70-410 booked on the 25th!

I have been studying for three months while working at a data center. Went through the training guide, exam ref and mastering server 2012's relevant chapters. this week I am going back through exam ref and labbing as much as possible. This will be my first cert exam.

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cruwl

Good luck!

pjd007

Good luck

GSXR750K2

Good decision on the lab, best way to learn is by rolling your sleeves up and doing it. Best of luck.

Xenomeow

Thanks people!

dgibson89

I'm in the same boat as you so probably know how you feel. Good luck, hope the hard work pays off.

Xenomeow

Best of luck to you dgibson89! I hope we both pass with flying colors. Getting to the point that studying is hitting a brick wall.

Louie1277

I been studying for months in an out because of work and family time...ugh... i failed it twice already just want to get over the "F" HUMP....
will keep trying feels like i'm not moving forward or anything... ugh!!!!!!!

bohack

Good Luck! Don't drink coffee or an energy drink before going into the exam. Make sure you are cool and get there in plenty of time. Relax and take the exam. If you don't know an answer, mark it and continue on then come back to those questions. Good luck!

dgibson89

Thanks Xenomeow, i feel like my studying is hitting a brick wall as well - but still don't feel fully prepped yet.

Thanks for the tips bohack, will make sure take those on.

Louie1277, i'm studying during my free time out of work as well as everything else - its difficult to put in a full day at work then come home and study for a good hour or two, its taken me 6 months to get to the point of taking the exam - the way i see it is i'll just have to keep trying if i don't pass first time round.

Louie1277

dgibson89 wrote: »

Thanks Xenomeow, i feel like my studying is hitting a brick wall as well - but still don't feel fully prepped yet.

Thanks for the tips bohack, will make sure take those on.

Louie1277, i'm studying during my free time out of work as well as everything else - its difficult to put in a full day at work then come home and study for a good hour or two, its taken me 6 months to get to the point of taking the exam - the way i see it is i'll just have to keep trying if i don't pass first time round.

I get very inpatient about taking exams. I stay up late studying then at work i study... I tell me myself I think i'm ready but only time will tell. I'm thinking of taking the exam in may at the end of the month. That gives me about 1 month to really study hard every day.

GSXR750K2

dgibson89 wrote: »

Louie1277, i'm studying during my free time out of work as well as everything else - its difficult to put in a full day at work then come home and study for a good hour or two, its taken me 6 months to get to the point of taking the exam - the way i see it is i'll just have to keep trying if i don't pass first time round.

I'm not the best when it comes to hitting the books, so I "acquired" the CBT Nuggets series for the 70-410 through the 70-414 and I'm not sure I would have made it to my MCSE without those, or probably even my MCSA.

I don't know what you lab setup is like, but I had the videos playing on one computer/monitor and be working with my server/Hyper-V lab box on a dual screen setup. It made for quite an immersive environment and I actually enjoyed getting home after work and working with it...many times I'd start at 6:00 PM or so and look down at the clock five minutes later to see it was 1:00 AM (I also have no wife or kids to occupy my time).

I came from a server background, originally playing with NT 4.0 and Server 2000 when I was just getting out of high school, so some of it was familiar and some of it was not. I took mine before the exam included the R2 updates, but the 70-410 wasn't a brutal exam. Don't try to learn everything about WinServ before taking a particular exam, just focus on those topics and the exams will build on each other as you go.

Louie1277

GSXR750K2 wrote: »

I'm not the best when it comes to hitting the books, so I "acquired" the CBT Nuggets series for the 70-410 through the 70-414 and I'm not sure I would have made it to my MCSE without those, or probably even my MCSA.

I don't know what you lab setup is like, but I had the videos playing on one computer/monitor and be working with my server/Hyper-V lab box on a dual screen setup. It made for quite an immersive environment and I actually enjoyed getting home after work and working with it...many times I'd start at 6:00 PM or so and look down at the clock five minutes later to see it was 1:00 AM (I also have no wife or kids to occupy my time).

