MS Certification Strategy

[MorseLady]

When I was on the Server 2003 course our trainer kept telling us the important thing was knowing how to approach MS exams and just knowing our stuff was not enough so I wonder

How much is passing say an MCP on Server 2003 XP to do with knowing your stuff or is it more to do with knowing how to pass an MS exam?

My two VUE exam entitlements run out next month for the course I started September 2004 and was unable to complete due to a house move and other problems. I might as well have a try so have booked to try 72-270 XP and if I don't pass I will need my second exam for another attempt.

My being allowed on further courses with fee and materials remission depends on my passing at least one MCP exam. I need to do this to show em

[confus-ed]

Well I'm no fan of the new style .. once upon a time they only had so many questions & if you just learnt them all you were on a winner ..

Now though M$ have 'gone crazy' due to various folks like me making many, many, MANY jibes about 'trained monkeys'

But instead of asking a greater range of questions & extending M$ certification to deal with 'real life' (other peoples products & the real world problems for them with "Billy's methods" vs what actually happens rather than what M$ said is supposed to) - what have M$ done ? - they've started asking questions in "Billy boy speak" to trick you

Here's a real question, from a real paper ..

..'Minimal Administrative Effort'
The hidden clue with '....using minimal administrative effort', or similar phrases is that there may be two correct answers. For example:

Q) How would you install Windows 2003 on 20 member servers with minimal effort.

a) Use SUS

b) Use an Answer file, plus CD

c) Run Winnt and follow the prompts.

d) Use WUS

e) Run Setup and follow the instructions.

Knowing that the answers contains two ways of installing Windows 2003, is of help to narrow it down to b) and c). Now you choose the method which is of 'Minimal Administrative Effort'. Best answer is b)

Best answer isn't B at all !! It's F ! - 'None of the above' - have you never heard of ghost, you f.ing idiots? Ahh yeah, you don't own that, so of course that'd be the wrong answer too ..

So imho you have to know how to answer as if you worked for M$ & its absolutely nothing to do with knowing your stuff whatsoever !

[emr]

I can honestly say I gave up on MS certs for exactly the reason Ed mentions above.

I have been toying with the idea of doing some of the 2k3 certs recently but I'm not sure.

That said I think you should be capable of passing at least one exam to gain the MCP title.

You just need to get your head round the "real" worls and "Billy's" world differences in the exam questions as Mr Ed so succintly puts it.

I have never been asked for any certifications from any of my clients. That being said; I have never applied for a job in a large corporate environment and I know 9 times out of 10 you will be looked on more favourably with an MCP or MCSE after your name in those circumstances.

I think in the end taking the exams is possibly still a worthwhile exercise as it always makes you a better IT person to be able to see things from all the angles as it were. I just don't have the time to do them; looking after my clients and their interests is more important to me than anything I would learn from them and I couldn't give a damn about being able to show people any nice little MS certs.

emr

[MorseLady]

It seems to me that M$ are deliberately corrupting language and Syntax. I regard myself as very literate having worked in the Legal profession and attended courses and also I have been in teaching. English language with essay/precis writing was my best formal subject at school yet I find it difficult if not sometimes impossible to get my head round some of the questions in the sims which I assume are like the real thing? What are they actually asking. I ended up feeling I was going mad and began to doubt my intellectual capability and even at one point wondered if I was getting dementia as I am in my sixties. I have not done any Test Preps etc for over a year because I am too scared it will affect my mind

I am supposed to be doing all this certification stuff for my own personal development and probably an ego trip in there too and I am retired and am not in the employment market . I did go into a few employment agencies who said that my age was no problem but experience was worth more than qualifications if I wanted to break in to the IT profession even if I were to start on Help Desk.

The VUE Administrator at the College is messing me about a bit, keeps emailing to say she has changed my exam date or time and seems to ignore the fact that certain times are out because of my carer duties. I have two exams owing me and they run out at the end of December. I had booked XP for 7th with another attempt following week if I fail and Server 2003 if I passed XP but she wants to change the exam date again. Both myself and my husband have noticed that every time I book an exam I become a nervous wreck and start doing things like leaving my Bank card or purse
at the Supermarket checkout and tripping up or dropping and breaking things so is it worth it? It is all about an ego trip now a sort of I will show em and shock my former course tutor as I am sure he has long given up on me ever being an MCP.

