Am I Missing Somthing?

[clickmike]

Okay, I have been doing this IT thing for some time now and I thought it would be adventageous to get my certifications. I was referred to Trainsignal by another IT Pro who got his certifications.

I started doing the practice exam via Transcender provided by Trainsignal and I couldn't even answer the first 15 questions right, none of the info was covered via the video or any kind of workbook or anything.

Am I missing something?

The material advertises the exact exams that you should be able to write but I couldn't. For example, I just finished the Windows 2003 - Infrastruture Training Package and I started doing the 70-291 practice exam and it was nothing short of a train wreck.

Should I even start listing examples?

- Class A, B and D IP ranges are not covered.
- System Key Password recovery
- etc.

There are more questions that seem to be outside the scope of this training but maybe I am misunderstanding something...here is the exact quote from the website...

Complete Exam Coverage for "70-291 and 70-293" This course covers all of the bases required for you to pass the exam!

I would like to pass these exams the first time, any pointers would be welcome. Don't get me wrong, I am not here to criticize but here only to find answers.

Thanks,
Mike

[Lisa]

Hey Mike,

Don’t forget that the Transcender test prep product does not have exact exam questions. It's a tool to help you understand the areas you need to work on. So, if you're not doing well in a particular area, or question, you can determine that you need work in that area, before you sit the exam.

If you're having some problems answering some questions that means the prep exam is working! You can take the practice exam as many times as you need to cover the range of knowledge you will need to sit the real exam.

If you find an answer you need more explanation on you can Google it if you feel you need more information. However, you really shouldn’t need more than the explanations that Transcender offers. They do a great job of telling you why answers are wrong or correct. With the foundation that our course provides, in conjunction with the Transcender, you should be able to catch on to the explanations pretty quickly.

Our courses do offer Complete Exam coverage in such that they are not brain dumps; we don't provide the test questions and answers to only those specific questions. Our course and the practice exam are meant to work in tandem to give you a "thinking-man's" ability to work through problems, not just memorize questions and answers.

Please post back if there are any specific topics you need help with.

Good luck on the test and let us know how you did.

[clickmike]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the response.

I purchased the study notes from Transcender and the information that both Trainsignal and Transcender cover is almost identical, yes Transcender added some more info but with the essential stuff it's basically all the same.

You had mentioned that Transcender adds more info because they aren't a brain dump but maybe my strategy is all wrong because their exams are kind of throwing me for a loop.

I was breaking all the info down into complete modules for each exam. So, I would review the videos, and the study notes for 70-291 and then I would do the exam. BUT, I wouldn't do so well because more than half the exam seemed to focus on security, more of the content you would expect to see in 70-299.

Is that really how the exam is going to be? I had all the infrastruture stuff nailed but I wasn't expecting the security stuff...at least not yet.

For those who have taken the exams and used Transcender as a study guide, how did it compare? Are the exams really a mixed bag with no real focus for any topic?

*****
Change of strategy if this is really the case...

Is it better to cover ALL the require material for the MSCA before writing any of the exams rather than breaking it down into bite size chucks and topics related to each exam?

*****

Thanks,
Mike

[texasit]

The Transcenders are harder than the actual exam from what I have experienced.So if you can get a 90 on the transcenders you should do fairly well on the exam.Everyone I know who used the transcenders scored higher on the actual exam.Some of the exam topics overlap as you may see the same topic covered in another exam just more in depth.The trainsignal videos are good but I would still use the mspress book to review trouble areas.Just don't read the mspress books cover to cover if you don't need too ;).
good luck with your tests.