did my 70-270 today...

[iain187]

passed with about 850 out of 1000! happy with that.
i thought it was easier than the internet made out it was going to be.
although i suppose it is the easiest exam of the ones i'm about to do.


the first step onto the mcsa that work want me to do! hooray.

 

[DMS]

Why did you do the 70-270 over the 70-620?
They both count as the necessary "Client" exam, but the 620 is so much easier! It's also for a more current OS so it'll be valid for longer, and instead of getting an MCP you get an MCTS. As I said, it still counts towards an MCSA/E though.

However, congratulations on passing

 

[iain187]

as work are paying for it my exams will be applicable to work and we still use XP

 

[DMS]

Ah, furry muff. Which exam are you doing next?

 

[Magic Johnson]

Congrats! Probably doing 290 next, aye? I'm studying for that now. Not too hard tbh, 291 is supposed to be a beast though.

 

[iain187]

290 and 291 next yup.

then i'll choose an elective... thinking of sharepoint but not sure yet.

my boss said that 291 isn't that big but it's complicated. I'm strangley looking forward to it

 

[JackoR26]

Well done, i passed my 291 last week :approve:

 

[Magic Johnson]

Congrats! Does it deserve it's title of 'The Beast'?

 

[JackoR26]

yes it does, took me 5 times to pass it lol

 

[DMS]

I passed my 290 with no revision whatsoever. VERY easy.
70-291 is a lot harder but still not too difficult if you've got plenty of experience managing DHCP, DNS, WINS, WSUS and multi-site topologies. It also helps to understand IP addressing properly as well. Learn to calculate subnets in your head (or at least learn how to do it using Windows Calculator). You'll get a few questions where you need to work out what subnet mask to use for a network with a given number of nodes, and probably one where you get given a subnet that needs breaking down into smaller subnets. As I said, still not that difficult.

 

[JackoR26]

I got no questions at all on subnetting but they do come up a lot in the practice tests

 

[DMS]

Sometimes you don't. Out of the 70 odd official questions, you'll only get asked 44 of them.
The tests are designed to make you fail if you aren't very good on a given subject. If you get questions wrong on say DHCP, it'll keep giving you more questions on that subject. Sometimes you even get asked the same question two or three times. If you get most of your questions correct as you progress through the exam you'll get a larger variety of questions overall. I got a couple of questions on subnetting and they're normally multiple answer ones (choose 3, etc...)

Get the CBT Nuggets training videos. They're very good and cover all bases for the Microsoft exams.

 

[iain187]

I passed my 290 with no revision whatsoever. VERY easy.
70-291 is a lot harder but still not too difficult if you've got plenty of experience managing DHCP, DNS, WINS, WSUS and multi-site topologies. It also helps to understand IP addressing properly as well. Learn to calculate subnets in your head (or at least learn how to do it using Windows Calculator). You'll get a few questions where you need to work out what subnet mask to use for a network with a given number of nodes, and probably one where you get given a subnet that needs breaking down into smaller subnets. As I said, still not that difficult.

sounds reasonably straightforward... my practice tests were asking me which IP's could be used in certain subnets so i got used to working it out on my fingers

that doesn't sound too bad tbh.

 

[JackoR26]

Sometimes you don't. Out of the 70 odd official questions, you'll only get asked 44 of them.
The tests are designed to make you fail if you aren't very good on a given subject. If you get questions wrong on say DHCP, it'll keep giving you more questions on that subject. Sometimes you even get asked the same question two or three times. If you get most of your questions correct as you progress through the exam you'll get a larger variety of questions overall. I got a couple of questions on subnetting and they're normally multiple answer ones (choose 3, etc...)

Get the CBT Nuggets training videos. They're very good and cover all bases for the Microsoft exams.

Yea i used the CBT nuggets they were a great help. I also found that the Self Test practice exams helped a lot as the questions in there were really difficult and made you think. At first i was failing on DNS but in the end it was RRAS as i just dont use any of it at work really apart from IAS.

Im looking to do 70-284 after xmas and then i will have my MCSA

 

[DMS]

The RRAS stuff is mainly to do with DHCP relay (BOOTP) on the 291 exam. I don't remember it going into any of the other features other than maybe increasing the number of ports for users to connect to.
It covers the 80/20 rule and DHCP redundancy (by setting up the hop counts and the DHCP offer delay). You'll also need to know about authorizing DHCP servers on the network - handy for preventing rogue DHCP servers.

 

[JackoR26]

RRAS packet filters, static routes, RIP, OSPF etc

Its such boring material to look at too compared to 290 which i really enjoyed doing so im just glad its out the way.

 

[dk]

Why did you do the 70-270 over the 70-620?
They both count as the necessary "Client" exam, but the 620 is so much easier! It's also for a more current OS so it'll be valid for longer, and instead of getting an MCP you get an MCTS. As I said, it still counts towards an MCSA/E though.

However, congratulations on passing

+1, I got 1000/1000 for the vista, was a piece of piss!

I didn't get any subnetting questions either in 291, was something i was shitting as i couldn't get my head around it and it was all for nothing in the end!

 

[cleo]

Congrats, I got the 70-290, like you said regarding yours It was easier than the internet led me to think. Doing ccent at the mo and maybe 70-291 after that.