Say I pass, what good will it do me except perhaps another nervous breakdown or neglecting my now very sick husband. I am not yet back on my ham radio nor likely to be and really family and home must come first.

I am thinking of pulling out of Certification and further training altogether aqnd be grateful that I have learned a lot about computing and can call myself an advanced user in certain respects and that I can help and advise my friends and manage my husband's computer and our wifi setup and design and manage my own websites and manage Yahoo Groups and my own Message Board. I can also be glad that thanks to the training I have had I am very security aware.

All the same it would be lovely to have that bit of paper with MCP or even MCSA/MCSE on it - sigh! I come from a family of workaholic self starters and I am no exception, I will feel I have failed myself if I do not at least try.

[confus-ed]

If I'm confus-ed, then rather than morselady for your monicker, I think I'd have picked 'Misgiving' ! or rather Mrsgiving

Go & give those exams a try, all this self questioning isn't answering anything, so what if you fail ? & ? ... it won't change your life any & if it stops you being so wound up & gives you some (as Americans put it) 'closure' then surley that's a good thing ? You seem to me, to coin a more english phrase, to be 'in a complete tizz' ..

It seems clear to me that one bit of you at least 'has to take' these exams, even though your 'guilt chip' is telling you that your loyalty & priorities lie elsewhere, but as the TV program used to say, I think for you its a case of "I've started .. so I'll finnish .."

Your entire dilema can be summed up by knowing that to pass M$ exams, you must think in an M$ kind of way, whether that be practical, or as in many cases, just plain dumb

Please try & stop worrying, the only thing that'll be hurt if you fail is your pride, & that shouldn't get hurt really, as I can tell you I'd struggle now with most M$ exams, as I know damn well "Billy's way" is just plain stupid many times, & my chances of passing some of these exams now would be slim, even though I consider myself as good as a tech as you'll get (that'd be after I deflate my fat head a bit ! )

[houseisland]

Go & give those exams a try, all this self questioning isn't answering anything, so what if you fail ? & ? ... it won't change your life any & if it stops you being so wound up & gives you some (as Americans put it) 'closure' then surley that's a good thing ? You seem to me, to coin a more english phrase, to be 'in a complete tizz' ..

....

Please try & stop worrying, the only thing that'll be hurt if you fail is your pride, & that shouldn't get hurt really ....

MorseLady, I am 100% with Confus-ed here.

Do the exams! If you fail, it isn't going to break any bones -- just pick yourself up, reschedule the exam for a week to two weeks, go over your materials again, and do it again. If you don't immediately reschedule the exam, you probably won't get back on track. You need to set yourself some external motivation. If you set the re-examination too far off, there is too much opportunity to procrastinate and you will lose the benefit of your prepartion for the first exam attempt.

And who knows? You could get lucky on the first go round (whether you know your stuff or not). You could also fail on the first go round (whether you know your stuff or not). I have known highly experienced, highly knowledgeable people who have had to take an exam more than once. I have known idiots (myself included here) who have passed immediately. The exams do have a lottery-like element to them.

I did my NT 4.0 MCSE and passed all the exams on the first go. My worst score was on the first exam, NT Workstation, which ironically was the easiest. I did not discover brain dumps until the last one, IIS. I got near perfect scores on the Networking Essentials and TCP/IP exams. However, I would be deceiving myself and fooling no one else, if I were to claim that the tests demonstrated anything other than: 1) a basic aptitude for the subject, 2) my (not inconsiderable) academic test-preparation/taking abilities, and 3) my skill at trivia games.

Most of what I learned in the exam preparation was not immediately useful, because no one in their right mind would ever have given me a job where I could have put the "knowledge" into practice. And if they had, I would have been most dangerous since my real world experience was rather limited -- distant past work with Novell 3.11, Arcnet, and XT DOS clients.

And where what I learned was useful, I often had to unlearn it, because the world is not an orderly place where things are done in "the" right way. As a junior network admin/support idiot, one must be careful not to tread on the toes of more senior and more experienced idiots -- the size and fragility of the ego increases with idiocy rank.

Was it worthwhile getting the certifications? I would have to say, "Yes!!!" The certifications are often what gets me in the door for interviews.

Do it. Just don't take it all too seriously. Smile. Relax. Give it your best shot!