Duplicate question on 70-647 today

I know it should never come down to one question on one of these tests, but today it did (apparently). I failed 70-647 with a 681. I had a total of 50 questions with 7 testlets. Got near the end of the multiple choice stuff, and got a question I knew the answer to, but the answers were totally unrelated. Without going into much detail (I dunno how much leeway the NDA gives, if any - mods, please delete if necessary), the content was on document security. However, all the answers were for a web server question. I left it unanswered, marked it for review/comment and moved to the next one. And the next one was almost the exact same question (some words were changed around, but unimportant ones like 'the' and 'an'). And it had the correct answer. I know the test experience was completely different from the 70-680 I took a month ago. That was just like every other test I've taken since the 70-270 back in 2007. The interface was totally redesigned, and I liked the way you can switch back & forth to the pertinent info and the question in the testlets.

I called the test coordinator in and explained it to him, and he filed a site report with Prometric and I documented everything in the comments at the end of the test. And I just sent off an email to MCPHelp to see if they can do anything for me. The test center said they'll probably give me a free retake, but it sucks that I drove 200 miles for pretty much nothing. The coordinator said another candidate had an issue last week with 70-680, they had an exhibit on the screen and it wouldn't move where they could see the pertinent info. Apparently they failed by one question as well.

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tprice5

arwes wrote: »

I failed 70-647 with a 681.

I hate to hear that man. I failed the 652 by one question as well. I would almost rather score in the 400s than by one question. It's a tough pill to swallow but it just means you'll knock it out of the park next time.

arwes

Yeah same here, it's not the first time I've come that close to passing a test. Makes a two hour drive seem a lot longer LOL.

I'd probably feel a bit better if I had a closer exam site, but Prometric ticked off the one that was a mile from my office. Something about them having trouble getting money from Prometric for providing the site, and the fact their receptionist was verbally assaulted by test takers on more than one occasion about Prometric stuff that was out of their hands.

tprice5

arwes wrote: »

Yeah same here, it's not the first time I've come that close to passing a test. Makes a two hour drive seem a lot longer LOL. I'd probably feel a bit better if I had a closer exam site, but Prometric ticked off the one that was a mile from my office. Something about them having trouble getting money from Prometric for providing the site, and the fact their receptionist was verbally assaulted by test takers on more than one occasion about Prometric stuff that was out of their hands.

Bummer. I am lucky to have prometric and pearson here in town. I generally just take them on my lunch break.

xbuzz

That sucks. Hope you at least get a free retake.

Try not to lose motivation now, keep the study up and blow it out of the water the next time around. It always sucks to come so close, but at least you know you have the knowledge to pass the test!

mapletune

I had a similar experience where the simulation in the exam (Cisco) was definitely bugged out and gave conflicting information.

=/ it didn't occur to me to file a comment right away. I realized I could record a comment like 2 questions afterwards, and wrote a short report.

But yea.. it does happen. I wish that Computer Based Exam quality will improve in the future.

arwes

Thanks guys, I got a reply back from MCPhelp wanting some more info (MCP ID, test location & confirmation #) and they're going to escalate it to their exam review team. Hopefully I'll get some good news back this week, as I'd like to take another swing at it within the next few weeks or so.

arwes

Just a bit of an update, I spoke with a Prometric rep today and they're researching the issue. I should be hearing back from them on Monday or Tuesday. I also heard back from Microsoft who said they will research my "challenge" and I should hear back in 4-6 weeks LOL. If I get a retake from Prometric, I've got another test center that's virtually the same distance in Jackson, MS and I'll take it there just in case something's screwy with the last test center's equipment.

arwes

And yet another update. Prometric says they won't do anything until they hear back from Microsoft, and the earliest I'll hear anything back from Microsoft is in about 3 weeks. I'll be so glad once I get the MCITP:EA upgrade thing done, because I won't be taking another MS test for a long time (hopefully).

Mishra

Failed the 647 today with a close score and got the same question... Had no idea what to put down.

Also had a drag and drop question that didn't have any of the columns marked right. The structure of the question was completely off. This is horrible.

arwes

Mishra wrote: »

Failed the 647 today with a close score and got the same question... Had no idea what to put down.

Also had a drag and drop question that didn't have any of the columns marked right. The structure of the question was completely off. This is horrible.

I hate that it happened to you too, and I hope you didn't have a long drive for your test. They apparently threw that thing in the question pool and didn't pay much attention to it at all! I was honestly considering a retake at another test center in another state, in case it was an issue with the test center's equipment. However your post confirmed to me that it's an issue with the test itself. Hopefully Microsoft will yank that crap out before we do a retake!

Mishra

arwes wrote: »

I hate that it happened to you too, and I hope you didn't have a long drive for your test. They apparently threw that thing in the question pool and didn't pay much attention to it at all! I was honestly considering a retake at another test center in another state, in case it was an issue with the test center's equipment. However your post confirmed to me that it's an issue with the test itself. Hopefully Microsoft will yank that crap out before we do a retake!

And on top of that... I had 1 question which was a table drag and drop and the columns weren't even labeled... Also had 1 question about VPN which was also just completely wrong.

earweed

I took the 647 last year and luckily passed it first time. I noticed some hinkie questions even then but nailed enough of the other stuff to scrape by. That was right after they had changed the format and had also added R2 and practically everyone was failing it.
I noticed quite a few errors in questions but more than that they tried to mislead what the question was about to confuse you. One question had all this info that led me to believe it was a question in one area and 2 pieces of info related to what the answer was.
Best of luck on your retake! It was one of the hardest tests I've ever taken.

shadowman1

hi,

I took the 70-647 exam today, and failed also.. ;(
I know the excat question arwes is talking about, I got it too.
the answers were totally UNRELATED to the question, I had 2 more at least I believe something wrong them, I failed with 642, any point doing something?

thanks

arwes

Did you bring it up to your test coordinator when it happened? I made sure he knew I was ticked off about it, and he submitted a report to Prometric about the issue. Prometric however won't do anything until Microsoft researches it. You can either send an email to mcphelp@microsoft.com or give them a call. Not sure which country you're in, but here's the US contact info page:

Microsoft Product Training Help l Microsoft Regional Service Center for North America

arwes

Just got an email back from Microsoft, they found the offending question and removed it from the test and they've published a new version of the 70-647 exam to test centers. They didn't give me a passing grade (understandable), but I did get a voucher so I'll be taking another crack at this thing after labor day.

Mishra

I passed my 647. I sent in an email earlier last week and haven't heard anything back yet. I did not receive the same question again... But there were a few changes:

1) I was not timed individually for each testlet. I had 3 hours for the whole exam. I still had to submit my testlet questions and could not go back.
2) There seemed to be a brand new testlet at the beginning of the exam. There were NO multiple choice answers on this testlet and it was asking some really off the wall subject matter. I think this should be the expectation on the exams in the future as they try to make them ridiculously tricky. This should decrease the amount of EAs, increase the word of mouth of the test to "difficult" which they believe gains more credibility to the cert track.
3) I only had 6 testlets which with varying question sizes.

Looks like they are still making a lot of changes to the exam...

By the way, I'm a MCITP:EA now. Horray.

drsketch

Good job. I personally only did my SA as I don't work with IIS, or desktops enough to warrant getting the EA.