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Exam difficulty: Your opinions 2

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Wishdiak

Wishdiak

Technical User
Mar 7, 2004
1,787
US
Since there are so many people in this forum who seem surprised that they didn't do better on a particular exam, it might help to compare the relative difficulty of each exam that we've taken. This might help some to anticipate the difficulty of a particular exam and to spend extra time studying.

I'll go first, with the exams I've passed in the MCSE: Security on Windows Server 2003 track.

Difficulty ratings below are from 1 to 5 stars, with one being the least difficult and 5 the most difficult.

70-270: *
70-290: ***
70-291: *****
70-293: **
70-294: ***
70-299: *****


Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Thanks for your feedback, quadsevens, DanMIS, and bjb123.

Compiled information so far:
70-210: * (4 votes)
70-215: ** (2 votes)
70-217: ** (1 vote)
70-218: *** (2 votes)
70-227: ** (1 vote)
70-228: ** (1 vote)
70-229: *** (3 votes)
70-235: *** (1 vote)
70-270: * (15 votes)
70-271: ** (2 vote)
70-282: ** (1 vote)
70-284: ** (2 vote)
70-290: *** (16 votes)
70-291: *** (12 votes)
70-292: **** (2 votes)
70-293: *** (7 vote)
70-294: *** (7 votes)
70:296: ***** (1 vote)
70-297: *** (3 votes)
70-298: ***** (2 votes)
70-299: ***** (2 votes)
70-300: *** (1 vote)
70-305: ** (2 votes)
70-306: ** (2 votes)
70-315: ** (3 votes)
70-316: ** (2 votes)
70-320: *** (2 votes)
70-350: ** (1 vote)
70-431: * (4 votes)
70-441: ** (1 vote)
70-442: *** (1 vote)
70-445: **** (1 vote)
70-447: ** (1 vote)
70-536: ** (1 vote)
70-620: * (1 vote)
70-630: **** (1 vote)
70-631: **** (1 vote)
71-622:** (1 vote)

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSE: Security 2003
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'd rate:

70-270: **
70-290: ***
70-291: ****

Great Post!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for your feedback, pmort and dreadz.

Compiled information so far:
70-210: * (4 votes)
70-215: ** (2 votes)
70-217: ** (1 vote)
70-218: *** (2 votes)
70-227: ** (1 vote)
70-228: ** (1 vote)
70-229: *** (3 votes)
70-235: *** (1 vote)
70-270: ** (17 votes)
70-271: ** (2 vote)
70-282: ** (1 vote)
70-284: ** (2 vote)
70-290: *** (18 votes)
70-291: **** (14 votes)
70-292: **** (2 votes)
70-293: *** (7 vote)
70-294: *** (7 votes)
70:296: ***** (1 vote)
70-297: *** (3 votes)
70-298: ***** (2 votes)
70-299: ***** (2 votes)
70-300: *** (1 vote)
70-305: ** (2 votes)
70-306: ** (2 votes)
70-315: ** (3 votes)
70-316: ** (2 votes)
70-320: *** (2 votes)
70-350: ** (1 vote)
70-431: * (4 votes)
70-441: ** (1 vote)
70-442: *** (1 vote)
70-445: **** (1 vote)
70-447: ** (1 vote)
70-536: ** (1 vote)
70-620: * (1 vote)
70-630: **** (1 vote)
70-631: **** (1 vote)
71-622:** (1 vote)

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSE: Security 2003
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
70-293 - ***

CCA Citrix 4.0
MCSA: Messaging 2003
MCSE 2003
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Took the 70-310 class on web services and passed..
I'd have to say unless you do alot with web services this would be a 4 star test.

I have to give it **** (4 stars).
Hopefully this will be my hardest test I have to take.. Only 2 more for my MCSD. As of now I am MCAD...

Ordinary Programmer
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
291, gotta say its definetly been the largest in content.

291 ****

Cory
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Here is mine,

70-299 **
70-298 ***
70-290 ***
70-310 ****
70-306 ****
70-305 ***


Dazed and confused
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for your feedback, kss444, Cstorms, and Skittle.

