Anyone taken the MCDST exams?

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Just thoght I would ask if anyone has taken either or both of the MCDST exams and what they thought of them in terms of content and how hard are they (As I've heard they are both too easy) any thoughts???

 

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I haven't taken the MCDST exams but thought I would ask the question about the exams being easy. What values does this cert have and where you feel it fits in the industry today?

 

I really thought this cert would take off this year. Doesn't seem to be much interest in this board. Come on all someone must of take one or both of the exams. If anyone has what were the exams like and is it worth doing?

 

to be honest i understood it to be somewhat of an entry level qualification, it will take a few years to take off as people still demand an mcse for a helpdesk job, as the new one takes roots and prooves itself, people will lower there demands and the mcse should improve in status again

i can understand if its easy, its supposed to be entry level isnt it?

can't say i have tried it tho

 

I'm really thinking about taking this cert just because it's all about XP which is what we are rolling out at work. Just wanted to try to get someone's opinion on the exams.

 

Later this year I will start my prepping for the 70-270. I aim to take my time & be thorough. I will also attempt this one at the same time. The overlap must be enormous.


Comments please !!!

 

Scooby, thats basically my way of thinking as well. I'll probably do the 70-270 exam at roughly the same time as the MCDST exams.

 

I took a look at some of the official Microsoft books in Waterstones the other day. I still think the 70-270 would get you through most of the way.

But ...

One exam concentrates on application support (for that read Microsoft Office / Microsoft I.E / Microsoft ....). The 70-270 does not cover this so it looks as though further study will indeed be required.

However, the 70-270 still looks a lot harder.

Still, we will get through.

 

Yep that was my thinking as well, i'm thinking about doing this for the elective for the MCSA, just because it seems easier than doing something like MS Exchange. I've already taken the 70-270 exam as part of the MCSA so I figured that most of the subject for 70-271 will be covered by the revision I did for this. Although i'm planning on buying the exam cram books for these exams before I have a go.
I support XP already and have done plenty of work in the office applications and setting up internet explorer, so i'm hoping neither exam will be too stressful. Good luck everyone.

 

Hey,

I did this cert about 2-3 months ago. I did primarily as my start to Microsoft qualifications and intend to use it as a stepping stone to the MCSA. It is a handy qualification to have, but I do not think it is worth as much as the Windows XP exam required for the MCSA (I think it is 270??).

One thing I did find with these exams was that they are very very fiddly to answer questions. For example a question may come up about how to change network settings. If you are sitting in front of an XP box it is very easy, but now imagine you are not, and you have to describe to someone exactly how to get there.... This also causes problems if you have been running XP for a while, because unfortunately there are many routes to get to certain items, but the exams want you to know the "Microsoft" way and that alone... (A great example of this is that I along with many others turn off the annoying control panel default view, which the exam wants to test you on!)

Also I still can not believe Microsoft can advocate that Windows XP Professional can be installed on a 300Mhz system with 64MB of RAM and a 2GB hard disk...

Also had a lot of questions about firewalls and dns which was a little off putting...

But anyways - worth having in my opinion!

 

Hi,

I've just started studying for the MCDST and have set up an old PC that is right on the min spec and much to my suprise it does run without too much hassle. Ok, installing it took an age and the start up takes a while but when your just using it to play about with settings and not attempting to run anything major on it its fine. And it saves screwing around with my main PC at home (or at work for that matter).

 

It can be installed on these specs though I certainly wouldn't recommend it. Even Microsoft state that you should really have 128MB RAM. For testing and messing around with settings then using it on this spec PC is fine but as soon as you start to launch applications and such then you will really struggle to use it efficiently.

 

hi, could you tell me the no. of questions and duration of each exam? and could you take both exams on the same day.

cheers!

 

The number of questions and duration changes as far as I know. Although exam 70-272 is shorter than 70-271 in both questions and duration.

 

Hey guys,

I am currently studying for my 70-271 exam - how long did it take you guys to take in the material?? I know it will vary person to person but just wanted some idea?

Thanks,
Lee.

 

This is one thing that just drives me batty about all certification exams. Why stress the route you get to a wizard? There are so many important concepts to be covered, and so much time is wasted on memorizing specific paths to wizards and configuration settings as if they were the most important things there are to learn. It makes no sense to me.

 

Lee, it took me roughly 3-4 weeks from start to finish using the MCDST exam cram book to do the 70-271 exam. I passed first time and thought it was pretty easy. Doing the A+ first probably did help a lot as well because a lot on the A+ exam is in the 70-271 exam. I had bigger problems with 70-272 the second exam you have to pass because it's heavily geared towards Exchange and we use Lotus Notes (Which I really hate as it's crap ) so I found that exam much harder.

 

Man thats quick!!! I know this will vary person to person but how many hours per night studying did you put in and how long did the 70 272 material take you to learn?

Thanks
Lee