MCTS,MCSE,MCITP,MCM,MCA
6 questions on MCDST 70-272 preparation
There are full of MCDST or XP 70-272 exam study guide on the internet .However, I found most of them are braindumpers, which can not help us at all. Now, I have gotten my MCDST credential, after passing 70-271 and 70-272.Especially in 70-272 Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Windows XP Operating System, I have gotten 940 scores .So, I think it will be good to post my MCDST experiences to help more and more candidates to 70-272 out .Hope it useful .
1. How much study time I have taken during my XP exam 70-272 preparation?
For me, just 4-5 weeks .Because when I have passed 70-271 on Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Windows XP Operating System before 70-272.To some extent ,70-271 is the foundation of 70-272.If so ,every day ,I tried to spend about 5-6 hours in XP ‘DST exams ,and did a week revising ,which helped me a lot and made me better understand the topic area .
2. What materials or books did I use? And Is Microsoft press books sufficient for passing the 70-272 exam?
Personally, the MS Press book-MCDST Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-272): Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on Microsoft® Windows® XP, Second Edition, is based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review. During 70-272 preparation, I think it is best material except TechNet documentation. It is noted that 70-272 practice exam from MeasureUp.com can help us better understand the topic area. The MeasureUp questions are fine for general study but for a quality test, investment in these is a must. Besides，for both of MCDST exams ,I used MS Virtual PC 2007 with Windows XP SP2（with MS Office 2003 installed。）
3. How many questions there are in 70-272?
45 。 I found that to be a reasonable number. It’s a bit daunting to be maybe half an hour in with only 5 questions answered but some might take you ten minutes others just 30 seconds, so don’t worry too much, you will get through them.
4. What is the passing score or mark for MCDST exams? I think this question like this can get the answers from 11 questions about Microsoft Certification .
5. Self –Study VS Attend training course
Personally, If you have experience or do not learn XP from the scratch ,it is ok for you to pass MCDST 70-272 exam by yourself .You just make a study plan for your preparation, which contain the time of preparation and the detailed information of the revision. If you have few experiences or have enough time for your exam, you can consider about attending training courses such as 2264 A or 2263 A, and so on. However, I don’t think just a few days of classroom training can help you a lot.
6.70-271vs 70-272
After 271 exam, I found it harder than MS 70-272 exam .70-271 contains more content ,which took more time to revise and digest it .Compared to 271 exam ,70-272 is more easier ,and much content in 70-272 was covered in the 271 exam ,such as : Security Permissions，Network connectivity，Some of the customisation and language topics ,and so on .Personally, the key to pass my 70-272 was that as I troubleshoot those applications every day the main subject areas were fine for me, such as office, outlook, and IE.
