Skills Measured: Improving your chances of passing certification exams

December 21, 2011 6 Comments

I have a friend who has been using Hyper-V since it was released with Windows Server 2008.  I know that because at the time I did some consulting for his company, and was given a tour of his environment.  That is why I was a bit surprised to hear that he recently failed his certification exam 70-659 TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization.  I asked him why he felt he did not pass, and he told me that while he thought he know Hyper-V very well, the exam covered all sorts of aspects that surprised him… he didn’t use things like Remote Desktop Services, command-line utilities, and a few other components that were more heavily weighted on the exam than he had expected.

Certification exams are hard; they are meant to demonstrate the skills of the top professionals with the technology being measured.  I have worked on the design and creation of several certification exams for Microsoft Learning (including this one), and we intentionally try to come up with questions that will be challenging.  That is the only reason that our certifications have value.  However Microsoft Learning also take great steps to not surprise you. If you come out of an exam feeling they tested things that you did not expect then you went into the exam unprepared.  This article will cover a number of steps that should help you to avoid doing that.

Don’t Study for Exams

I have been saying this for years… the best way to pass an exam is not to study for it… know the material and you should pass.  The best way to know technology is to use it, and if you read the recommended pre-requisites for most exams they say that you should have a minimum of two years experience with the technology.  Someone once described one of the exams that I had helped to write as follows: ‘Some of those questions can’t be answered by studying a book… if you have deployed the software then you will know most of the answers off the top of your head, but if you haven’t… wow, it will be difficult to pass.’  Although I do not create exams anymore, I hope this is a bar that Microsoft Learning will set for their exam creation teams.  On the flipside of that comment, there is one exam that I wrote a couple of years ago that I passed without ever having implemented any of the technologies discussed.  Either I was channeling Liberty Munson, or it was simply a poorly written exam.

Study the Scope

For every exam that Microsoft Learning has there is a document called the Objective Domain.  On the website it is simply called ‘Skills Measured’ and in preparing for an exam there is probably no more crucial document than this.  It starts with the main categories – for example, for exam 70-642 TS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuring there are five categories:

  • Configuring Addressing and Services
  • Configuring Name Resolution
  • Configuring Network Access
  • Configuring File and Print Services
  • Monitoring and Managing a Network Infrastructure
    Some exams may have four categories and some may have seven… but these are the main technologies or skills that are covered.  Under each of these categories there will ne a number of sub-points… so under Configuring Name Resolution you will have a point on Configure DNS zones and Configure a Domain Name System (DNS) server… all of the topics that the original Objective Domain Team decided were important enough to have specific questions written to.them.  Under those you will have more specific tips, so under Configure a Domain Name System (DNS) server you will find: “May include but is not limited to: conditional forwarding; external forwarders; root hints; cache-only; socket pooling; cache locking.”  These are not points that WILL have a question or two, but MIGHT have.
    Fill in the Blanks
    Of course, in the case of this exam (70-642) you have probably been using Windows Server 2008 for three or more years, so you think you are ready to write the exam.  However when you review the Skills Measured section for this exam you review this list, and notice the following section:

Configuring Network Access

  • Configure DirectAccess.

    • May include but is not limited to: IPv6; IPsec; server requirements; client requirements; perimeter network; name resolution policy table

Now, although you have a Server 2008 R2 infrastructure in your environment, you have not implemented Direct Access, and you have not even looked at IPv6.  You have already in your trusted Self Paced Study Guide from Microsoft Press, so rather than reading the whole book, you pull out your PostIt notes and start placing them strategically at the pages of the topics that you need to learn or review.  While you may now have 100 sticky notes all over the book, you have done a very good job of narrowing down what topics you need to study (or review).

Practice Lab

The abovementioned example is a bad choice for this, but most topics that you are going to study will be easier to learn by implementing them in your lab, which may be in your corporate datacentre, in your basement, or at school.  Make sure you can build all of the scenarios that the book discusses so that you do not only have a theoretical knowledge of them, but have actually given yourself hands-on experience with them.  Theories are great, but theoretical knowledge can be dangerous when the exam asks you a practical question such as ‘What do you do next?’

Practice Exams

There are several vendors selling good and legitimate practice exams, that will help you to gauge if you are truly ready for the exam.  This does not mean that you should buy question lists or Brain Dumps… all of which are tantamount to cheating.  However vendors such as Bosun offer legitimate practice tests that should tell you if you are ready or not.  They may cost as much as the exam, but they are worth it.  I used to use them for each exam, and was always frustrated when I would score 90% and still fail… however when I came out of the actual exam with an 875 I knew that running through them time after time paid off!

