie

preecy wrote: »

It's strange how you've mentioned the 'nt4 upgrade' questions as i have also noticed a lot of these in practice exams. The study material im using however doesnt cover this in much depth so you get the impression its not a big/important subject.

I am also taking this exam in future and id like to prepare for it thoroughly.

As NT4 upgrades are getting rare nowadays is this still situation in 297 exams?
NT4 migrations are heavily represented?

If MS changes their exams IMHO it might be good idea to concentrate gradually more current topics.
Do i need to find NT4 server OS and create test infra with virtual machines to get this exam passed?

Still i'd rather spent some time and learn things really even if it takes some time.

bwcarty

yurkie wrote: »

I am also taking this exam in future and id like to prepare for it thoroughly.

As NT4 upgrades are getting rare nowadays is this still situation in 297 exams?
NT4 migrations are heavily represented?

If MS changes their exams IMHO it might be good idea to concentrate gradually more current topics.
Do i need to find NT4 server OS and create test infra with virtual machines to get this exam passed?

Still i'd rather spent some time and learn things really even if it takes some time.

I took 70-297 a few months ago, and the topics described above were still valid. The 70-297 test itself is pretty old, and I don't think MS goes back to adjust exams based on real world scenarios. NT migrations may not happen frequently now, but this test is going to cover them anyhow.

Group Policy and OU structure, FSMO placements, and DNS were all well represented for me. Most of the material was based on what I studied in 70-291 and 70-294.

Mishko

bwcarty wrote: »

I took 70-297 a few months ago, and the topics described above were still valid. The 70-297 test itself is pretty old, and I don't think MS goes back to adjust exams based on real world scenarios. NT migrations may not happen frequently now, but this test is going to cover them anyhow.

Group Policy and OU structure, FSMO placements, and DNS were all well represented for me. Most of the material was based on what I studied in 70-291 and 70-294.

Just arrived from exam, passed 836score, this forum was really helpful!
I need remaining 2 for MCSE! (293&294), any adviced which one to start first???

NetAdmin2436

Mishko wrote: »

Just arrived from exam, passed 836score, this forum was really helpful!
I need remaining 2 for MCSE! (293&294), any adviced which one to start first???

It doesn't really matter which one you do first. The 293 is like an extension of the 291. The 294 is active directory. If you still have some of the 291 concepts fairly fresh in your brain, I'd do the 293 first, then 294. Then again, the 297 has some active directory concepts. If group policy is fresher'er in your brain, then starting with 294 might be beneficial.

Either way, good luck!