70-228 - last minute advice?

[icemel]

Hi, I am taking the 70-228 tomorrow morning, eek... little nervous about this one. Been a SQL DBA only 5 months now, but am certified Oracle DBA. Any last minute advice? Been studying the Microsoft exam book (the blue one with the lovely hacksaw on the cover), and purchased the uCertify 70-228 exam... I really hope this is enough preparation. Some of the questions on my test exam are really obscure or downright wacky at times. I am not too up on network protocols, etc.. hope there isn't too much of this crap on the test.

 

[Skittle]

Don't spend to long on questions...I almost ran out of time.

Be prepared for lots of performance questions on Windows and SQL counters.

Dazed and confused
(N+, MCAD .NET)

 

[mrdenny]

A lot of the questions are worked very funky. I used the big blue MS Press book and did fine. Many of the concepts will care over from the Oracle world. There will however be some stuff that is SQL only. You shouldn't get much on Clustering or log shipping. I remember a couple of replication questions.

Some basic table layout and data type stuff (this will be mostly on the 70-229).

Some drive config and perfmon stuff.

Shouldn't be to much on network protocols (that comes in the windows exams more).

Good luck tomorrow.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[mrdenny]

Here's a thread in this forum that we talked a bit about the Microsoft question format thread468-1163372. Might make some good revue before you sit your first MS exam (I'm assuming that it's your first MS exam).

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[icemel]

Hi y'all - I passed with a 919 - far exceeded my own expectations. "uCertify" exams rock - well worth the $80.

I was surprised, not one single question on backup/recovery... you would think that was a big deal. A lot of the questions involved tuning/troubleshooting SQL Server, hardware and file layout considerations, as well as questions on domain stuff - not my strong point. I guess 290 will cover a lot of that.

Again, highly recommend "uCertify" exams... comes with a money back guarantee.

 

[mrdenny]

What's the URL for the uCertify? I may want them for my remaining MCSE exams.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[icemel]

http://www.uCertify.com

The money back part is pretty cool.

 

[mrdenny]

Yeah, that is a cool feature.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[Skittle]

No questions on backups and recovery? That surprises me.
I had a few of those when I took it a few weeks ago.

Congratulations and all that.

Dazed and confused
(N+, MCAD .NET)

 

[icemel]

Thanks

I guess every test is different, generated from a pool of questions.

 

[mrdenny]

Yep, every time someone takes the test they get there own set of questions. The pool of questions has over 100 questions available.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[icemel]

btw, i just ordered 3 more exams from uCertify - 229, 290, 293 - only cost $140 b/c I got a 25% volume disc + 10% return customer disc - good deal! That's less than $50 per test.

 

[mrdenny]

Damn, that's a good deal right there.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[Skittle]

Mrdenny:-

Intesting comment about the number of questions for 70-228.
I always assumed there were many hundreds or even a thousand questions available in the pool for the exams.
Is there in fact only a couple of hundred?
Doesn't make any difference I suppose but it's interesting to know how these exams work.

Also I am curious about the upgrade period from MCDBA to the new SQL certifications. Is there ever a limit on the period it is possible to follow the upgrade path? For example when MS mainstream suppoer for SQL 2000 ends or MCDBA exams are retired?

Dazed and confused
(N+, MCAD .NET)

 

[mrdenny]

I got the couple of hundred questions number from talking to MCTs and other MCDBAs and that's the number that we all settled on.

Not much has been announced about the new MCITP certs. I would assume that there isn't a time frame window where you have to upgrade in (you can still upgrade from MCSE NT 4.0 to MCSE 2003).

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[SpyroA]

Mr Denny,

The total question pool for 70-228 is, believe it or not, a mere 150 questions.

While the total question pool for 70-229 is a scant 115 questions.

In comparison, 70-290 has a test pool of 445 questions.

In contrast, the CISSP exam has a question pool of over 1400 questions.

Just a fyi,

Spyro

PS. Congrats to the original poster for passing. uCertify is a very good resource.

MCAD, MCSD, MCDBA and currently working on MCSA/MCSE

 

[icemel]

Thanks SpyroA, do you know the #'s for 293?

 

[SpyroA]

Here is what I have as of the last couple of months...

70-290 = 445 questions
70-291 = 380 questions
70-293 = 240 questions
70-294 = 240 questions

70-297 = 11 Case Studies
70-298 = 10 Case Studies
70-299 = 120 questions

70-228 = 150 questions
70-229 = 115 questions

Spyro
Sr. Project Lead/Manager

PMP, MCAD, MCSD, MCDBA and currently working on MCSA/MCSE

 

[icemel]

Thanks. Well I picked 290 and 293 to round out the tests for my MCDBA. I hope I made the right choice!