I came from a server background, originally playing with NT 4.0 and Server 2000 when I was just getting out of high school, so some of it was familiar and some of it was not. I took mine before the exam included the R2 updates, but the 70-410 wasn't a brutal exam. Don't try to learn everything about WinServ before taking a particular exam, just focus on those topics and the exams will build on each other as you go.

I been doing some lab work off the Master server book that everyone is talking about. I have a small lab setup on my micro hp that i got plus I have other lab on my mac that goes with me to work. At work some times i study but when I get home it's late i'm tried and stuff. I have a wife and kids. Most of the time I try to stay up late but i get tired and don't remember what i did the night before. Some times it sticks and some times it doesn't... I'm worried that whatever i read i might miss something important. I kick myself because I try to learn everything but i know that i shouldn't worry.

Test taking is one of my weakness i get really nervous and blank out. We will see how it goes next month when i try again. This will be my 3rd time trying .

NetworkingStudent

Hello Xenomeow,

How did you do on the exam?

Xenomeow

Wow! That exam is HARD! So glad I got the second chance, I only scored 454

For someone with no server experience when i first started studying, i feel thats not terrible. But I wish i would have scored a bit higher.

GSXR750K2

Xenomeow wrote: »

Wow! That exam is HARD! So glad I got the second chance, I only scored 454 For someone with no server experience when i first started studying, i feel thats not terrible. But I wish i would have scored a bit higher.

We all wish we had scored higher on an exam, regardless of the score.

Don't sweat it too much, there could be a number of things that attributed to the score. I had to go to a different testing facility for my Cisco stuff and the environment was rather intimidating compared to the one I was used to. At my local facility, there are 12 stations and never more than four or five people testing at the same time. At the center for Cisco, there are 50 stations and there weren't many free seats left...and to top it off, the station I was given was at the front of the room in a corner, so I felt like everyone was staring at the back of my head.

Needless to say, I scored a 610 when I first attempted the CCNA seven years or so ago. Sometimes the psychology can make the road bumpy, even when there's no justifiable reason for it to be. You'll probably find yourself having some "duh" moments when you think back and realized you knew the answer but your fingers simply didn't click the correct answer. Now that you know what to expect from the center and the exam, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to pull off a pass next time.

dgibson89

Xenomeow - Unlucky on your first attempt - but i don't think you should look at it as a failed exam, i've got mine in less than 2 weeks and i feel that actually doing the exam for the first time whether i pass or fail will set me up for future exams because i will hopefully have a better understanding of how they will be formatted, and what types of questions there will be. Plus the fact it tells you areas you need to improve on. I'm sure you will do better next time.

Any times on what to watch out for?

Xenomeow

Dgibson89- Unlucky is one word for it :P I see your point and do agree there is no use in getting bogged down about it. Being exposed to the environment and style of questions was a good experience. Thankfully I have the free second attempt at it, so its not money wasted. The coveted post exam report is pretty awesome, but it would be much better if Microsoft has a method to get you that sheet with out it costing $150.

As for what to look out for, IPV6, DHCP, Nic teaming, configuring server core and ADDS groups/local groups. There was a lot less powershell then I expected in my test, but id imagine that was a one off. Also of note, the last week before the exam I hit the books hard and the two weeks before that I was reading mastering server 2012 and neglecting my labs. DO NOT DO THAT!!!!!!! Seriously if you have been studying for a couple months, more reading is just gonna bounce off your brain. The exam is very much KNOWING the info and labbing will help with that a lot more then rehashing the same information over and over. I can not stress enough the value of labbing out that last week, I feel I could have easily improved my score by 50-75 points if I labbed the last week. Most likely would have passed if i was labbing instead of reading mastering server 2012.

So my plan is booking round two for the 31st of May and i am labbing from objective to objective and if I finish before the exam, I will focus directly on the three areas i had the lowest score on from the exam.

Rocket-sG

I feel your pain because I also failed the 410 exam the first time and it is the first certification exam I have ever failed and boy was I suprised to see the final screen say that I had failed by a margin of less than 25 points.

More than anything I was angry at the Exam Ref textbook which I had studied diligently and then sat at the test looking at questions that included terms that I had never heard of IN MY LIFE.

