MCTS 70-431 Down but not out!
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Hi All,
I failed the MCTS earlier this week mainly on the simulations. It doesn't help that I am in a developer role using SQL Server 2000 at the moment either!
I have been using the self-paced training kit and I found the multiple choice questions in the exam pretty straight forward.
I need to be able to know how to do everything in SSMS. I feel a DBA who was using SS2k5 everyday would find the simulation quite easy however I am hoping you guys could recommend some resources I can use at home to help me get up to scratch on the system?
Thanks.
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Adam,
sorry to hear that and hope you do better next time.
I think the big thing is to get a copy of Dev edition or the 180 trial and then practice doing the adminitrative stuff on your machine. Most of the stuff isn't hard, but you want to practice it a few times and implement it for real on a test system. I'd recommend getting one of the books that have been written and be sure you actually go through the exercises in SSMS, not just on paper.
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Hi, thanks for your kind reply. I have got the 180 day Enterprise Edition and have ran through the majority of the labs out of the self paced training kit.
However, many of the scearnios that appeared in the test I hadn't covered off before.
It's difficult to 2nd guess what will be asked and therefore hard to focus studying to any specific area.
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I would recommend putting up the $50.00 for SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition. It is well worth the investment!
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I just took the 70-431 exam today and failed. My primary job responsibility is a Systems Administrator and I maintain both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 databases. Since most of my experience is not in databases, I found this exam to be very challenging. From the test results I could tell I did well on the non-simulation questions, but I had a lot of difficulty with the performance based simulation questions. As for studying for the exam, I used the 70-431 training guide and practice questions. I think what I really need to go back and do is the practices for setting up indexes, triggers, backups, log shipping, etc. within SSMS. I think I will also try the Transcender simulation exams because I've read other posts in which it helped people pass the exam.
I really like that Microsoft had the simulation questions, but I disliked the fact that the help was disabled in the GUI. In a real world scenario on the job, I would have SQL Server Books Online and Technet at my disposal. I've never found a problem I could not solve by just doing a little research.
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After reading a seperate post in this forum I decided to purchase the 70-431 exam from Transcender. I found that the questions are much more relevant to the exam. And a lot more relevant than the MS training kit!
I haven't looked at the transcender program in detail but I was a little dissapointed it didn't have any of the simulations on there.
So it's back to running through the labs from the training kit..!
I agree it's not too much like the real world when it comes to the simulations and disabling the help....however, it stops ppl picking up a book, reading it cover to cover and then passing the test. Something I know MS was keen to step away from...
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Good to know about the Transcender practice test; I'm getting my job to pick up the tab for that. I rescheduled my exam for May 18th, so I plan to thoroughly go over all of the practice scenarios in the training kit before I take the test again.
Adam, When are you going to take the test again? Hopefully we can both make a post that we passed next time around!
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Ha, nice idea Eddiez!
May the 18th is a little too soon for me....like I say I need to go through the transcender exams throughly and back through the self-paced training kit labs in detail.
I will certainly add a new post to this thread once I am booked back up!
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Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention. Most of the practices in the Training kit are performed using SQL statements. This is different than the test; the test makes you do everything through the GUI.
Good luck on your next exam Adam!
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Yeah tell me about it! How I you going to prepare for the GUI simulations?
Good luck in your exam as well!
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I passed the 70-431 using Transender and the training kit. It is a hard but fair test. Wish I could say the same for 70-443! It helped that I started with SQL 6.5.
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.
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I passed last week and this was definitely a hard exam. Broad coverage of lots of topics, so be sure you know the product pretty well. Also the simulation sections are tough, but pay attention to what you can , and more importantly, cannot do.
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Can someone give an example of simulation question..???
Thanks in advance..
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No one's going to gve you an actual question from the exam. It's against the non-disclosure rule.
When I wrote 431 there were no sims in it, but I had them before on my windows server exam.
The sims I did in that were fairly straightforward tasks. Something like create a login and give select rights on a particular table in a particular db.
You have to know the interface and where to go to do what.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverabilityWe walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass -
i thought 431 was the most difficult exam on the DBA certification.
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