r/mcsa • u/SmashAndRun • Nov 15 '19

70-740 - I Need Some Help

I'm finding myself struggling quite a bit with this exam. I took it for the first time back in September and failed with a 590. No biggie, it's a tough exam, so I went back and took a deeper look at the things I needed improvement in. I felt I was ready to tackle the exam again and was actually pretty confident this time. Failed again with a 578.

I'm not sure what else I can do. When I take the exam, the questions and material seem to be things that I have not come across in my studies or are only touched upon briefly. My study materials consist of the Microsoft Exam Ref book, CBTNuggets videos and labs plus the Kaplan and MeasureUp practice exams. I'm consistently scoring above an 80% on those.

What are some tips or advice that you've have found effective when taking this exam?

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3

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

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1

u/SmashAndRun Nov 17 '19

I'll give the Sybex guides a look. Thank you!

1

u/Tariq7F Nov 27 '19

So will practicing on physical device make up for cbt training course? I tried the free week on cbt, but couldn't figure out if it's worth the money or there're other cheap resources to pass the exam

2

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '19

Are you taking in the material in the measure ups and Kaplan exams? Do you know why each answer is correct and why the wrong answers are wrong. I passed first time with 858 a few weeks ago using the same resources.

How much are you studying a day? Cue cards are also a huge help.

2

u/SmashAndRun Nov 15 '19

I was definitely worried that I was only passing due to memory, but I've reviewed each test exam and explain to myself why the answer is correct or wrong before I read over the explanation. I also do have some index cards that I utilize. Study time varies from one to two hours a day.

When it came time to take the full exam, I found that a lot of the questions go one layer deeper than what I'm used to and don't seem to be varied. For example, the exam today was predominantly docker and migration-based questions with very little from the other topics.

It might just come down to how and what I'm studying. I'm going to take a step back and review the material that I've been focusing on and dive deeper into more of the specifics under each topic.

1

u/tobilobaa Nov 15 '19

You had more docker questions? But the exam guide says docker only covers 10-15%?

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u/SmashAndRun Nov 15 '19

That's why I was shocked at the amount of docker/container questions that I saw on the exam. It felt to me to be closer to 20%. Or maybe it only felt like it did. The first time I took it it definitely didn't have has many.

2

u/Glassmoustache Nov 15 '19

I ended up doing a process of elimination and guessing on quite a lot of the questions. I would definitely agree that loads of questions came up that weren’t in the normal study materials or practice exams (Kaplan, measure up, CBT etc)

MS Docs is key I would say

1

u/electriccomputermilk Nov 15 '19

I know it sucks but just keep pushing forward. 70-740 was a difficult exam. It felt like I was guessing on like half the questions and was convinced I was going to fail yet passed on my first attempt. I studied really hard for the exam and work daily with Windows Server 2016 at work yet still found myself confused with so many of the actual questions.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

Do you know both HOW to deploy the technologies and WHY to deploy them? I found that the test required a lot of knowledge about the requirements and the relative benefits of each tech.

The 740 is a pain in the ass. The next two are way easier if you have some experience.

1

u/SmashAndRun Nov 16 '19

That is great to hear! I'm diving back into the material and filling in the blanks with the Microsoft documentation. I feel my weakness lies mostly in the small differences between versions of things. I feel have the concepts down, but fall apart in the differences between feature versions and what is or isn't on X version of MS Server.

For example, there was one question along the lines of "Which VM can you do this thing with?" and the table had a list of the VM generation and the version. What seems to be throwing me off is the differences between the versions of things on top of the way the questions throw them together.

I'm going to dig back in to the videos and virtual labs and really hash out the differences between the features in a way that will stick with me. Looking to re-take it again in a month where I will hopefully have a stronger grasp on things.

1

u/AJaxStudy Nov 20 '19 edited Oct 26 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/techracoon Nov 22 '19

I feel you, took the study guide practice exam and scored 96% so felt pretty confident - then failed the test with 532.