Category: MCP
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Replay: Not quite a Second Shot, rather like buying Exam Insurance.
Microsoft certifications are worth the money… but there is certainly money involved. You are paying USD$165.00 to sit an exam, whether you pass or fail. Some time ago, Microsoft started offering Second Shot vouchers. As long as you pre-registered for it, you would get the chance to re-sit an exam in the event that you did…
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Are you a Microsoft Certified Professional?
As we celebrate twenty years of Microsoft Learning, it is amazing to see some of the changes that the certification program has gone through. I remember the first day I was ever able to call myself a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP). It was March 31, 2003, and I was ecstatic! When Microsoft Learning unveiled the…
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MCITP: Server Boot Camp, Virginia Beach
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…
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Certifications Alone Do Not Make the Pro
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…
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Choose Your First Certification Exam Wisely
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…
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A Brief Comparison of Features Between VMware and Hyper-V (Guest Blogger)
A few months ago Chris Childerhose, a consultant and MCITP with a local Microsoft Partner, impressed me when the afternoon of Day 5 of my class on Windows Server Virtualization (10215A) he sat the exam 70-659 and scored a perfect 1000. He has since gone on to pass the remaining exams to earn the certification…
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Five GREAT tips to remember when taking certification exams
I just read a blog article by Christopher Harrison, the Head Geek at GeekTrainer. He points out five key things to remember when sitting certification exams. Read them, know them, live them! Then pass your exam! –M http://blog.geektrainer.com/2011/06/taking-certification-exams.html
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The Wonder that is TechEd
The quiet of the Exhibitor Hall is disturbed by the sounds of preparation. To my left there is a crew frantically working to fix something with a carpet. There is some hammering, more yammering, and the sounds of carpet tape being unfurled. To my right there are two security agents talking, but they are too…
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Microsoft Certification Exams Going Up.
It has been ten years since I took my first Microsoft certification exam. At the time it cost $100 (USD) for the privilege. Shortly thereafter (I suspect sometime within 2001) that cost increased to $125 (USD) per exam, which is where it is today. Recently Microsoft Learning announced that on July 1st (August 1st in…
The World According to Mitch 