And certifications are among the most common in the IT profession. I rarely see a resume without at least one of them, because they touch on systems and database administration, programming and development, security and communications, and even network services. This has put Microsoft in a unique position to set standards and influence what other exam providers offer. How Microsoft handles testing impacts the general debate about the value of certifications and effectiveness of exam questions. If Microsoft makes its exams too easy or easy to cheat on, its certificates will be devalued, and this does not look good for IT certification in general. There is a delicate balance here, however, because if the exams are too hard, they may become less accurate representations of real-world needs and push people to seek out the wrong methods to help them pass. Recently, Microsoft has made an effort to make its exams much harder. A few months ago, passed four of the new exams to earn my MCSE: Server Infrastructure, MCSA: Windows Server 2012 and MCSA: Private Cloud, so I want to share what I learned from my experience with you.

Breaking down Microsoft exam changes. The good news is that a passing score of. Want to learn more about how you can prepare for Microsoft certification exams? Breaking down Microsoft exam changes. The good news is that a passing score of. Want to learn more about how you can prepare for Microsoft certification exams?

Exam difficulty Microsoft's goal in making exam changes was to make them echo real-world scenarios. Nissan Rogue Trailer Hitch Installation. However, it may happen that some of the new questions focus on problems that are seldom encountered, which can be greatly discouraging to test takers. Microsoft also claims that the new exam questions are relevant to the specific technology of the exams. Onenote 2010 Portable more. I didn't feel that was really true in some of the MCITP: 2008 exams, as they used to drill on new features and enhancements that often aren't regularly used by admins in their daily jobs. To be more specific, I saw little benefit of learning Rights Management Services and Federation Services, which are part of Exam 70-640:, Configuring.

Those two services are very complicated to master, too much of a hassle to implement in real life, and are not a core skill of understanding and implementing Active Directory. Still, you'll encounter many questions about those services in your exam.