291 failed - Bugger!

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Went for my 70-291 today and failed although not by as much as I actually thought during the exam.

I felt like I'd had a right stinker but got 654 so not too far off the mark.

Damn that DNS

I always try to guage how many I've got right as I go through these exams putting each question in to a column as to whether I'm certain, unsure or have no idea what the answer is and do this quite negatively before going through them all again and juggling them about.

Today I got to around question 11 before I was absolutely certain I'd got one right, I thought I'd gone to the wrong exam!

I just couldn't get my head around some of the questions although I'm pretty sure I did OK on the 4 sims I had to do

I could really do with getting this cert before the end of the week (which is the end of our financial year at work) as it gives me my MCSA and this will then count towards my pay review.

I've got the next 3 days off work now so I'm thinking about swotting up the rest of today, Tuesday and Wednesday before resitting on Thursday.

Onwards and Upwards eh !

 

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Sorry to hear that mate, good luck with the next attempt

 

Here's my advice. It has always worked for me and I have never failed an exam. I thought I'd failed N+ but in reality got a very good passing mark. Same with Security+

• Have a good rest before the exam
• Drink some water before the exam
• Do not waste your time on questions that you are not sure of. Mark them and go onto the next one.
• Answer all the questions that you are sure of the answers first. This will boost your confidence and not make you start panicking.
• If you make a choice to pick a particular answer, go wih your very first decision. In the vast majority of cases your gut instinct will be right. This is due to your subconcious coming into play to answer the question that it had come across before and that you do not conciously remember.
• Always look at the answers first. It gives you an idea of what topic the question is going to be about.
• In case you are not sure of the answers, discount the most obvious wrong ones first and concentrate on the ones that you think are right. This way you give yourself a much greater chance / percentage of getting the answer right.
• Once you have made your decision, do not change it. Doing so will only introduce doubt and confuse yourself.
• I found that in most exams, there are questions that the answer is blatantly given in the question. Do not assume that it is a trick question because it is not.
• In many instances, especially with CompTia, I have come across the answer to one question in another question down the line.

Good luck, you will pass.

P.S. the simulations are a treat, they are very easy to do. And as for DNS, that was my weakness, but the other sections pulled me up. Some of the DNS scenarios you will never come across in real life anyway.

 

Thanks for the tips and best wishes etc

I'm not downhearted about it and as I say, I'll sit it again on Thursday and see how it goes.

One thing I was suprised about is there were only 45 questions. Now whilst no one seems to have a clue how MS score these tests I could have only been 2, possibly 3 questions away from passing


In past MS exams I've had between 55 and 59 questions.

Is 45 roundabout normal or unusual for 291

Grrrrrrr

 

Bad luck mate.

Not that its probably much consolation, but the equivalent exam on the MCSE 2000 was an absolute nightmare as well.

I only passed that by the skin of my teeth (there were no scores provided for that exam back then but I know for a fact I got quite a few questions wrong as i went and looked 'em up afterwards!). It's the closest I've ever come to failing an MS test - I was literally left with four questions to answer in the final minute - I just took my best guess at them!

Take solace in the fact that once you pass it, you'll be able to pass pretty much any exam MS can throw at you.

Ordinarily I wouldn't think that resitting quickly would be a good idea, but since you don't seem to have missed out by much you may be best served by cramming for a few days then retaking quickly, whilst the exam is still fresh in your mind. Who knows, if you get lucky you may end up seeing some of the same questions on the retake (surely there are only a finite number of questions MS can ask for each exam?) and, if you're like me, you'll have gone away and looked up topics that you were bad on and figured out the answers to the questions you were asked.

From memory, I think my Network Inf exam had about 60 questions, but that was a loooong time ago and I could be mistaken!

 

There were 3 or 4 and also a sim

There just seemed to be loads of DNS stuff though and I knew before I sat the exam thios was probably my weakest area

 

Good luck on the re-sit Gary, you were not the first to fail this exam and you won't be the last - as zeb said the equivalent in the 2000 track was also a bear and the only exam i have failed. I sat that twice the first time it was 60 nightmare questions and i basically ran out of time trying to read the mamouth amount of text - the second time i sat it, it was 45 questions which were much easier and more straight forward. I don't remember getting any questions the second time that i had in the first sitting. it was actually like two different exams entirely.

 

Sorry to hear that mate. If you only failed by a couple of questions, I would cram them all in then retake ASAP to help you get a bigger pay rise!

 

Yep, 70-216, which is appropriately nicknamed The Beast.

Best of luck on your next attempt!

 

At the time you actually sit the exam, the test questions are loaded at random from a rather large database. Don't assume you'll recognize the test the second time around. You might get three of the same questions...four tops but that's it. Good luck and remember...kick butt...take names.

 

Unlucky dude, I'm sure you will pass next time. I'm getting worried as I will be studying for the 291 soon and everyone says its a beast.

Kraven

 

I'm still shell shocked from this exam... and I've been working with Microsoft products for about 20 years! So don't beat yourself up too much.

 

Well, I've rebooked the exam for 11am on Thursday, could really do with getting it nailed then but if not at least it then gives me two weeks before another resit

Ho hum

 

Good Luck - DNS is at the heart of networking so know it well.

 

Good luck for the resit! I did this exam a couple of months ago and its THE hardest of the MS exams i did..

 

If at first you don't succeed Try again

I re-sat it this morning first thing and this time passed, only just but I passed with 740, a similar difference to the amount I failed by on Monday

I can't believe how relieved I am as the pressure was on to try and get this done before the end of our financial year (24th)

I can actually relax now and carry on learning at my own pace and enjoy it a little more

 

Grats mate
I have to brush up on my RIS skills before trying this one as everything i've prepped for is heavy on RIS
my problem is I havn't used RIS in its native (and somewhat pathetic) form for over 5 years, anything that requires RIS has been bolstered up to an ISA Server!

Back to the nuts and bolts i go
Grats again mate!