Need Great Advise ON MCSE 2003 1

[Jhonnyboy]

Hello Guys, I just attempted to take my 70-290 and I have failed it TWICE ! I read the Microsoft Press Book and have a small lab at home containing of 2003 server with 2 XP clients, went trough evey practice lab in the book and reviewed some test kings stuff.
my failed test scores were 525 and 560 the second time.

I dont know what else to do ??? can someone please help with tips, advise, maybe a better approach ????

thanks to anyone..
Jhonny..

 

[mrmoneymatters]

I like to use Transcender and Self-test. The more the better. It can give you multiple angles to approach a problem. Do you have problems in certain areas?

Network Admin
A+, Network+, MCSA 2000, MCSE 2000

 

[Wishdiak]

Jhonnyboy,

You don't mention using or not using the Microsoft Readiness Review CD that is included with the Microsoft Press MCSE books.

I found that the difficulty of the questions on the Readiness Review CD are on par with the exams themselves, while not focussing on specific questions, but rather the subject matter that is on the exams.

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[Jhonnyboy]

hey mrmoneymatters, to answer your question,
one problem i have is that I dont know what they want with the permissions questions, for example, they will have the exhibit showing the security permissions for a folder,but you can place checks on both the permit and or deny boxes ,
example: "Jhonny must be allowed to modify, read, write and nothing else"

so I check, modify read and write boxes BUT should i check the DENY boxes for all others ? If you actually do this real life scenario, by clicking on the modify box it will automaticly fill in everything except for FULL controll..

Wishdiak: to answer yours,i dont think my book came with the Microsoft Readiness Review CD that your talking about..All i got was the OS 2003 90 day trial.

 

[buddafish]

I second the vote for Trancender / Self Test Software. As you continue to digest information on each exam topic, work these simulation exams. Self Test offers an education mode that will allow you to view answers. This can really help explain the why or why-not to questions. In the end, I have found that if I am not scoring 85-90+ % on these tests, then attempting the real test is a waste of money and mental resources. For me, the 100 for the self test software is easier to swallow than re-sitting an exam.

good luck

scottie

 

[Jhonnyboy]

buddafish,: do you have a few places that you recommend for the transcender/self test software ?

are you talking about

http://www.transcender.com

?

 

[buddafish]

Yes, trancender.com and you can download from the site. Usually about 100 bucks per exam... and i believe self test is at

http://www.selftestsoftware.com.

Againk usually about 100 bucks per.

Check this out:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/2ndshot/details.asp

Interesting.

It is possible to pass an exam by "cramming" the trancenders, but todays exams are comming at you from an interactive angle that requires knowledge of the "concept" and the ability to work towards an answer with a few variables defined. As you are probably aware from taking the 290 -

good luck

scottie

p.s. i really like the sybex books ... much better than ANY microsoft press book... just my opinion ~

 

[SimonDavies]

I also sat the exam twice recently, the first time I got a score of 678, the second time (a day later) I got 656.

I had used transcenders, Boson, MOC and vmware to practice. I thought I had passed the first time but knew that if I had failed it would have been because of Groups. Needless to say I failed and Groups were my lowest graded questions.

I practiced for the exam again, knew groups backwards and felt confident to pass the exam again, I sat through the practices again and was averaging 85% so I felt good about passing.

I sat the exam again and I would say that about 85% of the questions were the same as the previous day. Unfortunately I talked myself out of some of the answers that I had given the previous day... which was a mistake I failed (as previously mentioned) but this time I had done alot better on the groups, but dropped points on other areas where I had been very strong the previous day.

Since that day I have changed the books I used, I am now using the MSPress Training Kit's rather than the MOC books, I can't stress enough about the importance of using good training material, get as much as you can. Practice exams, books, Q&A's etc. Practice on what you are weak on, get VMWare on a powerful machine with lot's of ram and you should be able to create a nice and powerful lab on 1 pc\laptop.

I know that when I retake the exam after the two week cooling off period I will do a lot better.

 

[aftertaf]

jhonnyboy, justa point on the permissions thing you mentioned:

the ticking of allow/deny is part of the attribution of rights, and this is just the exam testing you on your knowledge of this... judging by your confusion, you might not be squared up enough on permissions.
Have you had any hands on experience with windows 2000/2003? if not, set yourself up a practise lab.


Aftertaf

"Solutions are not the answer." - Richard Nixon

 

[mrmoneymatters]

jhonnyboty, aftertaf is right about the permissions. You should remember one thing, Microsoft recommends never to deny permissions unless absolutelty necessary. They usually want to know what minimal permissions to assign so someone can do their job and nothing else.

A lot of questions will be stated like: a folder has been shared called ShareA and everyone is given full control share permissions. You need the users in the accounting security group to have read and write permssions to this folder and nobody else should have access. What do you do? Go into the security permission "ntfs permissions" and remove the everyone group, add the accounting security group and grant them read and write access.

Remember, when using share and ntfs permissions the result is the least restrictive. Just because the everyone group has "share" full control permissions the only group to have ntfs permissions is the accouting group, so they are the only ones to gain access.

Network Admin
A+, Network+, MCSA 2000, MCSE 2000

 

[raulb]

Try

http://www.actualtests.com

The $99.00 lifetime subscription fee is well worth it.

 

[prdemon]

aftertaf, what would be an ideal LAB? i have windows2000 advanced server,win 2000pro, and win xp pro, i have three computers and im looking to buy a fourth, should i get a server comp, or just set up what i have,two comps are fairly old and one is somewhat new, any advice whould be greatly appreciated, thankx.

 

[Wishdiak]

prdemon,

Whether you're looking to set up a Windows 2000 Server lab or a Windows Server 2003 lab, you'll need one computer dedicated as a domain controller, and your client computer(s) should authenticate within the domain.

A simple lab can be set up with one domain controller and one client. If you have a third computer that meets the minimum requirements for the server OS, you can make it either a second domain controller or a member server.

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[mrmoneymatters]

prdemon - if you can set up a second domain conrtoller I would strongly reccommend doing so. When you study for the infrascructure, ad, and design tests they are asking you questions about networks with as many as 50 sites, multiple domains, and some are multiple forests. Although you can't recreate all those scenarios exactly, it will help you understand the difference and when to use each. I think you should focus more on the server side than the desktop side, that is if you want your MCSE.

Network Admin
A+, Network+, MCSA 2000, MCSE 2000

 

[SimonDavies]

I would also suggest investing in VMWare and a powerful desktop machine with plenty of processing power and ram, you can use VMWare to emulate a real life machine, it has all of the same components that a real machine does but unlike a real machine doesn't have an actual footprint.

Ideal for creating multiple dc's, forests, sites etc.

One thing to know about VMWare and virtual sessions, the amount of ram per session is deducted from the available ram in real life, basically that means that if you have 512mb ram in your PC you can only really build one dc@256mb ram and one xp-pro workstation @64mb. Ideally you would want 1gb+ in the system, have plenty of hard disk space and that's about it. The good thing with VMWare is that it allows you to play with Basic and Dynamic disks, Stripe Sets, Raid5, Mirrors etc... even if you only have one actual physical disk in your host machine.

Good luck with your studying.