Forget Testout and maybe Kaplan for 70-290, just failed it

admin

Ick, well, I failed an IT exam for the first time... the 70-290. I've already passed NT4 server and workstation a few years back, and A+, Network + and Security+ along with Windows 2000 professional but... I guess I was bound to fail one sooner or later.

Anyways... I studied for two months with Test Out, I??ve been passing every module, I downloaded the Kaplan demo test and got all 5 questions right.

I reviewed all the hundreds of ?°facts?± from the ?°contents?± section of Test Out for about 3 hours before the test and I knew all the facts listed (or just about all of them)?? but, I failed the test.

Basically, 50% of the test concentrated on facts and points that were not reviewed in the Test Out modules. IIS questions yes, Backup Questions yes, user account and simulations yes but?? almost each time I read the question I said to my self?? I did not learn this!

Seriously, about 50% of the exam questions were not familiar to me. It wasn??t as if I said, ?°oh, I know this?? but I can??t remember?± ?? it was more like ?°what the heck are they asking me??±

The simulations seemed unnecessarily complex with each one requiring you to do three, four, or five different things, I was incomplete on 6 simulations.

I went back over each simulation question, wrote down each requirement, slowly, methodically, checked off each requirement as I did it, clicked ?°done?± ??. I was still incomplete on 6 of them.

For example?? one question wanted me to insure the new user had the same settings as ?°Amy?±, I copied Amy??s profile, I created the account with the same full first name last initial as asked, added the new user to the sales group as asked, made the new user password "Password123" as asked, and set the account to require a password change as asked, ?? that is what the question asked me to do?? it was still marked incomplete.... very frustrating!

There were also the typical Microsoft ?°depends on how you look at it?± type questions and the trick questions (where if you reread the question three times you can figure out the trick) and the preferred method vs. the least administrative effort vs. the two other ways you 'would' resolve the problem in the real world type questions but... every MS test has those.

What really sucks is... if I would have been tested on what I was taught with Test Out, or what I do 5 days a week (I've been a local network admin for just over 2 years managing servers, backups, user accounts, etc) I would have passed with flying colors... instead I was just under the 700 needed to pass.

I??m going to try transenders this time.