Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?
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I bought a voucher for 4 retests + 30days practice test from Microsoft/Mindhub.
I wonder if practice test over and over and over and over and over and over... again is enough to pass 70-410~412 (assuming I will tackle one exam per month.
These supposed to be basic Microsoft certs... so I don't think it is any harder than what I do at work anyway. But the ultimate question is do you read exam prep book? Reason I am asking this because First: English is NOT my primary language... Second: English (to me) is a crazy language... Third: I dislike reading these kind of book.
Have anyone used these practice test before? The voucher link me to https://marketplace.measureup.com for practice tests.
No. I don't need these certs to advance in my current job... but the discount was very appealing... now I have to go through with it before it gone to waste.
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Study as hard as you can and use the first attempt to learn where your weaknesses are. That way you know what to study. For me the cert books themselves were great.
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The tests are multiple choice. So, depending on time you could discover every question in the practice exam, guess until you get the answer right, then memorize those things - but really that's pointless and is one of the major reasons these tests are useless.
So sadly yeah you could probably do that - but why bother?
If you're real goal is to learn this stuff, then you need to read the books.
If your goal is just to get a piece of paper, then (again) sadly, you generally just memorize the practice tests.
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I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
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You learn a lot of things by reading the books that you might never run into in day to day support of Windows.
Back when I took the tests the first time, there was a whole section on connecting to linux printers and shares. Without the books, I wouldn't have learned it.
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@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
Think of the test as a reaffirmation of your knowledge. The cert itself isn't that helpful in my experience, but the knowledge is. The past three jobs I've had I needed to take an assessment where they broke stuff and I had to fix it. I don't have a lot of certs. Only one job required me to keep certs renewed and they were for C.A.R.F. accreditation.
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@wirestyle22 said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
Think of the test as a reaffirmation of your knowledge. The cert itself isn't that helpful in my experience, but the knowledge is. The past three jobs I've had I needed to take an assessment where they broke stuff and I had to fix it. I don't have a lot of certs. Only one job required me to keep certs renewed and they were for C.A.R.F. accreditation.
But the paper isn't even that. As I said above, and as the OP specifically asks - you can cheat and never really learn anything - it's the equivalent of teaching to the test.
I did one of those Exam Cram get an MCSE in a week things many years ago. it was like 4-6 tests in 6 days. They gave you an overview and things to memorize for each test... then after someone took it, they were brought into the class and asked to share the things they were asked they didn't know so the rest of the class could be reminded of those things.
Luckily in my case, the classroom time was mostly just a refresher. Already having the previous certs meant only learning the things since the last version. That prior knowledge is what I believe led me to passing all test first time out, but many taking the class didn't.
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@Dashrender said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@wirestyle22 said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
Think of the test as a reaffirmation of your knowledge. The cert itself isn't that helpful in my experience, but the knowledge is. The past three jobs I've had I needed to take an assessment where they broke stuff and I had to fix it. I don't have a lot of certs. Only one job required me to keep certs renewed and they were for C.A.R.F. accreditation.
But the paper isn't even that. As I said above, and as the OP specifically asks - you can cheat and never really learn anything - it's the equivalent of teaching to the test.
I did one of those Exam Cram get an MCSE in a week things many years ago. it was like 4-6 tests in 6 days. They gave you an overview and things to memorize for each test... then after someone took it, they were brought into the class and asked to share the things they were asked they didn't know so the rest of the class could be reminded of those things.
Luckily in my case, the classroom time was mostly just a refresher. Already having the previous certs meant only learning the things since the last version. That prior knowledge is what I believe led me to passing all test first time out, but many taking the class didn't.
Agreed.
@stess Don't make things easier for yourself. You may be able to get a job by doing what @Dashrender mentioned but you'll never be able to keep one. Learn as much as you can. Solidify your knowledge.
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@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
I found the cert process to be the best education that I ever got.
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@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I wonder if practice test over and over and over and over and over and over... again is enough to pass 70-410~412 (assuming I will tackle one exam per month.
Not likely and it would totally defeat the value and purpose of the test. And the person that will lose is you. Get a book, set up a lab and learn all that you can.
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+1 to a lab @stess I can't tell you how helpful it has been for me.
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@scottalanmiller said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
I found the cert process to be the best education that I ever got.
Why? because the cert forced you to learn? Ok that's a poor way of putting it. You wanted the best you could get out of the program, so having the cert at the end the journey to validate your knowledge gained by reading and doing labs was appreciated?
You could have definitely gained the knowledge without the test at the end of the rainbow
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@Dashrender said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@scottalanmiller said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
I found the cert process to be the best education that I ever got.
Why? because the cert forced you to learn? Ok that's a poor way of putting it. You wanted the best you could get out of the program, so having the cert at the end the journey to validate your knowledge gained by reading and doing labs was appreciated?
You could have definitely gained the knowledge without the test at the end of the rainbow
The cert provided me an incentive and a framework for learning things I likely would have otherwise skipped.
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@scottalanmiller said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@Dashrender said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@scottalanmiller said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
@stess said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
I don't think these certs will get me far in my career path. But I do believed that it will help furnish my resume with couple of lines of text.
I found the cert process to be the best education that I ever got.
Why? because the cert forced you to learn? Ok that's a poor way of putting it. You wanted the best you could get out of the program, so having the cert at the end the journey to validate your knowledge gained by reading and doing labs was appreciated?
You could have definitely gained the knowledge without the test at the end of the rainbow
The cert provided me an incentive and a framework for learning things I likely would have otherwise skipped.
Great way to put it.
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For me labs are the most important thing. I can read alot of information, but I will quickly forget it if I do not use any of it hands on. I go through the materials as I progress through the course, but I rarely study from the book itself. After I go through the course and have the experience with the labs, I take practice tests and answer the questions without looking anything up. I then go back to the book and google, then research what I didn't know.
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@IRJ said in Preparing for 70-410~412 exam... Do you read any books or cram practice tests all the way through?:
For me labs are the most important thing. I can read alot of information, but I will quickly forget it if I do not use any of it hands on. I go through the materials as I progress through the course, but I rarely study from the book itself. After I go through the course and have the experience with the labs, I take practice tests and answer the questions without looking anything up. I then go back to the book and google, then research what I didn't know.
I'm the same. Youtube is also a great tool. Just being able to see someone else do it seems to help me a ton.
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@stess Think about how you learned in school. What worked for you and what didn't? Most people are these types of learners:
Auditory - verbal analogies, storytelling, webinars
Visual - pictures, notes, diagrams, mind maps
Kinesthetic - doing what you are attempting to learn
I found it really helpful to know what type of learner I am. When I really need to absorb all of the information of something I'll record myself reading it aloud and play it back to myself, put it into a test environment if possible and also look at diagrams. I think mixing all of them together, provided it's organized, can be really useful even if you favor a specific type of learning.
