Studying for the 70-411 Exam - Doing It...Pretty Well Actually

About a year after failing to pass the Microsoft 70-411 exam, I decided to rewrite it, and scheduled the exam for November 8, 2016. It was a very challenging year, especially trying to find time to study, and there was a lot of self doubt and worry as to whether I could actually pass this exam when I took the rewrite.

Leading up to this, I decided to change my study habits slightly. Instead of working through each book or course all the way through, I decided to tackle the 70-411 exam by objective. I felt that thoroughly studying each point in each objective, using every resource available to me, would be more effective, as I could allow myself the luxury of taking those 'rabbit trails' deeper into each topic. The notes that came out of those sessions are, I feel, thorough enough to write blog posts, or an entire series of blog posts on, and I might just do that.

I also knew that I needed a lot more hands on practice than what was in the books, so I set up a lab environment, and added new servers as required for each objective. The result was a lab environment with about a dozen servers in it. It was nice to have a sandbox to play in and experiment with.

The final piece to the puzzle was the Microsoft Virtual Academy course: Mastering Microsoft Certification Exam Prep. I highly recommend that anyone taking a Microsoft Certification Exam take this course first. The information in this course was quite valuable, and turns out, was the final push I needed.

I got to the point where I knew I needed to at least take an attempt at the exam, pass or fail. If I passed, great! If I failed, at least I would have an idea as to where I needed to focus on in future study sessions. I scheduled the exam, and made a promise to myself that I wouldn't reschedule it.

I did not study at all during the last few days before the exam. I felt I needed to take the brain break, and knew that the additional couple of days of study weren't going to sway the outcome of the exam very much. It was nice to take a couple of days off without the exam stress.

On the test day, I also didn't stress myself about the test. I just told myself that this is just an attempt to gauge my knowledge. Even during the exam I told myself this several times. At the end of the exam, when I clicked the 'Finish' button, I was happily surprised to see the  "Congratulations! You passed!" message on the screen. I must have sat there for over a minute re-reading the message, not quite believing it. To say it made my day would be an understatement.

I am quite happy to see that the couple of changes I made to my study habits made a big difference. Knowing that, I intend to keep using these new methods to study for future exams. I won't say that these methods will work for everyone, but they did work for me. The best I can do, is tell you to find what works best for you, and if you do fail an exam, don't let it take the wind out of your sails.

The next step for me? Taking the third, and final exam for earning my MCSA, 70-412. I must say, I am really looking forward to it!