Microsoft's
new fix-length Exam format and Networking Background
Microsoft changed Networking Essential exams from Fix-length exam
to adaptive exam, then changed adaptive exam to a new fix-length
exam. Here is the information on those three exams.
Fixed-form exam: Number of Questions: 58, Passing Scores: 793,
Duration: 75 minutes
Adaptive exam: Number of Questions: 25-35 (Adaptive), Passing
Scores: 552, Duration: 90 minutes
New Fixed-form exam: Number of Questions: 30, Passing Scores:
766, Duration: 60 minutes
Because
almost everybody has experience on the fix-length exam, here we
will focus on the adaptive exam and the new fix-length exam.
Above diagram presents a typical adaptive exam. First of all,
Microsoft tests you a question (Q1) that might be somewhat
easier. If you answer this question correctly, you are requested
to answer a question more difficult. Your current score is also
increased. If Microsoft terminates the exam right now, you just
pass the exam. But you have to answer more questions because
Microsoft provides 25-35 questions for the adaptive exam. Suppose
you answer Q2 correctly and you answers for Q3 and Q4 are wrong
as shown in the above diagram. You will fail the exam if
Microsoft terminates the exam at this point. However, you still
have chance to answer more questions. After you answer Q6, Q7,
Q8, Q9 and Q10 correctly, even you fail the Q11, you can still
pass the exam because your final score is higher than the passing
score. In the real exam, you have 25-35 questions while not 11
questions for the adaptive exam.
Because in an adaptive exam, the next question is determined by
whether you answer correctly for the current question, Microsoft
must grade your current question before providing you the next
question, which means that you don't have any chance to go back
and change your answer. As a result, you must make sure you
answer the question correctly before press the 'Next' button.
Microsoft still use adaptive testing technology in its new
fix-length exam, which means the new fix-length exam is different
with the conventional fix-length exam. Adaptive exams will not
allow you go back and change the answers for the formerly
answered questions. Therefore, you still need to make sure you
answer the question correctly before pressing the
"Next" button in the new fix-length exam.
Because Microsoft didn't change the exam outline and question
pool for the new adaptive exam, FTQ_7058 is still helpful for the
new fix-length exam.
Here is the roadmap
of major operating systems from Microsoft:
Notes:
- Windows NT has two versions: Windows NT server and Windows NT
workstation. They are almost same. However, Windows NT server
supports more clients and has some advanced features such as
RAID. In addition, Windows NT server is more expensive than
Windows NT workstation.
- Microsoft never launched Windows NT 1.0 or Windows NT 2.0. The
earliest version for Windows NT is 3.1. Microsoft wanted it to be
consisting with Windows 3.1.
- Windows 3.11 should be the first networking system from
Microsoft because it supports NetBEUI and IPX/SPX two protocols.
(You can also install third party products such as Trumpet TCP to
let Windows 3.11 support TCP/IP). Windows 3.11 has another name:
Windows for workgroup. It is a workgroup level networking
operating system, compare Windows NT as an enterprise level
operating system.
- The biggest difference between DOS and Windows 1.0 is Windows
1.0 has GUI (Graphic User Interface). Microsoft and IBM had some
disputes at that time, therefore, Microsoft goes to Windows, and
IBM goes to OS/2. (OS/2 was not GUI based at that time)
Microsoft has two competitors: Novell and Unix.
- Novell call its networking operating system NetWare. NetWare has two famouse versions:
NetWare 3.1 and NetWare 4.0. The problem for Netware is that when you upgrade from NetWare 3.x to NetWare 4.0, Novell stupidly changed almost all the commends. This is very inconvenience for its customer. Moreover, Novell is not GUI based.
- Because DOS doesn't have its own networking support, most people were using
NetWare to connect two PCs running DOS. As a result, NetWare
occupied more than 70% of PC networking market at that time.
After Microsoft lauched its Windows NT, which has similar networking functions with
NetWare, Microsoft dominated the market of PC networking.
- Ken Thompson at AT&T developed Unix in 1969. Unix means
(UNO + MULTIX) for the Multics operating system on PDP-7, which
is a mini-computer.
- Unix is a multi-user and multi-task operating system. Because
DOS is for single user and single task, people thought Unix was
more advanced than DOS, and Unix occupied the higher end market
at that time. However now, Windows NT also supports multi-user
and multi-task. Windows NT wants to share the high end computing
market from the Unix.
- Most Unix operating system can not run on a PC.
- TCP/IP protocol is first implemented in Unix. TCP/IP is very
important now because of the Internet. (Note the definition of the
Internet: Multiple TCP/IP networks connected with routers.)
- Many graduate students said they knew Unix. However, they might
not know which Unix runs on which kind of computers. Here is the list of
major Unix vendors and corresponding Unix product names. Please
note you should not receive similiar questions on on the Networking Essentials exam. We put those information here just to improve your computer background skills.
Unix Vendor Name | Unix Operating system name | Run on what kind of computers |
IBM | AIX | RS/6000, AS/400, PowerPC |
Sun | Solaris | SPARCstation, SuperSparc, PC |
DEC( Now is Compaq) | Digital Unix | AlphaServer, AlphaWorkstation |
HP | HPUX | HP9000 |
SGI | IRIS | Indigo |
Red Hat | Linux | PC |