This time, 70-293's going down

After a few more weeks of studying, I feel ready for another shot at 070-293. I'm taking it on Sunday afternoon - I learned my lesson, no more MS exams for me first thing in the morning - my mind just isn't in the mode to comb through the questions.

I labbed a lot more this time. Last time, I said I labbed as best I could, which wasn't entirely true. I sort of glazed over clustering, NLB, and PKI because it was a pain to set them up right, but I spent a good week setting up several VMs and a virtual SAN with openfiler, and have a pretty awesome virtual cluster going.

I feel great about it this time!
"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible; suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi

Comments

  • citinerdcitinerd Member Posts: 266
    Good luck on Sunday, can't wait to see the I passed comments.

    By the way where do you live that has testing centers open on Sundays?
  • DevilsbaneDevilsbane Member Posts: 4,214 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Good luck!
    Decide what to be and go be it.
  • arwesarwes Member Posts: 633 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Best of luck to ya!
    [size=-2]Started WGU - BS IT:NDM on 1/1/13, finished 12/31/14
    Working on: Waiting on the mailman to bring me a diploma
    What's left: Graduation![/size]
  • jmritenourjmritenour Member Posts: 565
    citinerd wrote: »
    Good luck on Sunday, can't wait to see the I passed comments.

    By the way where do you live that has testing centers open on Sundays?


    I live near the DC Metro area. Only 1 testing center I know of that's open on Sundays, Knowledge Center Inc, in Ashburn. It's where I go most of the time, just because I find Sunday afternoons to be a relaxing, mellow time to take a test.
    "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible; suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
  • Dakinggamer87Dakinggamer87 Member Posts: 4,016 ■■■■■■■■□□
    Good luck!! icon_thumright.gif
    *Associate's of Applied Sciences degree in Information Technology-Network Systems Administration
    *Bachelor's of Science: Information Technology - Security, Master's of Science: Information Technology - Management
    Matthew 6:33 - "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

    Certs/Business Licenses In Progress: AWS Solutions Architect, Series 6, Series 63
  • jmritenourjmritenour Member Posts: 565
    Failed again!

    I'm frustrated - this time I felt pretty good. When I ended the exam, I felt like it was a pass.

    The score sheet identified RRAS and availability as my big weak areas. RRAS, sure, but I felt like I answered the RRAS questions thrown at me correctly. Same with availability. There were only a handful of questions I felt like I truly didn't have a clue. That makes this fail pretty frustrating.

    I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I might move on to 70-294 and 70-298, the come back to 70-293. Or maybe I'll move onto the MCITP track. I dunno. I need to take a few days and think things through.

    I wholeheartedly believe no one should be able to call 70-291 "The Beast" without having sat for this one.
    "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible; suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
  • earweedearweed Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
    Sorry to hear about your bad luck. I'd recommend labbing the hell out of your weak areas and nailing this monster next time. Coming back later wil be more difficult. Either knock it out or don't do it at all.
    No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives.
  • kamikaze_wormkamikaze_worm Member Posts: 68 ■■□□□□□□□□
    jmritenour wrote: »
    Failed again!

    I wholeheartedly believe no one should be able to call 70-291 "The Beast" without having sat for this one.

    Couldn't agree more mate. I took 291 dreading it on its rep and got a conftable pass however i failed 293 first time with just over 600. What was your score?

    Don't beat yourself up too much. I recently failed 297 for 3rd time but have my 4th attempt booked for friday week! As people have said to me dust yourself off, study the areas you strugle with and go again. Failure is only giving up.

    Kamikaze_worm
    IT Desktop Support Technician
    Comptia Exams passed - A+
    Microsoft Exams Passed - 270, 290, 291, 620, 293, 294
    Qualifications - MCP, MCTS, MCSA
    Working towards - MCSE
    Currently Studying - 298
  • jmritenourjmritenour Member Posts: 565
    earweed wrote: »
    Sorry to hear about your bad luck. I'd recommend labbing the hell out of your weak areas and nailing this monster next time. Coming back later wil be more difficult. Either knock it out or don't do it at all.

    I'll take that into consideration, but quite frankly, I'm bored with the 70-293 subject matter at this point. Ever since I knocked CCNA out in early January, I've been reading up about clustering, NLB, RRAS enough to make my eyes bleed.

    I think 294 plays more to my strengths - directory services - and I love messing with AD, so I'd actually have fun labbing it.

    Failing the same exam twice has shook my confidence a bit, and I think going out and passing something I *know* I'm very good with would help me get my groove back, just like Stella did.
    "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible; suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
  • arwesarwes Member Posts: 633 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I know how you feel about failing twice, I got fed up with the first iteration of Security + with its horribly worded questions. I still maintain that English is a secondary language for whoever worded those things. Plus I had a 200 mile round trip for each attempt, so I had a looong drive to think about everything. Now, I'm not going to bother taking it again until I start WGU.

    Personally I would love to skip the MCSE and just upgrade to MCITP:EA, but in my area Windows Server 2003 still pretty much reigns supreme. And the local HR drones have their keywords, but MCITP:EA hasn't made it to their vocabulary for the most part. We're going to 2008 R2 later this summer, but we're still stuck with a voice mail server and building security software on a couple of Windows 2000 machines.

    I'm going to try my best to get my retake for 293 (still got the second shot) by the middle of March. This material is soooo dry, and since it's stuff that I never deal with on a daily basis I'm having trouble with retention. I got the 70-293 lab manual in the mail yesterday, and I'm about to log in at home to start getting my lab configured. I love hands on work. :)
    [size=-2]Started WGU - BS IT:NDM on 1/1/13, finished 12/31/14
    Working on: Waiting on the mailman to bring me a diploma
    What's left: Graduation![/size]
  • jmritenourjmritenour Member Posts: 565
    Well, a giant monkey wrench was thrown in my plans for studying and moving forward the other night when my wife was hospitalized with her water breaking and starting to leak about 6 weeks early. Looks like my daughter's impatient like me and wants to get out of there.

    This is a reminder that all this stuff I've been working on for the past couple of years, all these certifications don't mean anything in the long run. Sure, they can help me get a better job, or more money, but they don't count toward anything that matters. Passing 70-293 wouldn't help my wife, or my daughter. And failing it didn't hurt them.

    So, I'm stepping away from the books for a bit to take care of my family. I'm not the least bit worried - I absolutely have faith that God will take care of us, and the hospital we're at has a great pre/neonatal team, so we're in good hands.

    Good luck to everyone struggling like 70-293, and one day, I'll get it done.
    "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible; suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
  • earweedearweed Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
    Congrats on the new addition!
    The test will be there after you get a few good nights sleep (several months down the road, probably...lol)
    No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives.
  • N2ITN2IT Inactive Imported Users Posts: 7,483 ■■■■■■■■■■
    The test is nothing compared to what you just got.

    Congratz
  • kamikaze_wormkamikaze_worm Member Posts: 68 ■■□□□□□□□□
    N2IT wrote: »
    The test is nothing compared to what you just got.

    Congratz

    Congrats! What he said...
    IT Desktop Support Technician
    Comptia Exams passed - A+
    Microsoft Exams Passed - 270, 290, 291, 620, 293, 294
    Qualifications - MCP, MCTS, MCSA
    Working towards - MCSE
    Currently Studying - 298
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