Compiled information so far:
70-210: * (4 votes)
70-215: ** (2 votes)
70-217: ** (1 vote)
70-218: *** (2 votes)
70-227: ** (1 vote)
70-228: ** (1 vote)
70-229: *** (3 votes)
70-235: *** (1 vote)
70-270: ** (17 votes)
70-271: ** (2 vote)
70-282: ** (1 vote)
70-284: ** (2 vote)
70-290: *** (19 votes)
70-291: **** (15 votes)
70-292: **** (2 votes)
70-293: *** (7 vote)
70-294: *** (7 votes)
70:296: ***** (1 vote)
70-297: *** (3 votes)
70-298: **** (3 votes)
70-299: *** (3 votes)
70-300: *** (1 vote)
70-305: *** (3 votes)
70-306: *** (3 votes)
70-310: **** (2 votes)
70-315: ** (3 votes)
70-316: ** (2 votes)
70-320: *** (2 votes)
70-350: ** (1 vote)
70-431: * (4 votes)
70-441: ** (1 vote)
70-442: *** (1 vote)
70-445: **** (1 vote)
70-447: ** (1 vote)
70-536: ** (1 vote)
70-620: * (1 vote)
70-630: **** (1 vote)
70-631: **** (1 vote)

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSE: Security 2003
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Security + - ***

A+,N+,S+,MCP,MCSA
70-270-passed
70-290-passed
70-291-passed
70-293-passed
70-294 passed
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
620 *
290 **

290 content was relatively easy. Very easy sims, questions long, odd and very specific. Dificulty was in reading carefully and deciphering what exactly was being asked. Lots of extraneous info.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
70-284: ***

Sat this yesterday and passed with an 880.
First MS exam I've done since the NT4 days.

But I'd rate the one I took fairly hard. Very closely worded and difficult to decipher for most of the questions.
And some real stingers that were a pain to answer, i.e. how does a particular version of OL do GAL lookups.
That's what the question came down to anyway but boy was there a lot of dross around it.

And a lot more on 5.5 working with 2003 than you'd expect.
Strangely virtually nothing on secure connections, ports etc.

Didn't help that for the majority of questions I had to page up and down a lot so kept losing the sense of the question when comparing it to the answers.
Font they used wasn't the greatest either.

Neill
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
70-236 ***

There were a lot of general questions that took just basic reasoning if you havent seen alot of powershell but there were quite a few tough ones.

Cory
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thanks for your feedback, JonesNW, Subnettingfool, Skittle, and ntinlin.

Compiled information so far:
70-210: * (4 votes)
70-215: ** (2 votes)
70-217: ** (1 vote)
70-218: *** (2 votes)
70-227: ** (1 vote)
70-228: ** (1 vote)
70-229: *** (3 votes)
70-235: *** (1 vote)
70-270: ** (17 votes)
70-271: ** (2 vote)
70-282: ** (1 vote)
70-284: ** (3 votes)
70-290: *** (20 votes)
70-291: **** (15 votes)
70-292: **** (2 votes)
70-293: *** (7 vote)
70-294: *** (7 votes)
70:296: ***** (1 vote)
70-297: *** (3 votes)
70-298: **** (3 votes)
70-299: *** (3 votes)
70-300: *** (1 vote)
70-305: *** (3 votes)
70-306: *** (3 votes)
70-310: **** (2 votes)
70-315: ** (3 votes)
70-316: ** (2 votes)
70-320: *** (2 votes)
70-350: ** (1 vote)
70-431: ** (5 votes)
70-441: ** (1 vote)
70-442: *** (1 vote)
70-445: **** (1 vote)
70-447: ** (1 vote)
70-536: ** (1 vote)
70-620: * (2 votes)
70-630: **** (1 vote)
70-631: **** (1 vote)

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSE: Security 2003
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just took 70-300 and passed, on more test for the MCSD.
I'd say this test was 3.5 stars or round it to 4 stars.
Unless you know MS MFW workflows and you have done feasability studies, use cases, and you know operationl functions. This test might be difficult but if you study you can pass.

I read a few books on this test, and got some great study material from various web sites.

Ordinary Programmer
MCAD
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
70 297 - ***

Managed to fail this first time round but did have a lot of problems with the test centre. Got mu MCSE now too, great!

A+,N+,S+,Security +,MCSE
70-270-passed
70-290-passed
70-291-passed
70-293-passed
70-294-passed
70-297-passed
70-298-pending
70-299-pending
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
First, I would like to thank wishidiak for the awesome post. I am new to the MCSE journey, and have taken 3 exams so far... 70-270 - Failed, 70-290 - passed, 70-350 - passed
I am looking at the rest of the posts, and 70-270 was ranked as 1 star, and I don't see how. I found it significantly more difficult than 290 or 350. I think because it covers so much material, and not just XP as I was expecting. Anyways, here are my star ratings...
70-270 - ****
70-290 - **
70-350 - **
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Here's my input on recent exams I've taken. My qualification is 70-296 is a bit easier than 70-292 BUT only if you've taken 70-292 first.

70-218 ****
70-292 *****
70-296 ***
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think I can give some input now after taking a couple so I can at least compare

70-228 **
70-229 ***
70-270 ***
70-290 ***
70-431 **

lcolson1959

MCTS (SQL 2005), A+, N+, DHTI+
 
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