70-642: Half a league, half a league onward

Good luck man, let us know how it goes!

Failed with a 660. My sectional results were about 70% in Addressing and Services, 55% in Name Resolution, 55% in Network Access, 80% in File and Print, and 70% in Monitoring and Managing. Not very encouraging - I was hoping to do well in at least one section - but at least I have some idea of where to start: DNS and RRAS.

I studied with the MS Press book and it was woefully inadequate. At least a quarter of the questions covered topics that are not covered in the book - I have the Kindle edition and did searches for some key commands that I remember seeing on the test, as well as a few other topics, and came up with nothing. The MeasureUp practice exams were even less useful. I would have been better off if I'd just read TechNotes, which is what my re-studying plan consists of from start to finish.

Overall I'm feeling pretty hopeful that I will be able to pass this on the second shot. I went from very little knowledge of Server 2008 to allllllllmost passing in just about a week. If the only Prometric proctor in my area wasn't taking a month of vacation on Thursday, I'd be able to study for a couple of weeks more, but I'll cram as much as I can over the next 20 hours and see what happens.
Once more into the breach!

Yep DNS & RRAS are two tough subjects - particularly RRAS for me as it is not used very often. Hit them hard in whatever time you've got and take a chance you get it next time, you were close and you could get an easier pool of questions. I wish you luck!

That's not a horrible score by any means. Just cram what you did poor in.

MS books suck with these exams. Honestly I have yet to find one source that covers all topics (other than the internet). Your best course of action is to google the exam objectives and read every technet article you find on those topics.

Use this to lab, its free and reset every few hours so you can break it as many time as you want. I used it for RRAS and NAP, two things that are harder to do in a home lab. WIth these virtual labs you can do ANYTHING - so just minimize what they tell you to do and bang away at it: TechNet Virtual Labs

Pluralsight has some great articles on a few of the exam topics for free: Windows Server 2008 R2 DirectAccess Configuration

Thanks for the study tips! I hit TechNet pretty hard during the day and memorized some port numbers, which paid off when I saw some of the same questions on the second shot exam. I had to get a 700 to pass so I went and got myself a 700

I think I'm done with MS for a while... I'm going back to Cisco. Active Directory hurts my brain.

A pass is a pass. Great work.

cruwl

Congrats! this test has been the bane of my life for a while. I've failed it twice with mid 650s both times.

tier~

Congrats on the pass! I'm giving this test a 2nd try this Saturday myself.

Congrats on the pass!

DoubleNNs

Congrats on the pass!!

mjlynden

Congrats. I'm studying for this one at the moment.
I've also scraped through on a 700 before too. That feeling is intense!

Thanks guys! I've been taking a break from studying for a few days but I think it's time to start hitting the books again. My testing center won't be open forever... I have maybe two or three months to get certs before it closes down.

Does anyone know how long it takes to get confirmation of the Microsoft test scores? I haven't heard anything yet... it's only been four days but I am impatient!

aftereffector wrote: »

Does anyone know how long it takes to get confirmation of the Microsoft test scores? I haven't heard anything yet... it's only been four days but I am impatient!

Did you get a printout of the score? You usually get it after you take the exam - pass or fail regardless. The Microsoft website says it can take up to 7 days for it to turn up on your MCP transcript. Log in to http://mcp.microsoft.com to check there.

Ah - okay, I'll keep waiting then. The printout said that I should be getting an email with my MC ID and Access Code for the MCP site, which I'm still waiting for. Does that usually come quickly? This is my first MS cert so I'm unfamiliar with their process... I think I got my Cisco credentials the next day.

Yeah I vaguely remember having to wait a bit for that to come through when I passed my first Microsoft exam (6.5 years ago!). It probably doesn't help it's the weekend too, you will probably see it sometime next week on a business day. Maybe someone who has got their first MCP recently might be able to tell you how long they had to wait.

IceBlackIce

Congrats on the pass.
I got the email from Microsoft the very next day and I was a new MCP as well, check your spam folder, Gmail had those emails blocked in my case.

If it's your first MS exam, it takes a few weeks. I was already an MCP when i passed this exam a week ago and my results were on the MCP website within 3 days.

horusthesun

Thanks for sharing your experience... I am Glad you passed

I am still studying for this and I having issues with Direct Access. Out of frustration of not understanding Direct Access I studied the VCA-DCV and the really easy ...ASA Mac OS X 10.9

Soon I will take the test. Soon I will pass

Direct Access was a pain in the butt. I read the Technotes articles on it five or six times over until I started to understand the concept behind it...

I finally got the email today! I'm officially a MCP