MCSA

[greencreeper]

Bit of a nightmare, isn't it?

I've got these exams:

• Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment
• Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
• Exam 70-270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional

I'm currently studing the MOC 2273, which I'm hoping will help me pass the 70-290 exam. I bought a couple of books for the 70-290 and 70-291 exams, and planned to tackle the 70-290 first, but in the practice exams I only scored around 50%. I thought maybe the course would help but I'm not so sure

I know what my weak areas are, but the main problem is the style of the questions. Sometimes you have a multiple choice question where you pick the steps that comprise the solution, but then the next question will look similar, but you have to pick the solutions NOT the steps to the solution. So I look at the answers and get all confused. Or the question will be in a negative and I overlook this. Nightmare Exams always have been hard for me - just not suited to me and how I learn.

The 70-291 looks incredibly difficult - lot of maths involved in sub- and super- netting networks Plus hardcore multihomed stuff. I'm not confident at all I'm not even studying it just yet - going to wait and see what happens with the 70-290.

The other thing that puzzles me is that there are some things which are not covered but I consider administration tasks. For example, at work I often repair Active Directory by restoring missing objects and attributes. None of this is covered at all in the MCSA. Surely it can't be an MCSE subject because it's not about creating an Active Directory setup, but fixing a broken one, which is surely a task for the administrator (MCSA)??

[Gareth]

Good luck on the certification, mate

I'm not doing the MS ones... got the CompTIA one last year (was far too easy really ), and am now working towards the CISSP one (much, much harder )

Originally Posted by greencreeper

the main problem is the style of the questions. Sometimes you have a multiple choice question where you pick the steps that comprise the solution, but then the next question will look similar, but you have to pick the solutions NOT the steps to the solution. So I look at the answers and get all confused. Or the question will be in a negative and I overlook this.

I know what you mean... the CompTIA one was like this too. I just took my time, often re-reading the question to make sure I wasn't assuming it was asking a particular thing, and ploughed through them all at my own pace. Initially I was worried about running out of time, but in the end I had about 10 mins to spare, even after having gone through my answers a final time to make sure I was happy with them.

A colleague, however, had the whirlwind approach... and has so far failed the exam twice

As for buying practice exams and books, well I went on a course run by QA a couple of weeks before the exam (paid by my employer fortunately) but didn't get that much out of it, probably because I already knew the material so it was just a refresher course really. Personally, I found the books to be the most useful tool, but I think that's a personal preference, as my brain is kinda like a sponge sometimes, and it just soaks up stuff better after seeing it written on a page.

Anyway, good luck with the exams... it'll be worth all the effort in the long run

[greencreeper]

The CompTIA A+ has changed significantly. When I first took a look at it, I couldn't see the point of it - knowledge such as the L2 cache size on all CPUs since time began, and the I/O range for COM2, might garner admiration among geeks, but isn't much use in the real world. But now the CompTia A+ has different specialisms. I've got a book on it's way (dispatched today) that covers the whole lot. I'm thinking of doing it if the MCSA doesn't work out - may even do it even if I get through the MCSA.

I did the MCDST, which counts as the MCSA elective, and that was easy - rattled through the questions in no time. Even the invigilator seemed suprised

The main reason for my doing the course was the opportunity to use Windows 2003 Server. The lesson starts at 18:00 so I arrive around 17:30 and spend a bit of time "fiddling". I'm not that good at soaking things up. I've got to somehow make myself remember all the performance stuff. Then there's backups... Sigh

[Hugh]

Backups are goooooooood!

No backups are baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!

Regularly restoring backups for testing and validation is even gooooooooooder.






Just my personal opinion, based on one of my (ex-)team who had never tested a restore until a director wanted a file brought back, and found out the save didn't work properly

[SOSAGES]

never had any tests i feel i am missing out!

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

The CompTIA A+ has changed significantly. When I first took a look at it, I couldn't see the point of it - knowledge such as the L2 cache size on all CPUs since time began, and the I/O range for COM2, might garner admiration among geeks, but isn't much use in the real world. But now the CompTia A+ has different specialisms.

Sorry, wasn't very clear... I only do the security certifications. The MS ones aren't that relevant for me

Not sure what the other CompTIA ones are like... the security+ one is really only an introductory course (prolly why I sailed through it ) but it's quite handy cause you don't need to renew it every few years. The CISSP one takes three years to do however.

[greencreeper]

Ah right AFAIK, you can do security electives with the MCSA.