Passed 411 today -- 905

I Read Craig Zacker book (piece of junk, more like a brochure) recommend you read that one 4 days before the test just as a "cliff's notes" and you can find it free online. It aint worth paying for

I watched the first 20 cbt nuggets videos then just stopped, I dont feel the amount of time invested in watching them is worth it. I learned about James Conrad photography of "God's Earth" and he avoids a russian woman at Starbucks so she doesnt talk his head off. (I will not be subscibing to cbt nuggets for 412 or pluralsight either. The videos are all stupid wastes of time and if you are labbing then you dont need them because you will learn the stuff with your own hands)

I read Panek textbook, that was the best of the textbooks and worthy of the $30

I read all the techNet articles from the wiki. Boring but useful

I used measure up practice exams, they helped show me where I needed to go back in for more research. Read all the technets that where linked to that

Set up a VM of 1 installation of Server 2012 so that I could memorize which settings are changed on what tabs (Lots of questions on that)

Found almost no questions on actual exams regarding powershell syntax. Huge difference from 410

Recommend you know everything about DNS, when to use secondary zone or when to use stub zone. Know all about Remote Access, VPN and certificates

Know about source collector sets versus the other one

Know all about GPOs and the order that they get applied in

48 questions on exam.

I feel the material was more difficult than 410 but that 410 had a wider scope and about 25% MORE material so in the final analysis I found the 411 exam easier because there is only about 400 pages of material to memorize versus 600 -700 from 410

I feel MS makes the 410 especially hard to "knock you off your perch"

I failed the 410 the first time by one question. The 410 is the hardest certification exam I have ever taken (I have never taken Cisco)

And this was the second hardest. Mostly because the material on the actual exam is often not covered in the textbooks in the proper depth. Especially Craig Zacker. That book should be titled "A brief introduction and casual bird's eye overview of 411"

It feels good to pass the exam, study hard and dont give up. And hurry up because second chance expires in 16 days

And drink Yerba Mate tea whie you study. And grape juice with ice

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Comments

ed_003

good work!! how often did u study?

pjd007

Congrats.

I've not done any non-MS exams either so I've nothing to compare them to but these are no joke.

I'm sitting the SCCM exam shortly and I think it looks like it could be an easier exam compared to the MCSE tests, well fingers crossed anyway !

slee335

thanks for the tips. i'm studying the same way like you running vmware with server 2012 so i could follow the CBTnugget videos. next is measure up practice exam. i was guessing it would be heavy on the GPO . been studying while i've been doing the midnight like 5- 6 hour a night. trying to make use of my time to get out of this midnight job.

cruwl

Congrats and great score! Onto 412 next?

Nice work

Congratulations!

Congrats!!

ed_003 wrote: »

good work!! how often did u study?

I would say 4 to 6 hours per day for 21 days total. About 120 total hours

And very little of that time was squandered on videos. I have ceased watching videos and will not watch any videos for 412.

Rocket-sG

cruwl wrote: »

Congrats and great score! Onto 412 next?

Thanks everybody! This is certainly attainable if you put in the proper amount of hours based on your level of experience. I have never been a server or network admin so I needed 120 hours since this was all new to me. I am a PC repair technician.

But I am a visual learner and learn very well from textbooks (Prefer them to videos or lectures with live professor)

I am fortunate to be a very good student and test taker. I graduated college with a 3.9 gpa.

Yes, on to 412 and then I am going for my CCNA. I dont want to devote myself to MCSE until I know for sure that I can get a job with Server so I will be moving on to CCNA followed by Security +.

The job market is so competitive here that with A+ and Network + certifications the only job I was offered was Level 1 helpdesk for $10 per hour.

I decided instead to move in with my parents and bang out these certs. I am doing freelance PC repair work, advertising myself on craigslist. But sometimes I go several days with no work, it sucks

mjnk77

Good luck on the 412 exam and the CCNA!

ed_003

Rocket-sG wrote: »

Thanks everybody! This is certainly attainable if you put in the proper amount of hours based on your level of experience. I have never been a server or network admin so I needed 120 hours since this was all new to me. I am a PC repair technician.

But I am a visual learner and learn very well from textbooks (Prefer them to videos or lectures with live professor)

I am fortunate to be a very good student and test taker. I graduated college with a 3.9 gpa.

