MCDST Study materials?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

What study materials did you guys use to pass your MCDST?

I'm looking at 70-271 I have the Microsoft press training book and I have to say I am not impressed with it, I am reading the chapter on Managing and troubleshooting Access to Resources. I have read through the chapter compared the knowledge written in the book to the exam requirements listed on

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-271.mspx#ERD

And I was like WTF? hardly of the information required in written in this section in the book, I then decided to load up the question cd-rom provided with the book and selected to be tested on Access to Resources. Once again I was bombarded with questions not listed in the book.

I feel quite Disheartened the MCDST is looking quite a hard feat to achieve when reading the Microsoft Press book what knowledge am I suppose to be learning? the book isn;t telling me to write anything down is this just guess work? lol

Thanks for you help

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

You'll find that with all the MS Press training kit books that they only cover most of the info and objectives on the exam. This is by design so that you actually have to do some extra research for yourself.

 

Not a bad idea tbh. I've found that you're always better using a combination of resources/methods of teaching.

I myself have started working at the MCDST, and have got myself a copy of both the MS Press Self-Paced kit, and the Exam Cram book. I've got to say, I really like the format of the Exam Cram books, and find them much more accessible than the huge reference bibles.

I'd have a go at the Exam Cram, and the MS Press, and possibly some CBT Nuggets? Might be worth getting yourself the Exam Cram questions and practise tests book (If they do one for MCDST - someone confirm for me?), and topping it all off with a good crack at the Measureup practise tests (they simulate the real thing pretttttyyy well).

It'll work out quite expensive, but not so much so that you'll have to take out a 5 year loan.

Try that option first I say, if you fail, you can always try the other options available to you at a later date.

 

I got the exam cram software ones that come with the books and they are very good well worth the money.

 

Does anyone have access to any decent notes? or a website that contains technotes?

The Ms Press book is absolute rubbish I don't know how anyone can pass a exam just using this book. It is really lacking in topics which are stated on the Microsoft requirement site.

 

You don't pass it using the book alone, do the exam questions on the CD, not the Objective reviews.

You will find, the book is a guide, not a be all and end all for passing the exam, you are actually supposed to work in an proper environment and actually perform the tasks in the press book at some point.

I'm using the press book and the lab book. and just going over the exam questions and measure up practice tests,

 

Western quick question regarding the MCDST,

Managing and Troubleshooting Access to Resources

Monitor, manage, and troubleshoot access to files and folders.
•

Answer end-user questions related to managing and troubleshooting access to files and folders.
•

Monitor, manage, and troubleshoot NTFS file permissions.
•

Manage and troubleshoot simple file sharing.
•


Those are some of the requirements for

Manage and troubleshoot file Access on the Microsoft site what resource are you using to learn about these?

 

I did, for both exams. Of course, the prerequisite experience also helped a little.

 

Then you must be a genius lol

I have followed through the lessons written in the Microsoft Press Book and then have tested myself on the subject area and got my ass kicked.

I have read the same chapter about 2 or 3 times followed the examples, but the information that I am questioned on is not in the book.

 

Far from it. Just experience.

Which chapter are you having trouble with (I don't have my book here right now) and are there any specific questions/problems that you have?

 

lol This is going to sound daft, but the section I plowed through was the troubleshooting access to resources during this chapter you are taught how to create a group etc,

The exam questions I was tested on contained questions on NTFS permissions and encryption I have since located the study material during the later stages of the book.

I take back what I said about the MS Press book I am going to use it to study, I have setup a Homelab with windows XP Pro,

I'm thinking of setting up a blog which will show my adventures on the path to MCDST i will post up useful notes and guides on stuff I have learnt. I will post up the address into this forum

 

I found that a lot of the stuff needed is stuff that you will probably never use again in your life or is of no practical use in knowing by heart. Working in Support now, I can honestly say half of what is needed is simply not the way it would be done in a real world environment.

 

Do it. If you can write it down and have people understand it then it means that you understand it too.

That's the real problem. There are two ways of doing IT, the real world way and the Microsoft way.

 

im currently studying for my A+ and want to follow this with MCDST

I just wanted to ask how difficult MCDST will be once ive completed my A+ and how many hours (Rough Estimate) it takes to complete

Im looking to take my exams within 2 months as im hoping to put a combined total of 100hours to study for my A+

 

If you're working with XP, installing and supporting, and installing and supporting apps on it day in day out and you have been doing so for a good few months, then you could be ready for it.

That said, the MS way of doing things may not be the way you do them, so you'd still want to grab, say the ExamCram books, or the Sybex book to have a look through, as well as some practice questions (such as Transcender).

If you're not really supporting it, or if you haven't really gotten into the nitty gritty of it yet, I would suggest taking a few months, runing XP on your amchine/in your lab at home.

Truth is, only you will know when you're ready.

Best of luck when you do come to study for it.

 

Hello.
First time here!


I know this is a long-shot, but here goes!
I travel over an hour each way to/from work everyday, and feel this is time I could use listening to some podcasts that would help me with my studying for the MCDST. Does anyone know where I could download such podcasts from (and preferably for free!)?

Thanks

 

I have worked slowly halfway through chapter 1 I still have the troubleshooting section to work through. The first section covers upgrading XP, Migration and methods of installing XP after reaching the end of lesson 1 me being curious I decided to test myself and customise the Microsoft test engine to throw at me 30 questions on Installing XP.

I must be taking in the knowledge bearing in mind I have a 2 more lessons to cover in this section I scored 83% which was a fail but not by much lol


Are the Microsoft press practice questions a true indication of the end exam?

 

Congrats I spent far too much time reading everything there was in that book. I have my exam booked up for the start of March.

I personally found that the readiness review suite was damn awful. The pass bar was too high and the questions aren't particularly nice.

CBT + Transcender is the way forward.

Qs

 

I find that the questions you fail at are the best ones. You try even harder to work out the reason you were wrong as you get annoyed by making a mistake. Consider the questions you get wrong not such a bad thing. If i were getting all my questions right i would probably panic.