Passed 70-298 - Finally an MCSE

Well, I finally earned my MCSE today by passing the 70-298 test with an 811. I have to say I am not a fan of the design exams...

The test was pretty straight forward. Five testlets and 34 questions with 15 to 37 minutes for each testlet. I used the strategy to quickly read through all the info first and then answer the questions - this seemed to work pretty well as I had 5-10 minutes left over for all but the first testlet. Basically it was the same material as the 70-299 exam - just a different and very frustrating format.

I used the MS Press book for 70-299 and I browsed through the 70-298 book as well. The 70-298 book is actually pretty worthless and I'd just used the 70-299 book for both tests.

I did think that the 70-298 MS Press CD has some pretty good questions, and it was probably the only thing worthwhile about the 70-298 book. The case studies were VERY long and they had about 30 questions per case study. So this was probably worth buying the book?

I also used Preplogic (not good for this test) and Ucertify (pretty good). I should have used Transcender but I had the Second Shot from Microsoft so I gambled on taking the exam the first time, and I was going to buy the Transcender info for this exam if I failed the first time.

Now it's on to the Security+ to finish my MCSE Security.

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Comments

kevozz

Congrats! I need to knock that test out. Working on Security+ right now.

Mishra

Sweet congrats!!

mikesz

Hi,
First of all Congrats on the pass.

How long did you study for this exam?

Not to ruin your excitement, but I think you will also need to do 70-299 (I'm in the same boat). I too have the Security+, but in order to become MCSE:Security you need to do Security+ + 70-299. Can someone confirm this, please.

Mikesz

dynamik

Congratulations!

nebapneb

mikesz wrote: »

Hi,
First of all Congrats on the pass.

How long did you study for this exam?

Not to ruin your excitement, but I think you will also need to do 70-299 (I'm in the same boat). I too have the Security+, but in order to become MCSE:Security you need to do Security+ + 70-299. Can someone confirm this, please.

Mikesz

i think the OP has already done the 70-299 for his 'base' MCSE

wrote:

Basically it was the same material as the 70-299 exam - just a different and very frustrating format.

but you are right...
to get the security specialisation on MCSE you need both 70-298 & 70-299

Todd Burrell

I passed 70-299 before I passed 70-298, so this was actually the better order (in my opinion). The 70-299 material was most of what 70-298 covered so the only problem with 298 was the format of the test.

I need the Security+ to complete the MCSE 2003:Security. I plan on taking that in a few weeks. After 298 and 299 the Security+ looks much easier.

I studied for the 299 for about a month, and then I took 298 about 2 weeks later. After the core classes these 2 tests were not that bad.

snadam

congrats on the pass!