Anyone here taken the MS 83-640 exam?

[Fonz-Valo]

Hi all,

First of all I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section, If it is can a mod please move it?

I'm going to be taking the 83-640 - Configuring Active Directory exam in a couple of weeks and I have a few questions about it that I hope some of you can help with.

I know this is is essentially the 70-640 exam except with 2 labs as opposed to just questions but I have a few concerns regarding it.

From experience how reliable are these labs? I've been looking around and I'm reading so many horror stories of how the labs will just lock up and sometimes not load at all and so are failing the exam or having to rebook it numerous times.

I'm not as bothered about having to rebook as I am failing the exam due to an unreliable lab setup

Also what is the best way to practise for the lab side? I work with Active Directory every day at work and have a couple of VM's setup at home but there is only so much I can look at. Is there anything in particular I should look at to prep for the exam?

I've been spending a lot of time looking at DNS as that is one area that I know I'm quite weak in but other than that I'm not sure what else to spend time on....

Thanks a lot

 

[MattU]

I've passed this exam. I can't give you any reassurance on the reliability though, as the first time I tried it the lab would not even start so I had to rebook 2 weeks later. This was at a Prometric centre in Leeds.

The labs are quite easy and only took me about 10 minutes per lab to do around 7/8 tasks in each.

These were the tasks people have had previously, taken from various forums:

Change the cost to the DefaultIPSiteLink
Configure all Intersite Transport to Ignore Schedules for IP and SMTP
Disable Site Replication on Sunday
Enable Global Catalog on DC
Enable Universal Group Membership Caching in a Site (site settings object)
Set Replication interval to 15 minutes for DEFAULTIPSITELINK
Create a RODC
Grant delegation control for IT Group from Sales OU to reset User password
Raise Functional Level to 2008
Set the Description in the Sales OU
Set the Sales Global Group to a Universal Group
Set DSRM password using NTDSUTIL
Allow Zone Transfer using specific IP address
Conditional Forwarding
Configure DNS Debugging
Configure New Zone DNS Delegation
Disable DNS Round Robin and Recursion
Prevent DNS from transferring Bad Data
Set DNS Scavenging to 8 Days
Add a task to Event Viewer
Disable User Configuration Settings for GP
Edit Default Domain Policy to Audit Success-Failed Logon Events
Enable interactive logon – Do not display last name
Link GPO to the Sales OU
Set password cache to 12
Enable PostalCode attribute to replicate to all GC servers
Change Replication scope to replicate only to forest DNS servers
Apply Read and Enroll Permission to EFS Key Recovery Certificate for ITSales Group
Block Inheritance in the sales OU
Create a new DNS Primary zone called Fabrikam.net that must be replicated on all Domain Controllers
Remove DC3 (RODC) from the Domain and export info to c:\rodcuser.txt

Hope this helps.

 

[Spammeh]

I'm hoping to take this exam in the next couple of months, I'd appreicate it if you gave some feedback etc when you've done the exam please Fonz! I'm kinda going in blind!

 

[squerble]

I understand none of that.

I guess I will need to learn a lot if I want any chance of progressing from IT Technician?

 

[Teledude]

Taken and passed a few weeks ago - labs are very unreliable but luckily the third PC I tried in the test centre worked - as above as long as you've been using 2008 for a while and/or read all the dumps you'll be fine

 

[Fonz-Valo]

@ Mattu
Thanks for the information, the list of past tasks will come in handy

@ Teledude
Well i'm just glad it is quite a quiet test centre that I go to (Leek) so if the problem I have is machine based there will be at least another 5 PCs I can try lol.

I'll post back when the exam is over, If I pass I will be a MCITP - Network Administrator Just need to revise hard now lol

Thanks for the information guys

 

[Fonz-Valo]

Taken and passed a few weeks ago - labs are very unreliable but luckily the third PC I tried in the test centre worked - as above as long as you've been using 2008 for a while and/or read all the dumps you'll be fine

Right so I take this exam on Friday, I'm feeling a bit more confident about it but still really nervous about it.

How does the lab system work visually? do you have the current question on the screen permanently whilst in the lab? I'm just trying to get my head around what to expect as I can't find much information on the actual lab setup

I just hope things go well on Friday and there are no technical issues or any questions to severely trip me up....

 

[Showboat]

There is little difference in 2003 and 2008, if you can do the stuff in 2003, you will get through the 2008 lab, learn some of the new stuff to be sure.

 

[randomshenans]

The above list is pretty spot on really, it's not a hard lab at all. I managed to get mine working at the 2nd computer and had no issues. They are either going to be AD, DNS, CA sort of questions really and it's plenty of time to get them done in the time that you have!
It is like running a VM kinda, you get the question on the side that you can slide in and out when you forget what they asked for and where you are working is like a real machine. As long as you know your way around then you should be fine.

 

[DiscoDave]

I'm trying to book my 83-640 exam via prometric and every time I try and book I get greeted with a "Sorry, you cannot book your exam at this time, blah blah blah"

Phoned them and they say there are some major issues with the exam at the moment. I was hoping to take it this weekend..

 

[Fonz-Valo]

It is like running a VM kinda, you get the question on the side that you can slide in and out when you forget what they asked for and where you are working is like a real machine. As long as you know your way around then you should be fine.

That is exactly what I wanted to hear
Thank you for clearing that up.


Fingers crossed for Friday!!!

 

[hooj]

I'm trying to book my 83-640 exam via prometric and every time I try and book I get greeted with a "Sorry, you cannot book your exam at this time, blah blah blah"

Phoned them and they say there are some major issues with the exam at the moment. I was hoping to take it this weekend..

I'm well known at my testing centre as my 83-640 exam took me 4 attempts to even complete! Basically the VM part of the exam is so unstable. I got to the end of the second lab and the exam froze not once, but twice. Other times my session wasn't booked on the VM servers. Still got a free exam out of it, so not all bad.
I was told last week that they were expecting a fix for the exam this week, so maybe that why it's not available at the moment.

 

[Fonz-Valo]

Hey guys!

I took the exam this afternoon and didn't have a single technical issue with it!

Best of all... I passed it with 966/1000 It was a lot easier than I expected with a lot of the tasks being things I do on a day to day basis.

Thanks for all the help guys