70-290 Pass Rate

[ryanthelion84]

Hey All,

Anyone who has sat this exam recently, is the pass rate still 85% ???

Again, for those of you that have sat it recently, how many questions did each of you get on your exam, im trying yo work out if it varies or if it is pretty consistent?!

Thanks!

Ryan

[Sparky]

You need to get over 700 points mate, think there was 40(ish) questions when I took the exam.

[Tinus1959]

As far as I know the passrate for ALL MS exams is 700 points. The 85% is most likely from Transcender or something like that.
The idea is: If you can jump 7 feet during study, you will likely jump 6 feet doing the real test.

[ryanthelion84]

85% is the pass rate associated with the MeasureUp practice exams on my MS Press CD....

I guess its difficult to work out what 700 points is as a % when the # of questions differ from exam to exam, wherby some questions carry more points than others!

Ah well, I guess if I'm hitting the 85% mark by the time the 20th May (Exam Day!) comes around i can be reasonably confident.

Anyone remember how many of their Q's were simulations? I have always been more confident in recalling knowledge from memory with a visual aid rather than text, and probably 50% of the MeasureUp Q's I've got wrong so far are ones where you have to put a series of steps in order (you do not have to use all steps) which i can imagine are the ones that have been translated into sims now! (Well hopefully! )

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by ryanthelion84

Anyone remember how many of their Q's were simulations? I have always been more confident in recalling knowledge from memory with a visual aid rather than text, and probably 50% of the MeasureUp Q's I've got wrong so far are ones where you have to put a series of steps in order (you do not have to use all steps) which i can imagine are the ones that have been translated into sims now! (Well hopefully! )

3 or 4, took the exam a while back so cant quite remember

[ryanthelion84]

Interestingly that seems to be about the same amount as I am getting of those 'list these steps in order' type questions i get in every 45 question set in the measureup practices so im hoping its them that have been coverted to sims as they are the one that i am stuffing up 50% of the time!

[alfa145]

I'm not expecting an exact answer but roughly how many questions are in the 70-290 and how long does it take?

[Modey]

Have a look through some of the older posts in this sub-forum, there will be plenty were people have just passed and mentioned some basic details like how many questions and sims etc.. From memory I had 3 or 4 sims, but like Sparky it was a while back.

edit:

From the post I made when I passed the 290.

Took my test this morning, passed with 835 in 65mins.

I had 42 questions, about 4 or 5 were sims (actually looked liked being on a server). I also had a few, click the correct boxes / areas shown in the work area, or drag the appropriate things from the left etc...

[Chriseast1]

Did mine a month ago. Pass is a 700 and it took me about a hour and a half inclueding reviewing several questions. I had 4 sims in mine. Interestingly one of the sims was asking me to do the exact same thing as the question before it so it was like getting a two for one on those.

[ryanthelion84]

Be interested to know how many of you passers used MS Press books and nothing else, but still passed....did you find the exam easier than the practice questions provided by MS Press?

[Modey]

I went through the Learnkey video training for the 290, took notes while I did that. I already had plenty of hands on experience with server 2003 at the point I did the exam anyway, which obviously helped. Just before the exam I used Transcender to make sure I was up to speed and check any weak areas. No books for the 290, sorry.

[Tinus1959]

Originally Posted by ryanthelion84

Interestingly that seems to be about the same amount as I am getting of those 'list these steps in order' type questions i get in every 45 question set in the measureup practices so im hoping its them that have been coverted to sims as they are the one that i am stuffing up 50% of the time!

MeasureUp (MU) works in a bit different way than the real exams. The latest MUs also use real sims.
1. In MU every subject will be checked equally on the test. In real exams that does not has to be the case.
2. MU just picks the questions from a random pool. If from a certain subject the number of questions is small, you will likely get the same questions over and over again.
3. Don't use MU to often. After 3 or 4 times you are not really measuring what your (gain in) knowledge is, but more how good you are at remembering questions.

[Tinus1959]

Originally Posted by ryanthelion84

Be interested to know how many of you passers used MS Press books and nothing else, but still passed....did you find the exam easier than the practice questions provided by MS Press?

Just passing the test by reading the book is exactly the opposite of Microsofts goal. MS focusses on at least 6 months of practical knowledge, not only book knowledge. See the test as a proof of your knowledge and experience, not a proof of how good you are at remembering all dry theoretical stuf from the book.

[ryanthelion84]

With Regards to MU I have been keeping my pool of questions small so far (so have definately not encountered all of the 300 questions in the bank), have not been looking at answers to those i got incorrect, and have asked it to exclude questions i have got right in future practices, so hopefully i am getting as clear a view as is possible given the restraints.

As for experience, i have varying levels of knowledge in server administration and management, from NT to 2000 to 2003 from jobs i have had in my 5 years in the industry. There are however, areas i have never been exposed to at all, and other general bits of knowledge that i simply did not know. The certification thus far has been informative and has filled in a lot of these areas.

As for remembering stuff from books, that is my main criticism of ALL exams, they test you're ability to store knowledge to be recalled later be it learnt through reading or practical means, not your ability to think on your feet - find me a highly paid network administrator who doesnt have to turn to a book or google occasionally to recall, for examples sake, the exact syntax he requires for the command line tool he only ever uses once in a blue moon...

[Tinus1959]

Very true. Nobody can know everything, so even the cracks sometimes have to use the knowledge of others.
In that view, using MS press as the only learning object is an my view not possible. Using MS Press as the guide to the exam, but with realtime experiance has been done in the passed. You're talking to one. As MCT I do not always have the possibility to get to the practcal standard MS likes. Many times the real product isn't even out long enough to get to that point so I have to rely on books and beta versions of the product. MS press turned out more than enough in most cases. Personally I use more than one publisher for a product. What I do not get from one, I will get from the other. Sybex is good.