June 14, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I took this exam once. It is a bear trying to read through the long scenarios and answer the tough questions in the time allowed. I'm re-taking it the end of this month. I have the training kit, transender and the product to play with unitl then. Can anyone offer any additional advice on how to make it through? I don't want to fail again.
When the snows fall and the white winds blow,The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
June 25, 2007 at 5:09 am
I took the exam last week and I used the following guidelines:
- first thing first learn how to identify the sections of the case study that refer to your question. For example when you get a question about whether you should chose between clustering, replication or mirroring go to the "Availability" section and read it thoroughly. When you get a question about consolidating DBs look in the "security" section to see if there are any DB's which need to separated because of the admin users etc. For a question on backup schedules look in "recoverability" ...I think in the training kit they give advice on how to identify the right section (first case study if i remember well) and this turned out to be the most important thing.
> Some people don't even read the case study but just scroll through it to see what is where, if you are a slow reader you could try that, if you know where to look and what to look for it should be enough.
- look for keywords and know what you're looking for:
eg "the option should provide automatic failover in case of hardware issue with the server or with the storage" > this means you eliminate everything which is not automatic (log shipping, replication...) and then you pick mirroring because clustering (except majority node but this one is not part of the exam) means there is no protection if the SAN goes down since it is shared by all the clustered instances...
Another example: you will have a few questions about scheduling the backup strategy. You need to look for the text which talks about how much data can be lost (1 hour, 2 hours) > it will mean that you need to setup transaction logs every 1 hour etc
Another one: every time you read "a point in time restore is required", don't read any further you will need a Full Recovery mode ...
These are all basic examples you probably know the answers to but I found that 80% of the questions can be answered quickly by just identifying the keywords which help you eliminate the bad answers.
- answer the easy questions first and mark the other ones for review. This will give you points and if you don't have time at least you'll know you didn't miss anything stupidly simple.
- go through all the case studies and / or transcender exams and answer the question in real conditions (timing). If you don't finish, just move on. At the end tyou should have a global view of your weaknesses: which type of questions do you have the most trouble with, which questions you never have the time to look at etc. Go through these over and over until they become automatic.
- if you have little time to study don't waste it on practices. They are definitely the best way to learn but there is no practice in the exam and in real situations you will be able to go back to them if needed.
that's all i can think of
good luck.
June 25, 2007 at 1:21 pm
There's a lot of 'extra' in the scenerio to distract you. Sometimes it pays to read the question, check out the answers, then go to the scenerio where you can look for specific parts of it relating to the question.
-SQLBill
June 25, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Thanks for the help. I am scheduled to re-take it this Friday morning. The extra is definitely a problem. It should not designed to see how fast you can read. This time I will quickly scan each scenario and delve into the questions.
When the snows fall and the white winds blow,The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
June 26, 2007 at 10:28 am
It's really NOT designed for how fast you can read...it's designed to see if you can pick out the important information from the non-important.
-SQLBill
June 26, 2007 at 10:35 am
Ultimately that is true. However, some of us need extra time to do that. I guess you can tell I am not happy with this exam format. I felt really rushed trying to get through each case study in the time permitted.
When the snows fall and the white winds blow,The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
June 27, 2007 at 7:35 am
Well Fizzle, I'll be thinking of you while I'm in there Friday morning as well. 9:00 AM EST and I get the joy of attempting this.
At least, I was able to get a free voucher along with exam insurance on this, so while reading your posts on the test do tend to cause me much consternation, I'm hoping for the best and reading through everyone's "helpful hints" that they keep posting.
June 27, 2007 at 9:07 am
Good luck Terry. If you haven't taken it before, the test is a series of scenarios and each one is timed. After the time expires, you can't go back.
When the snows fall and the white winds blow,The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
June 27, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Good luck as well. I liked this format, and here's what I did.
I would skim the scenario quickly, usually reading the first section (overview?) and then going quickly over the requirements. Ignore the images. Then I'd go to the question and read it carefully and look for what info I'd need. Then go back to the case study and read the requirements (all sections) for those items that apply to the question. Seemed to go fairly quickly for me, but I also wrote the Sybex book on this, so I'd studied the info a lot.
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June 28, 2007 at 3:38 am
Agreed
I found the short scenarios worse than the long ones. The time available for each scenario is proportional to the number of questions. In the ones with more questions I found I had enough time to read over the scenario carefully and still have plenty time for the questions. The first short one I got (3 questions, about 10 min) I used up almost all the time reading over the scenario and had only a min or 2 for the questions.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
June 29, 2007 at 11:32 am
Passed this one today.
I have to agree in that I didn't mind this particular testing method at all. I wasn't crunched for time in the slightest (I think the shortest amount of time I had left for a scenario was about 6 minutes).
It is something which you have to know, or in my case have had to really do some reading and conceptualizing on. It's very difficult to choose clustering methods, high availablity,etc when you're drawing on recalling what books say versus having ever actually used it "on the job."
However it is all definitely interesting concepts that I'm sure will come into practice where I work at some point.
June 29, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I passed this time as well. The trick for me is to avoid reading the scenarios in depth. Scanning them and digging for answers to the questions did the trick. They varied in difficulty. As I recall the hardest one was 2nd to last.
For the most part it is a fair test, but you better know your sql chops! Transender was a huge help.
All the best and good luck to future testers.
Fizz
When the snows fall and the white winds blow,The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.
Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you.
June 29, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Congratulations to you both and thanks for all the info.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie
July 2, 2007 at 7:34 am
from what i remember in the NT4 and 2000 MCSE you have to avoid reading too much in the question and think in Microsoft centric terms
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