Kaplan simulation beat me up badly on MDAA (MD-100 MD-101). Where is the working benchmark?

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I am a "no cert" technician administrating complex network/office/servers for almost 10 years handling thousands of enterprise issue tickets and repair almost everything. I always thought that I am an "advanced expert". Thinking getting some certs may help me upgrade my job. I picked the Microsoft expert path.

Watching @Mike-Rodrick & @aubri-spurgin 's video at 200% speed with ease, and I get every word he said with a much deeper understanding of context. I spent 2 days watching all their videos, just to make sure I won't miss any subject.

I jumped to Kaplan test section, thinking I will surely get a high score. But after 5 questions, I start to wonder about my life and what is reality.

Finally, with lots of guesswork, I only get the 55% score on Kaplan for the first run.

There is a huge knowledge gap between videos and Kaplan test, ITProTV is not ready to fill it yet.

My question is: what's the benchmark for a user to know when he is good enough to give the real test a try?

eg. my case, "Understanding videos fully, get Kaplan first run 55%", AM I Ready?

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The reason I ask this is:
The under-study and over-study unknowingly both will waste user a lots of time and money.
There is no information to let users know, just generally/roughly when the user is ready to give the real exam a try. The learning feel like to be blind.

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@Kyle-Chen ,

I understand your frustration with the practice exams. What you must keep in mind, is they are almost always more difficult than the actual exam. That's not to say the exam is easy, they are not.

When I create a course, I use the Microsoft exam objectives. I try to cover them, one by one, going as deep as I think is necessary. I also need to keep the course length reasonable. These videos alone will not be enough to pass the exam. I always recommend getting more information from sources like docs.microsoft.com. Hands-on experience is also important.

We have found that if someone can score an 80% or higher on a practice exam, they usually fair pretty well on the actual exam.

@Mike-Rodrick said in Kaplan simulation beat me up badly on MDAA (MD-100 MD-101). Where is the working benchmark?:

@Kyle-Chen ,

I understand your frustration with the practice exams. What you must keep in mind, is they are almost always more difficult than the actual exam. That's not to say the exam is easy, they are not.

When I create a course, I use the Microsoft exam objectives. I try to cover them, one by one, going as deep as I think is necessary. I also need to keep the course length reasonable. These videos alone will not be enough to pass the exam. I always recommend getting more information from sources like docs.microsoft.com. Hands-on experience is also important.

We have found that if someone can score an 80% or higher on a practice exam, they usually fair pretty well on the actual exam.

Thanks for your time replying!

Since you said, it is the 80% for the first practice run or after a few runs?
(Because their question pool is limited. In the second run, I saw like 1/3 of questions are duplicated. Statistically, I surely will get ~70% in the second run and ~85% in the third run.)

It seems like no one knows how "deep" we should get into each subject. eg. "slmgr.vbs command line parameters", there are dozens. how many we should remember for the exam?

I will go book the exam for next week or so and will report back the differences between your video, practice test, and actual exam in detail.

@Kyle-Chen

The limited pool of questions is an issue with some of the newer exams. MD-100 currently has 145 questions in the pool. They usually add more over time. When you take the practice exam, you can choose custom quiz, where there is an option to include only unused questions. This will help a little, but you will still run out of questions eventually.

I will share my strategy for using practice exams, that I have found over the years to be effective. I think you have a pretty good grasp on this, but I wanted to post all of this for others that might have the same questions/concerns.

Start with a custom quiz. With this exam there are four domains. So I would do 20-30 questions. With a pool of 145 questions, this would allow me to take the practice exam 5-7 times without repeating questions. This should also give me 5+ questions per domain, so a decent cross section. Choose the option to show answers and explanations.

For each question, read the question, read the answers, and then read the question again. That way, the second time I read the question, I know what the possible answers are. (I use this same strategy in the exam booth) Pick the best answer. Then read the explanations. Read why the right answer is right, but also read why the wrong answers are wrong. I have learned many things that have paid off in other questions using this method.

If I have any misunderstandings about the explanations (right or wrong answers), I stop and do some research. I don't move on to the next question, till I feel comfortable with the information. This is another reason for limiting the number of questions, it would take to long and I would end up stopping the practice exam ;) I also don't want to see all the questions yet!

