I'm gonna freakin pass 70-290 this time!!!

Because the 3rd time is supposedly the charm lol.

Well, I've just started studying again. I'm trying a completely different route this time around. I'm studying 1 hour per night for 1 week. Then I'm going to ramp it up to 2 hours a night 1 hour for a practice test, then 1 hour for studying. I'm figuring that in 3 weeks, I should be able to retake the test.

The first time I took the test, I was a bit over confident. I'm a network admin and I've been around server 2k3 since it's inception. I work with server 2k3 servers daily. So I figured I could walk in and pass. Boy was I wrong. I got a 651.

The second time, I actually studied for 2 weeks. I pretty much crammed and took a ton of practice tests. Incredibly, I did worse with a ~620. Not sure what happened.

This time, I'm starting over and doing things the "right" way. Hopefully by mid November, I should be ready to pass this test. Then I can get started on the beast (70-291).

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gorebrush

Best of luck!

94jedi

gorebrush wrote:

Best of luck!

thanks, Gonna need it!

NetAdmin2436

94jedi,
You are obviously not using your jedi mind tricks to it's full potential. When you get to the screen that shows your score, just wave your hand across the screen and tell it you passed. Works like a charm!

But seriously, you've gone over the technotes right? What if any books are you using? What practice exams are you using? Any and all Microsoft exams can be tricky, so no worries about the fails. Good luck!

94jedi

NetAdmin2436 wrote:

94jedi,
You are obviously not using your jedi mind tricks to it's full potential. When you get to the screen that shows your score, just wave your hand across the screen and tell it you passed. Works like a charm!

But seriously, you've gone over the technotes right? What if any books are you using? What practice exams are you using? Any and all Microsoft exams can be tricky, so no worries about the fails. Good luck!

hahaha...well, when it comes to Cert testing, I'm still a lowly padawan.

I'm using the Exam Cram 2 series 70-290 book. I'm also using the Prep Logic practice tests. So far, that's it.

Where can I find the tech notes?

I've been a net admin for 7 years now and I have at least 4 years hands on server environment exp. I figured with that under my belt, I would breeze through the test but I was dead wrong. Of course, the simulations and real world questions were the areas I was strongest in. I had problems w/ remembering all the command line commands because I just never use them in the real world.

dynamik

94jedi wrote:

Where can I find the tech notes?

Check the top-middle section of this page

94jedi

dynamik wrote:

94jedi wrote:

Where can I find the tech notes?

Check the top-middle section of this page

pwnd.

lol.

thanks!

94jedi

Well, I'm going to take the test tonight at 5pm!!!! Long Story short, Wifey and I had a baby, life got crazy, a year later, here I am lol. I've got more experience and another few weeks of solid studying under my belt...

I'm hoping all goes well! Wish me luck!

CompuTron99

94jedi wrote: »

Well, I'm going to take the test tonight at 5pm!!!! Long Story short, Wifey and I had a baby, life got crazy, a year later, here I am lol. I've got more experience and another few weeks of solid studying under my belt...

I'm hoping all goes well! Wish me luck!

Good Luck! Let us know what area's you noticed the most on the exam.

94jedi

^ will do.

Any words of wisdom from anyone??

Divine-Assault

Study study study, get a great nights sleep, and eat a well balanced breakfast. Always worked for me.

94jedi

Well, looks like I'll have a 4th attempt so I can try your advice. I somehow managed my worst score ever, a 583, despite studying and KNOWING the material. I've been using an old exam cram book and some old prep logic tests. I'm going to try out some new study material and hit the test a 4th time either next week or the following week. I bought the latest version of the Exam Cram book and just the little bit I've looked at, I can tell my old book was very outdated. I also thought about trying the MS Press book for this test. Can anyone recommend any other study guides? I like the format of the exam cram books which is why I chose to get it again.

Thoughts???

Oh and about the test, I know I can't give too much away but I got hit with a ton of Sims for some reason. I don't know if these tests are adaptive of not but I felt like I did well on the sims.

gbadman

94jedi wrote: »

Well, looks like I'll have a 4th attempt so I can try your advice. I somehow managed my worst score ever, a 583, despite studying and KNOWING the material. I've been using an old exam cram book and some old prep logic tests. I'm going to try out some new study material and hit the test a 4th time either next week or the following week. I bought the latest version of the Exam Cram book and just the little bit I've looked at, I can tell my old book was very outdated. I also thought about trying the MS Press book for this test. Can anyone recommend any other study guides? I like the format of the exam cram books which is why I chose to get it again.

Thoughts???

Oh and about the test, I know I can't give too much away but I got hit with a ton of Sims for some reason. I don't know if these tests are adaptive of not but I felt like I did well on the sims.

Sorry to hear about the fail. I also failed the 270 yesterday. Though in my case I think it was due to the sheer lack of preparation. I knew my preparation was woefully thin going in, so it's just as well that I didn't pass. I'd failed abysmally to keep to my study plan, but i went for the test anyway since I'd already booked it. I'm booking it again for January. No room for silliness this time.

Plus I'll make sure I do lots of practice questions, which I didn't have time for last time. I didn't do a single one!

With regard to expanding your study resources, I would agree that you need to have a look at the MS book. I actually think that may lie behind your multiple fails. It's understandable that people find the book tedious, but with your experience, you should be able to breeze though it with minimum fuss. If I'd covered all the chapters in the book properly, I'd no doubt have passed and passed well. As it was I ommitted a couple of chapters and skimmed through others. There were only about 4 chapters that I covered thoroughly. I foolishly assumed that I could afford to miss out the tcp/ip chapter because of my ccna knowledge. How comically wrong I was!

