to take 70-270 or MCDST first

nama · February 2006

I have less than a year of experience playing around and some configuration of WinXP Pro. However, I'm planning to take the easiest exam before taking the harder one.

As we know both 70-270 and MCDST concerns about WinXP Pro. Can someone please advise which should be the first step for my case?

crap I forgot my old pwd · February 2006

Go with the MCDST then if you want easier, but be warned...they are of the same rigor of the other exams. Lots of long questions and useless info thrown in the question. I would not recommend the Sybex book for this exam. It leaves out a TON of stuff.

nama · February 2006

Some said Sybex book is better than MS Press while some disagree.
I have heard 70-272 isn't easy, same goes for 70-270.

I assume that 70-271 should not be too difficult. Any comments?

Sie · February 2006

Im doing (at least will be doing) 70-270 , 70-290 and MCDST though i think im doing MCDST last.

Which 70-270 or 70-290 would you class as the more difficult?

Ricka182 · February 2006

I though 272 was a bit easier than 271. Either way, neither exam is too difficult, if you use XP on a daily basis.

nama · February 2006

Ricka182 wrote:

I though 272 was a bit easier than 271. Either way, neither exam is too difficult, if you use XP on a daily basis.

what about 270 as compared to the above two?

crap I forgot my old pwd · February 2006

70-271 aint bad. I had some troubles with 70-272 though.

nama · February 2006

crap I forgot my old pwd wrote:

70-271 aint bad. I had some troubles with 70-272 though.

so whats the difficult things about 70-272?

TheShadow · February 2006

nama wrote:

Ricka182 wrote:

I though 272 was a bit easier than 271. Either way, neither exam is too difficult, if you use XP on a daily basis.

what about 270 as compared to the above two?

I guess you still did not get your question answered. Simply put the tests do not test the same material. 270 is about planning, installing and configuring XP while 271/272 assume a correctly installed OS that is somehow broken, had the configuration mistakenly changed, or is being misused.

Consider an automobile analogy. One test checks to see if you can properly pick out and install a gasoline (Petrol) tank during assembly of the auto. The other tests check to see it you can help a customer put gasoline in the tank, maybe even when they are too ignorant to know the car needs gas or where the fill nozzle is located.

I assume this is why Microsoft chose to not let the MCDST be an elective for the MCSE but considered it marginally OK for the MCSA since the "A" indicates system Administration.

TheShadow · February 2006

nama wrote:

crap I forgot my old pwd wrote:

70-271 aint bad. I had some troubles with 70-272 though.

so whats the difficult things about 70-272?

If you are not a heavy user of MS Office and Outlook and a Notebook user in a corporate environment then some of the tedious wording typical of MS tests will be difficult for you. Consider for example the problems of temporary domain changes on a laptop user or Wi Fi issues traveling between company divisions or IE security issues. There are lots of screwy scenarios like that. If you have switched to another browser like firefox then the IE questions may be missed from lack or use.

Like all certifications it is a case of eating your own dog food *(OEM term...don't feed it to the dog if you won't eat it yourself). If you don't use the products then you will have trouble MS, Cisco, Novell, Citrix, .NET etc. etc. Doesn't mean you won't pass it just means that you will have some troubles.

texasmcdst · February 2006

Hi name and the rest of you who replied,

I took the 70-271 a couple weeks ago and passed with a 933/1000 and the 70-272 yesterday with a 836/1000, and completed the MCDST in less than a months duration.

Although I do have a lot of computer experience and use XP daily no one can feel comfortable taking a M$ exam. As some of you may know Microsoft is offering an offer if you fail and exam you can take a second one on them for free. I went ahead and took the exam figuring if I failed I could get an idea on the types of questions to expext and go back and study some more. Luckily I don't have to do that.

Nana I haven't taken the 70-270 yet and don't know if I will unless I want to pursue a MCSE or MCSA, which I may consider.

The 70-272 to me was more difficult than the 70-271 because now you not dealing with just the operating system, but with the applications, mainly being Office XP, Office 2003, Outlook Express, and Outlook.

My experience with the exam is this, read the question and look at all the answers. You can usually spot two answers you know are wrong, and go with your gut feeling between the other two. I STRONGLY suggest buying the Transcender products for the exam you plan on taking because it will show you similar type questions to expect on the exam. Worked for me. I did buy the MS Press books although I only skimmed through them and my company paid for my books, transcenders, and passed exams.

Know I have to figure out what I want to do next. This is the hard part for me.

Take care,

TexasMCDST

to take 70-270 or MCDST first

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