Passed 70-272 last Friday ... now a MCDST at long last!

Got 950 on 70-271 and 915 on 70-272.

I really took my time over the content and made sure I was scoring close to
100% in the tests included with the MS Press books. I could have probably
passed a long time ago but it was important to me to make sure that I
actually knew and understood all of the content rather than just knowing
enough to scrape a pass, which is one step up from a paper cert if you ask
me!

On to the MCSA now. Am already half way through the MS Press book for
70-270 and I'm familiar with all the content covered so far (seems to be
very little difference from 271, just more emphasis on domain connectivity)
so I'm not to worried about this one, might get more difficult with the
other 2 MCSA exams though!

There was not really an excuse for me to not pass either .... I've worked as
2nd line desktop support for a good few years and for the last year I've
been working in a MCSA level position.

I'd be happy to share any of my experiences with any other forum users!

Cheers,

Dan - MCDST ;-)
Manchester - UK

 

i'm due to take my 70-271exam next week, i've got the sybex book (
http://tinyurl.com/zrpl9 ) as well as the official Microsoft study
books. I've also bought the CTB nuggets DVD's for the course.. Any
pointers on study tips??
Graham

 

As many say in this NG ... the best advice is just to make sure that you
know the subject matter well and you will be fine.

1 tip I can give is that I find it useful just to run through a lot of the
menus of the key areas (IE, Win Explorer, Control Panel etc) the night
before the exam.

Bit late for you now, but .... I used the official MS Press books and also
the Exam Cram 2 books for both exams. I definitely feel that the MS Press
ones are the most useful, plus the testing engines included are a lot better
and prepare you very well. In the future I will only use the MS Press
ones.

Good luck!

Dan

 

congratulations can you tell me where you find out about the testing centres
i am in london and all i need to find out is where the testing venues are?
many thanks chris

 

Congratulations on your MCDST Dan!

I'm booked in to take the 2 exams next Thursday.
I've been using various Books from friends that have done the course, but
the offcial Microsoft stuff seems best. The online Microsoft E-learning
course has suited me best.
This will be my first Microsoft exam, and despite looking around for info,
I'm still pretty much in the dark as to what to expect on the day (Except
that it's multi-choice) Can anyone tell me how many questions will be in each
of the tests, and am I likely to use the whole of the allocated time for the
exam?

Thanks in Advance
Grant

 

Questions - Varies I think .... generally around the 50 mark.

You should have plenty of spare time. In the 2 exams I have taken so far I
have needed half of the time to get through the questions, then I have spent
about half an hour reviewing the ones I have marked (normally about half)
and finally about 10 minutes going through every question quickly just in
case I have clicked the wrong answer by accident (as I did on the 1st exam,
so it was a prudent policy!). Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the Information Dan - Much appreciated.
I took 70-271 and 70-272 last Thursday and passed them both, so I'm now an
MCDST too!
Like yourself, I now intend to pursue the MCSA qualification. I've clocked
up 7 years of IT Experience, and now need to back this up with some formal
qualifications.
70-270 certainly appears to cover a lot of familiar ground, so I'm hoping I
can pass this one in the next couple of months. 70-290 & 291 look a little
more daunting though as I have limited Server experience...
Thanks again for your help, and good luck with 70-270.
Grant.

 

Congratulations Grant!

That's pretty much the exact same situation I am in, 8 years experience but
no industry qualifications prior to the MCDST.

Reckon I will finish the 70-270 material this weekend so I will book the
exam next week and spend a month going over my notes and hitting the test
exams .... it takes a month to get a test place in my area anyway!

I have the advantage for the MCSA in that I'm now in a server support role,
so I have plenty of opportunity for hands on experience. Time will tell how
well that's stands me!

Again, good luck.

/Dan