Passed Today

Took my first MS certification exam this morning and passed the 70-290 exam.
I have supported 2K3 servers at customer sites in stand alone flavors, but not in domains for years.
I had access to a 2K3 server and several clients at no home, (no virtual). built, rebuilt, etc...

Used several resources in the following order
CBT Nuggets = good
Testout product = really enjoyed
MS Press book = which brought it all together, and adding things that I had not heard of from CBTs...

All in all spent 8 weeks with 4 hour minimum per day on the task.

Moving directly on 70-291. I already have a networking background with the CCNA, CCNP, so hopefully it should not be too bad.

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Comments

pml1

Congrats on the pass! That's some serious studying. I'm glad it paid off! Good luck prepping for 291.

[Deleted User]

Congrats! Good luck on 291

Jonny70

Congrats!

good luck on your next one.

greenLi

May we know your score if you don't mind? Pls give us more details about your experience taking the exam. Tnx!

miller811

greenLi wrote: »

May we know your score if you don't mind? Pls give us more details about your experience taking the exam. Tnx!

My score was 868

exam results similar to most of what others report
40 questions, several sims, none of which were hard if you prepared properly, and had access to a 2K3 server for preparation.

dynamik

I had to do a double-take when I saw who started this thread

Congratulations on the pass!

You'll definitely have a leg-up on people for 291, but that's really only going to get you through subnetting. I think the objectives mention RIP and OSPF, but you probably won't even see a question about them on the exam. If you do, it will be very high-level. This exam is "difficult" because it's so broad. You're going to need to know a lot about DNS, DHCP, RRAS (which no one uses in reality), etc.

Johnny Johnson

Congrats on the pass and best of luck on the beast!

miller811

dynamik wrote: »

I had to do a double-take when I saw who started this thread

Congratulations on the pass!

You'll definitely have a leg-up on people for 291, but that's really only going to get you through subnetting. I think the objectives mention RIP and OSPF, but you probably won't even see a question about them on the exam. If you do, it will be very high-level. This exam is "difficult" because it's so broad. You're going to need to know a lot about DNS, DHCP, RRAS (which no one uses in reality), etc.

yes headed to the dark side...

Reading the MS Press book currently, and have not found anything to challenging so far... Similar strategy, read the book, duplicate the lesson on personal server... similar to Cisco stuff, just using servers, instead of Cisco gear.

Allocated 6-8 weeks for this exam, and then the XP exam, dedicating 4 hours per day.

Looking to take full advantage of the retake offer while it is in effect. Hope to have completed the MCSA by June.