Once I finish the exam, I look at my score. I'm not concerned with the actual score, I just want to see what areas I need to focus my study time. Next I go study, Fire up some Practice Labs. Click on everything, try things, even if they are not mentioned in the Practice Labs instructions, explore. If something is confusing, stop and research it.

Now it's time to try the practice exam again. I use the same exam settings, making sure to choose to not repeat questions I've seen before. (Another reason for only doing 20-30 questions, I should be able to take the practice exam several times without seeing the same question twice.) Hopefully this time, I have to stop and do research much less. If I do pretty well, I might now try the practice exam in certification mode (timed and no answers) This is where if I get 80%, I feel like I'm probably ready. If I don't do well, I look at where I need to study, and once I feel ready, I try the exam in certification mode again. Because I did a limited number of questions, I should still be seeing new questions.

The key points to remember is to use the practice exams as a means of determining where you need to spend more time. This makes your study time more effective. Taking the practice exam over and over till you score well is just testing your memorization skills. That won't help, since these are not the questions you will see on the exam.

Believe me, I too wish there was more guidance on how deep we should go on each subject.

Good luck on the exam! I welcome your feedback, as I want to make the best course possible!

@Mike-Rodrick Due to the COVID-19, my "next week" exam has been "rescheduled" and 20 days later today I did the "at home/office" exam. SORRY FOR THE LATE.

I'm here to report:

For the MD-100, I pass with an instant displayed result scores 787. (The passmark is 700)

Basic info:
The exam gives 3 hours (180 minutes)
45 questions, roughly include:
~10 yes/no, ~25 single-select, ~5 multi-select, ~2 drag/drop, ~5 case study, something like this.
It can be finished easily in less than 2 hours ( 1h20m for me, even English is not my first lang). Good users can get it done in less than 1 hour I think. Questions and info are very short and well organized.

Difficulty info:
@Mike-Rodrick You are right (of course you are right), the exam is not easy as I thought (although there are some super simple questions)
The real exam has got most questions about the same deep and same difficult as the Kaplan's, but much less "misleading" and much less "tricky" in selections (also much less wordy), so eventually we can get more correct answers.
I would summary like this:
If a user goes straight to the Kaplan, and get a 45% "bold score", he probably has 50/50 chance to pass the real exam.
If the user can get a 55% on Kaplan (like me) with fresh questions, he probably has 80% chance to pass.

Subjects info:
Due to the NDA I will not give real examples here. But,

• @Mike-Rodrick & @aubri-spurgin 's video covers ~50% of the knowledge (basic parts);

• "Kaplan's test's explanation section" covers another ~30% of the knowledge (you can't pass without it)

• If a user has walked through EVERY DEEP CORNER of "Windows Settings" and "Control Panel", it will cover another 10%;

• Beyond that, it falls to the user's field skill and experiences, and lucks. (I don't believe anyone can read and remember all the MS docs in detail)

About 10% tested knowledge goes really really really deep, something like security's and system's event access user right differences, or computers with network APAPI to get a direct connection etc. IMO, Even an expert can't answer them without googling.

There are lots of questions (10~15%) testing the command-line skills;
I suggest users pay attention to the popular activation/bitlocker/ps remote/backup/DOS command-lines.
The real test is limited to the "Commands" and its "First main options", (It won't go deeper as MS said they don't want to test user's memory)
Example: "slmgr /rearm". Users have to know what "slmgr" does and what "rearm" does. Get to know those commands as many as you can.

Summary for learners (Time-For-Real-Test Learning Milestone):

• If a user watched all the @Mike-Rodrick & @aubri-spurgin 's videos, and truly understand them, plus:

• Read, understand and semi-remember ALL Kaplan tests' explanation part and flashcards,

• Then, it is time to give the real test a shot. At this point, you have a good chance (I'd say 80%) to pass it.

~I am rushing for MD-101 now, planning to get it the next week, will report here if anything is different.

@Kyle-Chen ,

Congratulations!

Thanks for the great feedback. I will use this information when we update the MD-100 course.

Good luck on the MD-101!