There’s always an angle…

Ok, that sounds dirty.  However Microsoft Learning and Prometric run all sorts of promotions throughout the year, ranging from exam discounts for pre-purchasing multiple exams, to Certification Packs for the Microsoft Partner Network, to Second Shot Free vouchers.  Also beta exams are a good route to get certified for free, but these are usually not offered to the public, and you do not have the benefit of practice exams, Skills Measured pages, and so on.  I save on exams because I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer, which entitles me to a 50% discount off the regular cost of $150 per exam – I have taken six exams this year, so I have saved $450, or $50 more than my yearly MCT dues cost.  However if you do not want to invest in becoming an MCT, keep an eye on the MPN Newsletter, as well as the Born To Learn blog for deals that pop up every so often.

Don’t be afraid to fail!

I know too many IT Pros who don’t schedule their exams because they are afraid that they will fail.  I have failed more exams than most people have taken, and although there is a cost to it, you also learn from failing.  If you are not sure if you are ready for the exam then you can keep waiting until the certification becomes irrelevant, or you can impose a deadline on yourself.  The worst thing that can happen is that you fail – nobody is going to stand and laugh at you (Nelson Munch style).  However the first thing you should do when you walk out of the exam room is jot down notes about what you were not sure of… and that with your Score Report (which will let you know according to the Top-Level buckets from the Skills Measured page how you did on each section) will give you a good guide to what you should be studying before retaking the exam.

Don’t Mess with Juju!

If you have a system and it works, don’t mess with it.  I have mine, you have yours, and you cannot learn from mine – you can learn my study habits, but my idiosyncrasies will not help you.  If you only pass exams on Thursdays then why would you possibly schedule one for Tuesday?  If you have a lucky pair of socks, make sure they are clean and ironed before you head to the exam centre.  In addition to the tips I have given you herein, real or imagined, these habits may help you to pass your exams – or at least calm you down in the room so you can pass.  Whatever it is that works for you, do it!

Filed under Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Exams, Microsoft Learning

MCITP: Server Boot Camp, Virginia Beach

July 20, 2011 Leave a comment

It was REALLY last minute… on Friday I got a mass e-mail from a training provider scrambling to replace a trainer who had cancelled at the last minute.  By some miracle of scheduling I was available; after a few hours of back and forth e-mails I booked my flight for Sunday to be at the training facility Monday morning.

All boot camps are hectic.  The pace is often ridiculous… it is frantic to rush through 15 days of classes in 10 days, but with a group of students as good as these, who have met the prerequisites and have the drive and the discipline, then it can be done.  We completed the first course (6421: Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure) in four days instead of five, and the students all wrote the exam Thursday evening and Friday morning.  All passed (one needed to use his Second Shot Free, but that’s what it’s there for!) the first exam (70-642) and earned their first certification (MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration) and were psyched and energized to tackle two more courses over a six day period.

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It cannot be easy for them.  The pace that the curriculum dictates I maintain is frenetic.  They are all drinking from the fire hose, and many have been learning concepts that they will never have the opportunity to implement or work with in their day to day jobs.  However the morning of Day One they all answered the questions I ask of every class, starting with ‘Why are you here?’ They all have their reasons, and since their employers all sent them most of them revolve around ‘I need the certifications and/or training to keep my job.’  I respect that.

During the two week class two of the seven students have celebrated birthdays.  These were marked by the class going to lunch together, happy birthday wishes, and (very small) token presents.  Neither birthday boy/girl missed class because they were out partying or celebrating too late.  Several times over the fortnight smartphones have vibrated with messages of the world coming to an end back at the office… yet nobody took time off of class because they understand the importance of learning.  When labs break they work out how to fix them, or ask for help (first of their fellow students, then of me).  When concepts are unclear the fellow students help clarify.  It is wonderful to watch.

None of them have complained about the pace, none has shied away from homework and I have not once heard a complaint about the extended work days and early morning.  As Master Lee (see my previous post about Master Lee’s Joonbi Taekwondo) taught his new student last night, our ability to succeed hinges on our willingness to work hard to achieve our goals.  As Grand Master Kim makes us recite before and after class, Everything is up to my mind, Sir!

These students know all of that, and have the work ethic, and now the certification, to prove it!

Way to go class!

