Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 1:35PM ;)
As I mentioned earlier, I completed my MCTS: Exchange Server 2007 certification. That's another item crossed off the 101 in 1001 list (24. Get MCTS: Exchange certification).
2 down... 99 to go.;)
Exchange, MCTS, Microsoft in 101 in 1001 Friday, January 29, 2010 at 8:03PM Wednesday marked the completion of my fourth exam in my ongoing quest for MCITP certification. The test du jour was MCTS 70-643 Configuring Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure. Seriously... that's the name they came up with. As I had done with the three previous exams, my primary study material was the Microsoft Training Kit. This book was even more to-the-point the than those that I read for the other exams. I think that's what I like most about this series of books; They're direct and focused, while still giving an overall broad view of the subject matter.
As of test time I was consistently scoring in the mid to hi 90's on the practice exams that came with the Training Kit as well as some 3rd party study guides I acquired online. As such, my confidence was pretty high going into the test. It was quickly shaken when the very first question threw me for a complete loop. Of course, I signed an NDA when I took the exam so I can't discuss the question, but it was something that I had not encountered in my many hours of studying. Fortunately, it got much smoother from there. The next 4 or 5 questions were right in my comfort zone. I marked 12 (of 40) questions to go back and review. The others I was 99.9% sure I had right. Of those 12, several were just oddly worded and I wanted to make sure I thought them through logically before committing to an answer. And finally, there were about 5 questions that I was unsure of the answer for. So, like before, I eliminated any ridiculous answers and tried to make an educated guess from the remainder. It worked. I passed the test with a score of 953/1000.
That means it's time to prep for my fifth and final exam... MCITP 70-647: Windows Server Enterprise Administrator. I've got the Microsoft Training Kit sitting in front of me now. Time to study.
Friday, November 13, 2009 at 9:33PM Yesterday I added another cert to my résumé. Now to my list of certifications I can add MCTS. Or, more specifically... MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist): Windows Vista Configuration. You may ask yourself, "Self, why the hell did he get a Vista cert?" Good question. It's not because I'm a huge fan of Vista and just can't get enough of it... Quite the contrary. But, instead, the answer is that it's just one of the five exams needed to complete my next goal of MCITP: Enterprise Administrator (Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional: Enterprise Administrator). I picked up a book 
from Microsoft last week and spent the entire weekend cramming it all into my brain. It's a huge chunk of a book, but there are a lot of screen shots in its 800 or so pages, so it's not all dull text. Then, finally, the day before test day I went online and "found" some practice exams. These were enough to get me prepped.
I was a bit intimidated when I sat down and the test overview says that you have 200 minutes to complete 50 questions. Yikes. But, the book and practice tests were enough preparation and I was able to pass.
It's definitely a relief to not be spending hours of each day studying... but it's just a matter of time until I move on to the next exam.
70-620, MCITP, MCTS, Windows Vista in Tech 
