I always tell people to do exams during Second Shot season. Reason being - it makes the first one a practice. Don't bother studying, don't bother stressing, just go and see how you do. Then you can sit it a second time for real. Feel like giving it a go? Register at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx ...

Jim McLeod is a DBA, and a good friend of mine. And today, he is due congratulations, because he passed the exam 70-444 - Optimizing and Maintaining a DB Admin Solution in SQL 2005. Now he only needs to do the Infrastructure Design exam (70-443) to become MCITP:DBA. Did he take one of the courses I teach, that Microsoft recommends to do before ...

For a limited time only, Microsoft are giving you the chance to have a second shot at any IT professional, developer or Microsoft Dynamics exam. Brilliant! The way this works (and the way I encourage all my students to do this) is that if you register for this offer and then take an exam, you can take it again some time later for free. Yes, ...

I got some news this week about the core SQL Server 2005 exam. A bit of an update from someone who has recently tried 70-431. He sent it to me having read my previous post on the matter. "I took the exam last week and got all the M/C questions right, but did horribly on the simulations. I figured out couple of them, but I couldn't do ...

Mitch Wheat sent me this. According to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx, there are only 71 people in the world (well, at the end of June) who have achieved MCITP:BI. This means passing the two exams 70-445 and 70-446. You could be one if you use SSIS, SSAS, SSRS and do a bit of Data Mining. Doing some of the courses like the ...

You can only book to do Microsoft certification exams through Pearson Vue until the end of August. From then on, you have to choose Prometric. More information can be read at Vue's website: http://vue.com/ms/testtakerfaq.pdf Personally, I find this a real shame. It's good for us candidates to have a choice. I've preferred Vue over ...

On a trip to Redmond earlier this year (when I was one of 6 people deciding on content for the 70-445 and 70-446 exams), I had the chance to meet Howard Dierking. Howard is the Product Planner for Developer and Database Certifications. It was great to meet him - he has a lot of enthusiasm for certifications, and really wants to do the best he ...

Jos Verbaken was a student of mine a few weeks ago. He lives in Ballarat, and is known around the Melbourne SQL Server User Group circles. He did the 5-day course 2780 - Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database. During the course, I encouraged the students to sit the exam 70-431, which the exam I wrote simulation questions for, and the ...

...as announced in our March Live Meeting on server certifications, Microsoft Learning will be retiring a set of exams in one year (on March 30, 2008). The retirement list will be posted on microsoft.com later this month; in the meantime here is the info we shared in the Live Meeting, plus an additional set of exams from other older ...

Like Darren Gosbell, I took the beta exams for the two new SQL2005 Business Intelligence exams. Like Darren, following the beta period I was invited to help with the exam development process, and now that the results have come out, like Darren, I have two new certifications. MCTS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence and MCITP: Business ...