Filed under Article, Blog, Boot Camp, Bootcamp, Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Classroom, Exams, Genesis of an IT Pro, Industry, IT Pro, MCITP, MCITP: Server Administrator, MCP, MCT, MCTS, Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Windows, SWMI Consulting Group, Trainer, Virginia Beach, Windows Server 2008 R2

Certifications Alone Do Not Make the Pro

July 20, 2011 10 Comments

An interesting post appeared in a newsgroup that I monitor today. A desktop support technician in the United Kingdom lamented a colleague who had attended a two week MCSE boot camp and indeed earned that certification. Unfortunately he later encountered a number of simple issues that he could not resolve, including one with regard to network connectivity; it seemed he tried everything he could think of but never checked that the network cable was tightly connected. She of course had a good laugh at his expense (well deserved) and commented that at last we see the true value of certifications. She very quickly (and to my knowledge unbidden) clarified that she meant that her boss would see that certifications alone would never make an IT professional valuable.

She is right of course. Every Microsoft Official Curriculum course lists prerequisites for taking the course. For 2151 (Microsoft Windows 2000 Network and Operating System Essentials) it lists:

  • Proficiency using the Microsoft Windows interface to configure the desktop environment and to locate, create, and manipulate folders and files;
  • General knowledge of computer hardware components, including memory, hard disks, and CPUs; and
  • General knowledge of networking concepts, including network operating system, client/server relationship, and local area network (LAN).

In turn, course 2151 was a prerequisite for all subsequent courses. In other words, Microsoft Learning expects you to know these concepts, and will not teach them to you.

Let me repeat that last phrase for those who want to blame Microsoft Learning for the shortcomings of some MCSEs: There are basic computing and networking concepts that they expect you to know as prerequisites, and will not teach you.

This is one of the reasons that boot camps tend to make me nervous. If you have someone with strong computer skills, a background in troubleshooting, or even someone who has passed CompTia’s A+ and Network+ certifications, and you send them to an MCSE boot camp, chances are they will come out a more knowledgeable IT Professional. On the other hand, if you were to send a relatively intelligent person who picks up information and concepts quickly and can cram a lot of information into their consciousness over a relatively short period of time they will probably be able to pass the exams required to obtain the MCSE certification… but that will not necessarily make them an IT Pro.

There is a conundrum in the IT industry; you need to have experience, knowledge, and certifications to get many of the good jobs. The knowledge you can get from books, the certifications you can get once you have that knowledge by passing a number of exams, but the experience you will only get from working in the field. That is why companies cannot rely solely on a professional’s MCP Transcript, they also require a CV and a series of interviews. This often frustrates people who ask me why it is that even with their shiny new certifications they cannot find work. When I explain the situation to them they get even more frustrated and ask how they can get experience if nobody will hire them?

My advice to these people is usually very simple:

  1. Volunteer. There are community organizations all over the world with computers that are not being managed, and would be grateful to have an MCSE (MCSA, MCDST) working for them on a part-time basis if it would not cost them anything. Many people list day to day tasks on their CVs, but projects are what HR people in the know are looking for. ‘I implemented a domain-based network for Charity A in my neighbourhood; I migrated fifteen disjoint PCs into an Active Directory network with centralized management and monitoring; I instructed volunteers on the day-to-day tasks required of them. Going forward I am responsible for the monitoring, management, and maintenance of the computer centre while working with the on-site volunteers to give them a better understanding of the implemented infrastructure.’
    The project I just described might be a one week or one month project, depending on the systems and what goes wrong during the process. Dont worry about that, you will learn from it. In an interview someone looking at this curriculum vitae and ask if that was a paid position or a volunteer job; answer them honestly, say you spent the time learning, you passed the required tests, and acquiring the necessary certifications. You understand that this is not enough for the interviewer to hire you so you went out and found a charity that needed you so that you could gain the experience to be truly valuable to his organization. Rather than seeing this as a ploy, most interviewers will commend you for your honesty as well as for your industriousness.
    I am willing to wager that sometime soon the sample projects I listed above will find their way verbatim onto someone’s CV.If that CV ends up on my desk you can be sure I will be checking the reference!
  2. Accept an internship. Depending on the company it could either be low or no pay, but if you are willing to work for a company to prove yourself then one of two things will happen:
    1. You will prove your worth to them and they will hire you into a proper position; or
    2. You will have earned experience and a reference that can be added to your CV so that the next company will see that you have done something.
  3. Be prepared to accept a position that is a rung or two lower than you had hoped for. The truth is that if you went out and paid for either a boot camp or a series of certification courses you probably read somewhere or heard from someone (often the sales person who sold you the courses) that upon earning your certifications you will instantly be ready to take on the position of senior network administrator for Large Corporation B which commands a salary of Two Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand Dollars. I am reminded of an anecdote where a graduate fresh out of MIT Engineering is interviewing for a job and he says ‘I am looking for a starting salary of $300,000, a company car, and four weeks vacation per year.’ The interviewer answers ‘Well we do have an opening for Senior Project Manager; the starting salary is $360,000, it comes with a corporate condo downtown, a company limo, and six weeks paid vacation when you can use our corporate facilities in Bermuda, Vail, or the French Riviera.’ The graduate is stunned and says ‘You’re kidding me!’ to which the interviewer replies: ‘Yes I am, but only because you started it.’
    We would all like to start at the top, but it is not realistic. Most companies interviewing for senior IT staff will require degrees, certifications, and five (or more) years experience. How do you get to the level where you can demand your own terms? Spend a few years gaining the experience; while you are doing that revisit point 1. Never stop studying. Take on projects that your bosses will look back on and realize your worth when it comes time to review you, or alternately will look appealing to the interviewer who reads it on your CV a couple of years down the road.

