Just failed 70-640

I read the MS Press Book 2nd edition and watched the trainsignal videos. I went through a decent amount of the exercises and whatnot, but the test seemed to be less about competency and more about random obscure commands.

I feel pretty bad about it, as I was not even close to passing.

Many questions about CS and DNS and very few about normal AD activities....

After reading the forum I think I will get the Unleashed book and try again.

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strasser

That sucks. Everyone has failed an exam here or there. Just remember, it's only an exam and you can retake it.

coty24

I second what strasser said, I failed that exam the first time too. Get back to it; hit CS and DNS hard and get back on the horse bro! I passed the second time after seeing where I did the worst in. You got it bro!

creamy_stew

I agree about CS. There were just so many questions on it, and it it was an area I had no working experience in. I was freaking out during the exam because I thought that would make me fail, and I never really felt comfortable with any of the questions on CS.

As it turned out, I passed, and CS wasn't even my lowest score, so go figure.

DNS, though, is really a topic you should consider a major part of any AD environment. It causes so much grief when not set up properly. So, if anything, I found the coverage on the exam lacking.

So, in conclusion:

DNS: If you had severe problems with this - Study more DNS! Even if you get a completeley different exam, name resolution is always one of the "usual suspects" IRL.

CS: Yeah. Luck of the draw, I guess. Make sure you really know HOW it works. The questions on ADFS were also mostly conceptual, but those also freaked me out, although they were not as plentiful...

edit: Perhaps the "CS" paragraph is in violation of the NDA? Well, now I wrote it, so I'm not going to delete it before posting.

shagism

Yeah, I agree with all of the comments. This was just the first cert that I have failed and I thought I had a good grasp on enough material to obtain a passing grade.

I am going to concentrate on my weak areas and take it again on the 5th of December I think.

dave330i

shagism wrote: »

I read the MS Press Book 2nd edition and watched the trainsignal videos. I went through a decent amount of the exercises and whatnot, but the test seemed to be less about competency and more about random obscure commands.

That sums up my feeling about Microsoft exams. When you pass 740, you'll have 2 more of this style exams to get MCITP:SA, 4 more for MCITP:EA, 5 more for both SA & EA.

VitalSign0

dave330i wrote: »

That sums up my feeling about Microsoft exams. When you pass 740, you'll have 2 more of this style exams to get MCITP:SA, 4 more for MCITP:EA, 5 more for both SA & EA.

I also agree. I failed the 70-640 twice. I'm giving up for now. I will probably renew my cert when the next server OS comes out. My job is very stable and I have an MCSE 2000, Security+, and CCENT. I don't feel the Microsoft tests actually test knowledge of real world use of the product.