I sat gawking at some of the questions wondering if I was being administered the 411 exam by mistake, perhaps?

Some of the questions had so many convoluted twists and turns that It made me wonder if even Bill Gates would have known the answer? He probably did not know it.

Anyways I went home studied 3 more weeks probably OVERPREPARED and then passed it the second time (although I was shocked to see that I scored less than a 900 the second time)

I read every single textbook written for 410 (Except the Mastering R2 one and the Panek one) and I read the entire Technet that is referenced in the sticky and did the Measure Up practice tests.

I guess everyone has their own opinion but after watching the entire CBT Nuggets series I can say that I feel it was the biggest waste of my time and maybe contributed to 2 or 3 correct answers on the exam so certainly not worth 20 hours of my life I spent watching the boring videos, that time would have been much better spent elsewhere

Now studying 411 and planning to sit the exam within 14 days (I took almost a month vacation from studying because I was working on a project and also because the 411 was so dry and boring I had to get away from it for awhile)

And after watching 75% of the CBT Nuggets for 411 I decided to just stop with the videos. They are not worth the time investment and dont plan to subscribe to the 412 video series, would rather spend the money on something else that will be of greater benefit.

Good Luck and dont feel so bad as you will see many of us have failed the 410 the first time around and Im certainly no dummy so if I failed it I am sure many others have as well

dgibson89

Xenomeow - Thanks for the info - my exam is booked on the 12th May so i'll take your advise under advisement and try and finish my reading then just play with my micro server and lab it up. Its a shame about the exam report that you have to pay to get it - didn't know that. It's really like Microsoft give you no real help in terms of trying to help you improve for the next time round.

Mack_XXI

Just thought I'd chime in here and say that I took the 410 exam today and got a 530. What shocked me was the fact that it was only 44 questions, so your margin for error is small. So far, my biggest help that had me confident in passing was my free 7 day trial of CBT Nuggets. While the instructor will tend to goof off at times, I like that the videos are tackling the exact exam ojective's listed on Microsoft's website. Like other's have mentioned, know your powershell and expect a little bit of everything on that test, even printers. I definetely going to go through the nuggets again and practice my powershell in my labs/dual boot environment and hopefully I can knock this test out the park because despite my terrible score, I actually felt like it wasn't a hard test ya know.

ed_003

Mack_XXI wrote: »

Just thought I'd chime in here and say that I took the 410 exam today and got a 530. What shocked me was the fact that it was only 44 questions, so your margin for error is small. So far, my biggest help that had me confident in passing was my free 7 day trial of CBT Nuggets. While the instructor will tend to goof off at times, I like that the videos are tackling the exact exam ojective's listed on Microsoft's website. Like other's have mentioned, know your powershell and expect a little bit of everything on that test, even printers. I definetely going to go through the nuggets again and practice my powershell in my labs/dual boot environment and hopefully I can knock this test out the park because despite my terrible score, I actually felt like it wasn't a hard test ya know.

good work,

Im having trouble being consistent on the studying. can u give me any advice/

Louie1277

Xenomeow wrote: »

Wow! That exam is HARD! So glad I got the second chance, I only scored 454 For someone with no server experience when i first started studying, i feel thats not terrible. But I wish i would have scored a bit higher.

Trust me on my second time around when i failed I got close to 500... I'm in I.T Dept but don't deal with server... My background is like yourself with no server work. This time around it's my 3rd time trying but it's hard with family and time.

Tonight i will be studying what my weak points were . From there I will see how it goes next month when i take the exam. just don't give up trust me i haven't!

Mack_XXI

To not overwhelm yourself and practice makes perfect. I have already re-scheduled my exam for May 29th since I found out that second shot expires on the 30th, and not the 15th as I previously thought. During that time, I plan on revisiting Group Policy, IPv6, DNS, subnetting and printers. I'll still touch on everything else again, but those subjects specifically. Oh, don't forget Hyper-V, one of the questions involved virtual switches and was powershell related. I think the key is to have a set game plan and stay relevant as possible on each subject, no matter how confusing or easy.