Over the past few years I have been a very vocal proponent of the value of certifications. I have worked and continue to work closely with Microsoft Learning to increase the value and to protect the integrity of the certification program. I honestly feel that certifications are an important aspect of an IT Professionals growth. I do not, on the other hand, feel that certifications alone are proof of knowledge or ability. I would never hire anyone based solely on certifications, and would not hire someone without proof of a firm knowledge of how things work in the real world. On the flipside of the same coin I would probably not hire an IT professional with the real world knowledge but who lacked the certifications.

I have said before and will say it again: Certifications are not proof of knowledge. They are a demonstration that someone has the respect for his or her profession to pursue not only the knowledge but the credentials which attest that they are not simply computer guys, but IT Professionals.

Filed under Article, Boot Camp, Bootcamp, CertGuard, Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Exams, Industry, IT Pro, MCP, MCSE, Microsoft Learning, SWMI Consulting Group

Choose Your First Certification Exam Wisely

July 18, 2011 Leave a comment

As I peruse the articles that I have written over the past ten years I occasionally come across one that is interesting or relevant today.  I wrote this article when I was working with CertGuard, and it was published in November, 2006.  If you are an IT Pro starting down the path to certifications, this may be relevant to you! -M

<November, 2006>I have gone on and on about the importance of that first cert exam, but I have read a lot of comments recently that made me realize how important exam selection can be to that successful first exam.

If your decision to get certified is based on professional necessity – i.e.: your boss said you need to get certified in order to keep your job, the choice may have been made for you, i.e.: ‘We have Windows Server 2003 running our networks, we want you to pass 070-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment.’ Simple and done, you know what your first exam is.

If you have made the decision yourself to follow a certification path on your own, or your bosses have given you incentive to get certified, you should pick your first exams wisely, because they can be a real defining factor in the future of your certification path. (If you have read my articles you will know that I picked the wrong exams for my first two tries when I started out, and instead of getting certified within weeks or months it took about sixteen months for me to pass my first exam, another fifteen months until I passed my second.

A lot of us (yes I said US) think that we know more than the average bear and love a challenge, we decide to do something stupid like pick one of the hardest tests to write first, figuring that once the hard ones are done you can coast. THIS IS A BAD STRATEGY. Cert exams are not only tough, but they are also (probably inadvertently) designed to be cumulative to some degree or another. That is, information you learn for 70-290 may appear in 70-291, or be expected knowledge whereas information specific to 70-291 will never appear in 70-290. If you study for the first and pass, that means you will probably have a good basis for that assumed knowledge in the second exam.

Before everyone jumps all over me I know and agree: Microsoft Certification Exams are not linear, and there is no official ‘recommended path’. That being said there is that fall-over knowledge. An OS or Server exam would not cover routers and sub-netting (at least not in depth). The Infrastructure exams on the other hand will assume that you know Server inside and out. The core exams are numbered (nearly) sequentially for a reason, and any competent counselor will tell you to start at the bottom and work your way up.

Of course for these examples I have taken what I know best – the MCSA/MCSA courses as my example. However if you want to start slower than that – maybe you do not have a great deal of knowledge or experience in servers but know that certifications are the way to go then Microsoft recently released a cert that may be more your speed. The Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) material is based entirely on Windows XP and the applications that run on it, while teaching a decent introduction to Active Directory technology (on a relatively desktop-centric basis). If you consider yourself a real Windows XP guru then these two exams will be a good launch-pad for a successful certification path. A number of friends of mine have gone this way to start out, and have been proudly signing their names as My Name, MCDST, MCP and that’s okay – I know that when all I had was MCP I signed it everywhere!