Josh.Salvi

Sorry to hear about the fail. I recently passed the 270 and am looking to schedule the 290.
I found the Microsoft book very helpful for the 270, but I tried to take as many practice tests as I could. I found that different sources stressed different topics and even though I started to memorize questions from taking and retaking practice tests, the core topics seemed to stand out even when taking a test from another source.

Let me know what you find useful for the 290 test.

binarysoul

Looking for word of wisdom? Here it is:

Your positive attitude will bring positive results. I admire your drive to knock down the exam by remaining positive. Good luck...

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

Can't really speak for exam cram, but I hear that the MS press is the best one for this test. That's what I used as my only book. Oh, and I really didn't have too much prior experience with Server 2003 when I started studying for that exam, if that puts things into perspective on how well the MS press was.

kenny831

94jedi wrote: »

Well, looks like I'll have a 4th attempt so I can try your advice. I somehow managed my worst score ever, a 583, despite studying and KNOWING the material. I've been using an old exam cram book and some old prep logic tests. I'm going to try out some new study material and hit the test a 4th time either next week or the following week. I bought the latest version of the Exam Cram book and just the little bit I've looked at, I can tell my old book was very outdated. I also thought about trying the MS Press book for this test. Can anyone recommend any other study guides? I like the format of the exam cram books which is why I chose to get it again.

Thoughts???

Oh and about the test, I know I can't give too much away but I got hit with a ton of Sims for some reason. I don't know if these tests are adaptive of not but I felt like I did well on the sims.

Try the Sybex book. I find it very detailed. Read Stanek's core exam book also is good. Give Selftestsoftware a shot, the sims on this software are very close to the real thing so you will be sure that you are nailing them.

Keep pushing, you will get it!

gbadman

kenny831 wrote: »

Give Selftestsoftware a shot, the sims on this software are very close to the real thing so you will be sure that you are nailing them.

Keep pushing, you will get it!

I second that.
I finally passed the 270 today at the third time of asking. Score 740. After the two failures, and having used the self-test software for a few days, I was starting to get seriously depressed at my inability to lock down the questions. I was consistently getting below 70%.
It just seemed as if there was a bottomless well of possible questions they could ask, which unless you have a photographic memory and have memorised the MS book letter for letter, you could never be certain of answering correctly. And even then you could still get it wrong because the questions often require the most desirable answer, rather than the single unambiguous answer. Although I knew that some of the things the self test software is really big on (obscure switches and stop errors for instance) were unlikely to come up in the exam. So that gave me some hope.
In the end the bloody nose was worth it. It's done. Spare the rod spoil the child - that's pretty much what the self test software did for me. At least I'll know to brace myself properly for 290.:)

pennystrader

Transcender.

They are way harder than the regular test and have great explanations and answers so you understand the question and answer. You can then adapt to whatever kind of questions they throw at you because you understand the concept. I used them and labbed everything I could for my whole MCSE (along with years of experience as well).

Good luck and keep working on it, you will get it.

gbadman

pennystrader wrote: »

Transcender.

They are way harder than the regular test and have great explanations and answers so you understand the question and answer. You can then adapt to whatever kind of questions they throw at you because you understand the concept. I used them and labbed everything I could for my whole MCSE (along with years of experience as well).

Good luck and keep working on it, you will get it.

Yeah. I can imagine it would be like a turbo-charged STS. All else being equal, I would have gone for it while studying for the 270. The trouble is that the cost is prohibitive for some (especially when you consider that you have to buy these things for each separate exam). So STS is at worst a decent compromise.

94jedi

ok, so here I am...gonna take 70-290, for the 4th time, tomorrow at 9:30am...Wish me luck!

Devilsbane

94jedi wrote: »

ok, so here I am...gonna take 70-290, for the 4th time, tomorrow at 9:30am...Wish me luck!

Good luck. Stay calm and you should do alright.

Reseven

Good luck, and may the force be with you.

94jedi

Devilsbane wrote: »

Good luck. Stay calm and you should do alright.

I hope so! My company sent me to a training facility this week so the info should be fresh in my head. I can't help but feel like this class wasn't designed to help you pass the test though. It did however fill in a lot of blanks I felt like I had been missing through my own personal studying.

94jedi

Reseven wrote: »

Good luck, and may the force be with you.

Thank you sir! Assuming I pass this, the beast is next!

poriggity

Best of luck brother! I am just starting to study 290, and I am finding it very interesting. That's a good thing.. if it was boring, I certainly wouldn't want to study! I am actually anxious to study this weekend HAHAHA....
Scott

varelg

94jedi wrote: »

I'm using the Exam Cram 2 series 70-290 book. I'm also using the Prep Logic practice tests. So far, that's it.

This is the same losing combination that I used to prep for 271 and failed. MS Press to the rescue. Use ExamCram and PrepLogic just for final pre- exam review.
When studying, step + step doesn't equate to two steps. Some days you'll feel like knocking out chapters, others you won't feel like opening the book. It's just that way that the emotional compiler is set up.
Sadly, a disconnect between real practices and MS- prescribed ways of using their technology is obvious. You couldn't pass the 290 three times with all your experience, doesn't it say something?

earweed

Good luck to you and hopefully you're using more than exam cram to study for the test this time. Keep the positive attitude and get'r done.

94jedi

Wooohooo!! Passed w/ a 775. Not a great score but passing none the less. MS press to the rescue for sure! Freaking finally!

Reseven

Congratz!!!

The force was strong with you!

varelg

94jedi wrote: »

Wooohooo!! Passed w/ a 775. Not a great score but passing none the less. MS press to the rescue for sure! Freaking finally!

Glad to hear you did it!:D