Category: Certification Exams
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Outside My Comfort Zone
While my focus has of late shifted to cybersecurity, I have spent most of my teaching career focusing on Microsoft technologies. It made sense, since as an IT consultant I had always specialized in Microsoft infrastructure technologies. Even with my recent shift to infosec, I am still the go-to instructor for the Microsoft stack for…
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Stackable Certifications Revisited
Nearly five years ago I wrote an article about Stackable Certifications. This was when I had just earned my first two stackable certifications from CompTIA because I had passed A+, Network+, and Security+. For passing four CompTIA exams I had earned five certifications (adding CIOS and CSIS to those three). I am not sure if…
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Certified in Cybersecurity
I have been security-minded for most of my adult life. Whether or not I have always lived it is another matter, but I have learned my lessons and have done my best to continually improve. While I have been taking IT certification courses and exams for nearly twenty-five years, it was only in 2022 that…
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Not Passing and Failing
I maintain a spreadsheet that lists every single certification exam that I have sat since my first one in December of 2001. Each line consists of the date, the exam title, the exam code, the result, and the certification that it was applicable to (since many certifications, especially in those early days, required multiple exams…
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Online Certification Exams – Are they worth it?
Every class I teach I get questions about certification exams. I do not mean about the value of certifications, although there is that too… and I will revisit that topic in a later article. I mean about the exam experience. When I took my first exams, I had the choice of taking it at a…
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Stackable Certifications
While I have been chasing Microsoft certifications for two decades, I never gave any real thought to CompTIA. I had nothing against them, I just never pursued them. And then a couple of years ago, a training broker reached out and asked me if I would deliver Network+ and Security+ courses for one of their…
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Another Exam Experience… a harrowing one!
Someone asked me recently why I used to prefer going into a testing centre to sit my certification exams. I told them that if anything went wrong, the staff had a direct line to get faster support, but that fewer things were likely to go wrong. This week I sat my third exam in the…
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Wouldn’t You Know It?
Last Tuesday I passed a certification exam that was quite valuable. It was a difficult exam, but in the end the system congratulated me. I was extremely happy… and then I had to wait. Minutes, hours… it was not until the next morning that I received the email from CompTIA congratulating me on my new…
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Exam Retakes
Certification exams are not cheap. Depending on the certification (and the certifying body) they can range from $100 to… well, much more. That is one of the reasons I have always been nervous about sitting exams – passing is great, but if you fail… not only do you walk out of the exam room with…
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Certification Exams… At Home Again.
· I should go back and see just how many posts I have written about certifications… if I can count that high. It has long been a topic that I have been passionate about, and that has not changed. When I looked at my Microsoft Learning Transcript the other day I was surprised to see…
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Don’t Do It…
A few days ago, a former student emailed me the most unfortunate question. I have been an IT trainer for fifteen years. For much of that time, and with few exceptions, I have been giving out my personal contact information. I have always told my students that even though the class is over, I am…
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The Exam Room: Welcome Home!
I have, over the years, written many articles about certification exams, and about the exam process. Some of what I was about the actual exam experience… including Time Tips for Certification Exams. So many of my exam experiences involved driving to a testing centre. Fortunately the last few exams that I have taken – and…
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The End of An Era… Again.
Around 2005-2006, when I was running the Montreal IT Professionals Community, Microsoft announced that due to a lawsuit from the Quebec Order of Engineers, Microsoft would be eliminating the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) designation in the province of Quebec. As a community leader I rallied against that; my position was that it would create…
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Microsoft 365 Certified
In mid-September, the recruiting department of my company introduced me to the man who would become my manager at my new client. He told me he reviewed my CV, and did not see Microsoft Office 365 listed on it. I told him honestly that while I have worked with the technologies before, I never felt…
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Juju Revisited
It is hard to believe that thirteen years ago I sat down at the Java U café at the corner of Queen Mary Rd. and Circle Rd. in Montreal and wrote an article about superstitions. It was called Don’t Mess with Juju! and it was one of the most popular articles that I wrote that…
The World According to Mitch 