In short find the exam that you have the most background understanding of, study until you are ready, then go get certified. Every exam is a stepping stone to something greater but it is a long process, and there is no advantage to starting the hard way. Nobody will ever be more impressed that you passed Infrastructure before Server or Active Directory before Desktop. If you know Active Directory better than anything then by all means try that exam first, but chances are you will want to start smaller. MCP take a single exam, and (as I learned the hard way) it might as well be the easier exam to get your feet wet – don’t try to drink from a fire hose!

Good luck and now go out and get certified!

Filed under Article, CertGuard, Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Exams, Genesis of an IT Pro, IT Pro, MCP, MCT, Microsoft, Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Windows

Time Tips for Certification Exams

July 13, 2011 Leave a comment

As I peruse the tome of articles that I wrote over the past ten years that were never published on this site, I am finding some articles that are timeless, including this one originally written for CertGuard, on Exam Time Management. -M

<May, 2007>It is a common misconception that information such as the number of questions on a given cert exam is protected by the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), and it has been repeated so many times by so many people that some people are surprised when I answer the question. That being said, this is not a History test, it is a test of your skills. If you are concerned by time, I suggest the following:

  • When you go into the testing room you will be told how much time you have to complete the test. When you begin your test you will know the number of questions. Pace yourself accordingly.
  • Make sure you are not parked at a parking meter with a time limit of 60 or 120 minutes because chances are you will need more time, and you will not be allowed out to feed the meter.
  • When you schedule your test reserve a morning or an afternoon for it. As late as last year I would never schedule two exams in a half day, though now I generally book them (when doubling up) 90 minutes apart… that is me, and I am a very fast test taker, and have taken enough cert exams to know how long they will take me. Forgetting other tests, don’t book a doctor’s appointment two hours after your exam. If you take the exam at 8:30am, don’t schedule anything before noon, for example.
  • Don’t go into the exam hungry, figuring you’ll be out quick. You might be, but you might not be, and most exam centers will not allow you to bring food or drink in.
  • Visit the restroom for all bodily functions before the exam. No joke, I had an employee who failed an exam because her bladder was going to busrt so she just pressed ‘END’ and did not finish. (To the best of my understanding she is no longer in the IT field)
  • If you are sick and do not think that you will be able to sit still for three hours, reschedule. True story: I once woke up with a 102 degree fever on the day I wanted to take an exam, and I figured it was an easy exam so it wouldn’t matter. I called Pearson/Vue to schedule it for later that morning. The next thing I remember is waking up on the floor of my home office several hours later, the battery of my cordless phone dead, a pool of drool under my mouth, and a headache from where I smashed my head. Fortunately I was on hold and did not finish the registration process :)
  • If you are dyslexic, or if English is not your first language, call the test provider and ask for extra time. Some people just read slowly, and they understand that. The truth is that with most Microsoft exams if you don’t know the answer now then you won’t know it any better in two hours unless you look it up. Because of that although there are time limits, they can be flexible if arranged ahead of time.

Filed under Article, CertGuard, Certification Exams, Certifications, Certs, Exams

Do you have your VirtCerts?

June 16, 2011 1 Comment

Ok I made the term VirtCert up, and frankly I am reasonably hopeful that it doesn’t catch on.  However I know the certifications are, and to help you along, Microsoft is giving you some really huge incentives!

As you know from reading this blog there are three Microsoft certifications around virtualization:

MCTS: Windows Server 2008, Server Virtualization

MCTS: Windows Server 2008, Desktop VirtualizationMCTS(rgb)_1325_1326

MCITP: Virtualization Administrator 2008 R2

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These three certs will help you in your career as an IT Professional.  Through June 30th any of them will do more.  If you are one of the first 1,000 to register (on this site), schedule, take and pass any of the three VirtCert exams (70-659, 70-669, or 70-693), you will receive a complimentary TechNet Subscription.

Remember, in order to qualify you have to sign up for the offer at this site: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/virtualization/gg621183.aspx?ocid=soc-n-us-jtc-DPR-us+FY12Q0+TTFBC.  You have to read the terms and conditions, and you have to pass your exam by June 30.

Good luck!

Filed under Certs, Exams, Hyper-V, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Learning, TechNet, Virtualization

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