I have failed vb6 exam (70-176), 3 times! Any tips? 1

[lv45]

I have used microsoft mastering for vb6 desktop, mcsd study guide by osborne, exam cram, and transcender. I have used all this material and I just failed it for the third time yesterday. The first time I took it, I only got half of the questions right, the second time I failed by one question, yesterday I missed by five. All of the questions on the exam seem familiar but I don't think I am always understanding what they are really asking for. I am letting the wording fool me. I am doing exercises too, i'm not just memorizing the material. I have training too but it didn't prepare me for the exam. I am not going to give up that would just make me feel worse. I was thinking of getting exam prep. I like practice tests. Does anyone have any advice?
thank you

 

[butchrecon]

The only thing I can suggest is get some real world experience. Studying and doing the exersises is good, but without any experience or prior knowledge the MS exams are going to be very difficult. Set up VB6 at home and start playing with it. Dont just go through the exercises, work with it. And most of all dont give up! Are you taking the practice tests (comes with the study material)? if so dont go take the exam until you are scoring at least 800 consistantly on the practice tests. (usually one will score about 10% less on the real tests than they do on the practice tests.)

Hope this helps

Jim Collins
Computer Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP

 

[Beesknees]

I failed this exam twice but passed it 3rd time and I work as a programmer! The best advice I got was as below...

From: James Culshaw
I passed this exam first time. The way I did it was to use the question testing software at the back of the book and kept doing all tghe questions in every chaper/section until I got them all right. You could try the same with a transcender exam.

Pay special attention to the Package and Deployment wizard and read about the way Microsoft expects things to be done. This comment rrelates to all the MCSD exams. I disagree with a lot of what Microsoft says, but they want you to answer there way in the exam.

The exam askes a lot of scenario questions. The trick here si to decode the scenario into basic, easily understood requirements. The question is the easy to tackle.

A good example in my exam was a queation about the best way to build a system. It was a finance application that accessed a legacy database/system aswell as a new one. Performance was important, but so was reliability and availability, as well as easily maintainable. The legacy system was flakey and crashed often, and would bring down any program accessing it. The question was what would you build. The choices were a single application, and application with a DLL, an application with an ActiveX EXE, or an application with a Custom OCX to contain the legacy system logic/code.

The answer was simple when you split the question up. Perfomance would point to the Single EXE, or the DLL, or the OCX as these perform better than the Application with an ActiveX EXE. However, availability and reliability were important. If any of the last three were used and the Legacy system went down then the whole application would go down as the DLL and OCX run in process. The ActiveX EXE runs out of process so when it goes down it won't bring the whole application down. That is the choice Microsoft wants.

You need to understand the various architectures and what the benefits/side effects of each one is. You then need to practice decoding the questions and mapping them to what you know.

 

[butchrecon]

Make sure you can pass it before you take it. If you are unsure you can pass it or think you may barely pass, then dont take it. You will just keep wasting $. James Collins
Computer Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

 

[Guest_imported]

i would give you my brain dumps and transcender exams but, this site does not like doing this. so i would give you the same advice that they gave me "STUDY, STUDY, STUDY" . Study what? the entire vb application all its ins and outs. The brain dump that i got helped me passed the exams the first time around and eventually finished the MCSD. A lot of people are also saying that these exams are just a joke, and I totally agree with them. if you go to an employer and you can show that you can do vb effectively and efficiently, you shouldn't have a problem. this job that i have right now is paying 80k a year and they didn't even asked me if i'm certified. and i only got 2 years experience in vb.

 

[AMSRanger]

I suggest you read the book "MCSD Visual Basic 6 Exams : Exams 70-175 and 70-176 Training Guide" by Howard Hawhee and published by New Riders. It's about $50 at Amazon.com and covers both of the exams nicely. I recommend it to all of my MCSD students as the bible for VB exam prep.

HTH

 

[Ahmed66]

Gather and study ALL "summaries" of all the information you need to know for the exam (even the ones they tell you to skip"!
Reinforce your knowledge with detailed review questions and LOTS of ACTUAL practice
Gauge your progress with practice questions that are tougher than those you'll face on the exam (find those on the web if you can)
Microsoft like any exam body have their own vision of how you should answer their questions, so emulate that vision!
Remember, if you REALLY can do it you don't need the peice of paper!
AND Good Luck

Ahmed Bagi
Programming Consultant