Yes, on to 412 and then I am going for my CCNA. I dont want to devote myself to MCSE until I know for sure that I can get a job with Server so I will be moving on to CCNA followed by Security +.

The job market is so competitive here that with A+ and Network + certifications the only job I was offered was Level 1 helpdesk for $10 per hour.

I decided instead to move in with my parents and bang out these certs. I am doing freelance PC repair work, advertising myself on craigslist. But sometimes I go several days with no work, it sucks

if u dont mind me asking how old are u ? I hate helpdesk with a passion!! Im a hands on kind of person.. to me helpdesk is the receptionist for the real IT guys/girls.

nascar_paul

Rocket-sG wrote: »

Thanks everybody! This is certainly attainable if you put in the proper amount of hours based on your level of experience. I have never been a server or network admin so I needed 120 hours since this was all new to me. I am a PC repair technician.

But I am a visual learner and learn very well from textbooks (Prefer them to videos or lectures with live professor)

I am fortunate to be a very good student and test taker. I graduated college with a 3.9 gpa.

Yes, on to 412 and then I am going for my CCNA. I dont want to devote myself to MCSE until I know for sure that I can get a job with Server so I will be moving on to CCNA followed by Security +.

The job market is so competitive here that with A+ and Network + certifications the only job I was offered was Level 1 helpdesk for $10 per hour.

I decided instead to move in with my parents and bang out these certs. I am doing freelance PC repair work, advertising myself on craigslist. But sometimes I go several days with no work, it sucks

Congratulations! I'm doing something similar, but I'm thinking of going in a slightly different direction. I've got the 411 Scheduled for three weeks from now, then I'm doing the 409 for the MCSA : Virtulization (sp?) certification. Then N+ and Security+ before CCNA because it seems the more marketable option to employers to me.

Ultimately I'm looking to do something like security operations, but for now I want to be as attractive to perspective employers as possible as soon as possible. You may want to consider something similar especially with having your N+ already. There are Security and Office 365 and SQL specializations available to test for.

bohack

Congratulation!

7255carl

congrats

shakedkoffee

Rocket-sG wrote: »

Thanks everybody! This is certainly attainable if you put in the proper amount of hours based on your level of experience. I have never been a server or network admin so I needed 120 hours since this was all new to me. I am a PC repair technician.

But I am a visual learner and learn very well from textbooks (Prefer them to videos or lectures with live professor)

I am fortunate to be a very good student and test taker. I graduated college with a 3.9 gpa.

Yes, on to 412 and then I am going for my CCNA. I dont want to devote myself to MCSE until I know for sure that I can get a job with Server so I will be moving on to CCNA followed by Security +.

The job market is so competitive here that with A+ and Network + certifications the only job I was offered was Level 1 helpdesk for $10 per hour.

I decided instead to move in with my parents and bang out these certs. I am doing freelance PC repair work, advertising myself on craigslist. But sometimes I go several days with no work, it sucks

I agree completly on the videos, they aren't worth the time. I will be skipping the videos for the next exams.

About CCNA: I did it before the Microsoft exams. They're great for learning network related stuff and totally worth it. But as a certification per se, they don't have the weight for standard sysadmin jobs. I mean, the job offers which actually mention CCNA are usually network related. And that makes sense. But again, I don't think I've ever learned so much stuff as with Cisco exams. They're hard but definitevly worth it. I would think about an ITIL exam if I was you. It'll be the next one for me, a part for 70-411.

I wouldn0t go for MCSE after finishing MCSA, if I couldn't back it up with experience. I think virtualization related stuff is a nice next step.

I'll be prepairing myself some Yerba tee this weekend. Good luck with your stuff.

Params7

I feel MCSA studies are harder than Cisco's, simply because of better organization of source material for the exams in Cisco's side. You read a book, watch nuggets, practice some on a piece of software called PacketTracer and that is enough for many to pass the CCNA.

I feet it was more of a drag with MCSA. You have to go out of your way to read Technet articles, lab a ton. I haven't given any exam yet, but from the sounds of it the difficulty sounds on par with CCNA if not more.

Snow.bros

Congrats on the pass good luck with the next!!!

SeekBytes

Hello Rocket - SG.

I wanted to ask you what other books I can use except the one from William Panek published from Sybex to prepare me for the exams.