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Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 3/29/2008
Posts: 3
Points: 9
Location: Telford, UK
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Hi - my first post here.
I am scheduled to take the 70-282 in a couple of weeks (11th April) and I feel I am generally well prepared - ha, I'll see if I am right in that on 11th!
I have good SBS-centric experience, and I have studied well. I know I am not yet strong enough on the WS2K3 side, so have scheduled some time to play with it, install, break, fix, etc.
One thing has become clear - the need to understand how questions are formed, how to extract the essential objectives, think MS, suspend reality, etc. I have worked through lots of practice questions, but I am missing some test basics: what is the scoring method used in the tests, and what is the pass mark?
Steve
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Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration
Joined: 1/9/2008
Posts: 71
Points: 213
Location: Melbourne, FL
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Hi spm
The score is 70% - the exam uses a score of 1000 so the bar is passes at 700 or higher.
Some questions score more points then others, based on their level of difficulty.
The way questions are formed! Microsoft is trying to get away from the lengthy question scenarios and shorten the text. Let me know what you encounter in your exam on the 11th.
Here is a sample question I used today at the examcram at SMB Nation East in New Jersey:
Your network consists of a single Active Directory domain. All network servers run Windows Server 2003R2. A member server named MemberServer1 hosts several hundred folders which reside in various locations on the server. MemberServer1 is configured to run a copy backup of the folder every Saturday at 1:00 A. M. On Tuesday, you are directed to schedule an additional backup job for all files on MemberServer1. The job must run the following day at 1:00 A. M. You need to use the Backup utility to ensure that the backup job runs on Wednesday at 1:00 A.M., and that the normal backup schedule resumes afterward. You must achieve this goal by using the minimum amount of administrative effort. What should you do?
A. Specify Wednesday as the start date of the job. On Thursday, specify Saturday as the start date.
B. Configure the job schedule to perform the backup every Wednesday at 1:00 A. M. On Thursday, reconfigure the schedule to perform the backup every Saturday at 1:00 A. M.
C. Use the Show Multiple Schedules option to add an additional schedule to the job. Configure the additional schedule to run the job once on Wednesday at 1:00 A. M.
D. Use the Repeat Task option to configure the existing job to repeat at every 96 hours until an interval of 168 hours passes
Most people went for answer "C" as it appeared to be the one with the least administrative amount of effort. Actually the correct answer is "B". Go back for a second and re-read the question, look carefully at the third sentence. It says "hosts several hundred folders which reside in various locations on the server." It's easy to blow right over that and think that you got an easy question, marking "C" and moving on knowing happily that you bagged this one. Not focusing and picking out what seem to be small details - this makes or breaks the test. Many times the question will provide you clearly with the answer, but we chose to employ a sort of "selective" reading and tend to skip right over this stuff.
Hope this helps and remember to stay focused during the exam!
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 2/20/2008
Posts: 37
Points: 14
Location: Illinois
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Regarding exams... I finally purchased my first Trancender practice exam about a week ago. (Not for SBS) The Trancenders are expensive @ $159 and I had been using several other less expensive practice tests. I have found the Transcender to be the absolute closest to the real thing. The Transcender also has a LOT more questions. I was scoring 90%+ on Preplogic, Microsoft & MeasureUp practice tests so I figured I was ready for the real exam and I failed big time. There were several questions in the real exam that dealt with subject matter that was not in the practice tests or my 3 books - including my Microsoft Press book. I purchased the Transcender and found it to be MUCH more realistic. After taking my first Transcender practice exam, I received a score similar to my failed exam. I was happy with the result because now I have found a test that is realistic and I have much better idea of what to study. The Transcenders will explain your wrong answers in detail so you know why you missed them. 
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 3/29/2008
Posts: 3
Points: 9
Location: Telford, UK
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Thanks Beatrice and Shelby for your help. I will report back after my test on 11th, pass or fail.
I certainly feel for you, Shelby, following your expectations and failed test. I have been using the SelfTest Software, with their 70-282 exam module for practice - does anyone have direct experience of this? I wonder how representative of the real 70-282 exam it really is.
I have also worked through Beatrice and Ron's two online exam prep WebCasts, which I have found particularly helpful - thanks Beatrice.
I am generally confident and competent at taking exams, but this is the first Microsoft exam I will take (indeed, the first exam of any kind I will have taken for many more years than I care to remember!), so I am finding it very difficult to assess how well prepared I am/will be. Guess I'll find out on the day, good or bad. Of course, the nearer I get to the exam, Sod's Law has dictated the heavier my day job workload has become, thus reducing the amount of time I'd like to devote to preparation.
Steve
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 2/20/2008
Posts: 37
Points: 14
Location: Illinois
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I have not taken the 70-282 exam yet. I am currently preparing for 3 different exams including 282. I do know that Microsoft has been trending towards tougher exams over the years. Even if you think you know a lot, don't become over confident. I have found that if you take the same practice test multiple times you will tend to memorize the question. That’s a bad thing. That exact question will not be on the exam. You need to learn the material and NOT the practice exam. I like to use multiple practice tests and switch between them. Buy the Trancender practice exam if you can afford it. It will be your best bet. http://www.transcender.comLikewise, I also recommend using multiple books/study materials. I have found that many books fail to cover everything. Using additional sources increases your chances of passing. Unfortunately I only have 1 client using SBS2000 (which I am very familiar with). They plan to go to 2003 in a couple of months. All of my other client’s use Server 2003 Std or Server 2000 Std and even 1 still using NT (Neanderthal technology).
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 3/24/2008
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Location: Mechanicsville, MD
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I just sat the 70-282 exam this morning and passed with a decent score. I used the Trancenders for preperation and although they did help, I found them to be a bit different than what I encountered. Some test areas on the exam were not even covered by the Trancenders, and vice versa. Some answers on the exam are more detailed than the Transcender answers. All in all they did help for test preperation, as well as pointing out many areas of SBS that I had never used in my several years of working with it.
Jeff
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 2/20/2008
Posts: 37
Points: 14
Location: Illinois
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All of the practice tests will be somewhat different than real exams. Microsoft is very strict about making sure that the 3rd party test makers dont duplicate actual test questions.
I do think that Microsoft tends to throw some curve balls at us from time to time. I recently took one of the MCSE exams that had some Visual Basic questions. VB was never mentioned in any of the 3 books I was using. (nothing was in the indexes either). All I could do was guess at those.
I remember that the Practice tests I used for A+ years ago were virtually identical to the real exam. They were word for word the same. I had way over studied. I passed both A+ exams in less than 1/2 hour. (not exaggerating).
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Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration
Joined: 1/9/2008
Posts: 71
Points: 213
Location: Melbourne, FL
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Just to add - no doubt you can't expect to pass an exam studying with a single source. Be it a Microsoft Press or other book, or selftest software. I always use a combination of a book, the technet library, hands-on and depending on the exam also transcenders.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 3/29/2008
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Location: Telford, UK
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I'm pleased to report that I passed the 70-282 exam this morning!
Overall I found the test a little tougher than I expected, but the 3 hours 25 minutes given to complete it were more than generous. There were quite a few areas of my study that were not covered, and more questions on Exchange than I expected (though I consider Exchange to be one of my stronger points, so that was fine for me).
Steve
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Rank: Administration
Groups: Administration
Joined: 1/9/2008
Posts: 71
Points: 213
Location: Melbourne, FL
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Congrats!
3hrs 25minutes is a long time - way to go!
Great job :)
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