Tips for the 70-290 1

[Drew000]

Hello everyone,

I'm am thinking of crash studying for the 70-290 exam. If I start studying around 6pm tonight, stay up late, then study all day tomorrow and take the test tomorrow at 6pm. Do you think I can pass? I have already passed to 70-270 XP exam, and studied for that in similiar fashion. I have been working with IT for 5-6 years, I work daily with account management, shares and permissions, global groups, active directory, GPO etc....so i think I have a solid background, its just a matter of nailing down the obscure details they get into on the test...
Any advice or tips for me. Things I should concentrate the most and topics I can maybe skip.
A list of the top 10 things to study would be a great help and any other advice or things to look out for....

Thanks a lot
Drew

 

[SimonDavies]

Personally I wouldn't waste your money just yet. I have recently taken my MCSE2003, I have worked in IT since 1996 and already had my NT4 and Novell certifications. I passed 70-270 easily and thought I would pass 290 just as easily... I didn't, infact I didn't pass it for 3 of the times that I attempted to pass it. I would spend a couple of weeks studying, I would get to play with the OS and I would definitely get some hands on experience because the exams now have simulations and if you have no experience you will fail the exam.

It's not easy and I really believe you would be wasting your money and feel a tad downhearted if you did fail.

Have a look around here and get a feel for the exam, see what some recent test takers have said.

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[Wishdiak]

Drew000,

I wholeheartedly agree with SimonDavies. When I took the 70-270, I felt that I could have passed it blindfolded.

I underestimated 70-290 and failed by too wide a margin. After spending weeks learning the material better, I was able to pass it on the second try, but I would caution you against underestimating this exam.

The 70-270 exam is in no way a reliable benchmark for the relative difficulty of 70-290.

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[Drew000]

Whats up everyone,

After going against conventional wisdom, I went ahead and took the 70-290 exam anyways. Fortunately I passed with a 737. After going through all the material I honestly didn't think I had a chance unless I got extremely lucky, which I did. I would say a majority of the exam had to do with share/NTFS permissions and account management, which I already know like the back of my hand. Many of the other questions that I wasn't sure one, I was able to carefully pick out the wrong answers to make an educated guess at. After reviewing my score per topic, the sections dealing with "users and groups", "account and resource management" I scored perfect on. I suffered in areas when it came to "diaster recovery" and "disk management", which I normally don't work with on a day to day basis.
I was extremely worried that I would get a lot of terminal server questions and ISS question, another area I'm weak in, however I didn't. Out of the few that I did get, a couple turned out to be GPO related, and more a GPO question, dealing with terminal server settings, which I was already familiar with. I did get 4-5 simulation questons, however to be honest I preferred them. It gives you a chance to look at the actual program and figure it out, rather then try to recall everything from memory. So if your good at clicking around and figuring things out, then these questions may help you. Microsoft also keeps you from being able to acess certain tabs and areas within the software, which almost leads you to the right area. After clicking around and figuring out the answer, you can reset everything and start the question over before saving and recording your answer. But who knows if I even got those ones right.

Anyways, I'm thinging of taking another exam Tuesday morning. That will give me today and tomorrow to study, 2 full days, as apposed to only 1 for the 70-290. Anyone have any suggestions as to which one is the easiest exam I can take next?

Thanks
Drew

 

[jrbarnett]

If you really understand TCP/IP and general networking, including routing, RRAS, configuring DHCP etc, probably the 70-291 is a good option as you have 270 and 290 already.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-291.asp

Once you have this, you can get MCSA with only one more. Have a look at the electives available and see if any take your fancy from

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsa/windows2003/

John

 

[aftertaf]

After going against conventional wisdom, I went ahead" and passed!

well done

i got my first four in a 2 month period, they had similar content so revising was well trageted for 2k pro / server & ad management.

I got my mcsa 2000 first of all, so i can't help you for the 2003 core exams that much. But for the MCSE, i can give you tips on my experience in the exams, if you have experience and hands-on, make sure you revise the bits you are less sure about and you'll be fine!

good luck with the rest.


Aftertaf
________
Regain control of your PC, at

http://www.debian.org