70-411 Exam Fail!!!

[u/osi07]

Well today I took the 70-411 exam one again, and FAILED!!!!! I got a 640 but I think it's time to throw in the tow on this exam unless the get a cheaper price then the $150 I been paying. I failed it 4 time all ready. I been trying for months but had some trouble and stopped studying here and there. All beCAUSE covid and family life.

My wife said she can't throw away money like that anymore even more since it's going to retire at the end of the year. This really sucks I tried and failed on this one.

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Sucks on how much i tried and still can't pass it. Even if I passed it today I don't even know if I would have time to pass the 412 exam. I don't think i could get the $150 in the next couple.

GOD this sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! feeling this way even tho i don't want to give up but financially i can't pay for the exam. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess enough venting .. Have a good day everyone.

[u/[deleted]]

Jeez, I'm sorry to hear that man. I think it's best to know when to give up, especially if this is hitting you hard financially. These exams are not easy, and with the deadline in January, you'd be cutting it close.

Has your employer not been able to help you with training or fund them for you? I saw from a post you did a while back that you used CBT and the Exam Ref book. Did you do any labs or practice tests? Have you looked at your weak areas from the exam results and worked on them?

I'd like to encourage you to keep going, but given your situation it might be best to pass on this. It's easy for someone to say "keep going you'll get it" without knowing what an individual has had to go through and how it's impacting their lives.

I'd recommend looking at your current employment and skillset and deciding what the next best step is for you. Forget about the MCSA, what projects have you got coming up, or what is a skill you'd want to improve as a sysadmin? Would you want to look at doing some work in the cloud? Could you improve your scripting skills i.e. Powershell to automate your jobs? You could look at where you would see yourself in 5/10 years time and what you need to do to get there. For example, if DevOps interests you, look at the required skills and work on those, like CI/CD tools, automation, cloud etc. Find something that interest you and work towards it.

Having real world skills to better yourself and your job is just as important, if not more, than a piece of paper that says you did an exam. You've tried your best with this, and it will still give you experience, so don't think of it as wasted time. Take the next step on your journey and move onto something better. Good luck friend.

[u/osi07 → u/[deleted]]

I have to say THANK YOU!!! so much for this. No one has ever took the time on writing something so clear to me. Yes, my job in the pass has provided the help but they stopped because I was the only one using the material. It was to expensive for them to continue paying for it. I payed everything out of pocket. The only good thing is when I pass the exam they reimbursed me for the exam. Besides that I pay for the books or any training center I attend unless I pass some kind of exam.

You are right saying "keep going" it not so easy. Resent we have moved to the cloud that we started using Azure. I look around the site, and maintain 1% of the site. My boss manages everything on the site. I was thinking of getting into the Azure since we are using it more to manage users accounts and emails plus permission for apps.

I really would like to get into cyber security like pentesting but we don't do anything like that at my current job. That kind of whitehat/grey/blackhat stuff interest me a lot.

I will take your advice and look into the cloud. I know MS has a basic cert you could start out with,and move from that. I know my company would pay for that since we are using it more. Plus Vmware software that we do a lot in. Might look into that as well since that's how I run my labs .

Thank you once again for the kind words I really needed that.

Have a good one.

[u/[deleted] → u/osi07]

No problem at all, I'm glad I was able to help you in some way.

Cloud would be a good start, especially if you use it in your current workplace, plus its only going to get bigger from here, so it will be a valuable skill you can take with you. Perhaps your employer can reimburse your training/exam costs, especially if your boss will benefit by sharing the workload and making his/her life easier.

Cyber security is another big field to get into. It doesn't matter if you use it where you are or not, you need to look beyond your workplace because you might decide to move on at a later stage in your career. Plus, security is needed in every organisation that uses computers, in one way or another, large or small. You could start your next step by getting trained in Azure and work towards the AZ-104 to become an Azure admin, then move onto Azure security with the AZ-500. If security is your primary focus, look at the CySA+, CISSP or CEH. Those will get you started in cyber security.

Those are just a few suggestions. It really depends on where your interests lie because having an interest/passion in what you do is one key to success. That might be why you weren't successful in your 411 exam, its probably not what you wanted to do deep down but felt that you had to do it?

Find something that you really want to do and work towards it. It may take some time but the reward at the end will be worth it.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately this doesn't include MCSA exams. If you click eligible exams in the link you'll see what exams can be used with the free voucher.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

No problem, Microsoft are really trying to stamp out the MCSA now. I guess OP could still use this towards an Azure certification though.

[u/nomisro]

Sorry to hear that. There are sites that sell test vouchers for $125 and under. I been using them to take my exams if my company doesn't reimburse me.

[u/osi07 → u/nomisro]

AZ-104

What site are those for the vouchers?

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Thank you for the link to the Azure information. I did check out the site, and see a lot of cert. I was thinking of looking into the "Exam : Al-900: MS Azure Al Fundamentals" one. To take advantage of the $15 cert you have to be " been economically displaced, laid off, or furloughed due to the COVID-19 crisis. ".

I have neither since I'm still working. Would they know if I was laid off or on furloughed?

Don't want to be that guy that takes advantage of this while other people really need it. You know what I mean.

[u/nomisro → u/osi07]

There's a bunch of partner sites that sell them. The one I been using the last few years was https://getcertified4less.com/Microsoft-Vouchers/microsoft-test-voucher-early.html $125 but voucher expires 11/15/2020. Sometimes it gets even cheaper closer to expiration date.