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Microsoft exams and certifications are considered among the most common Certifications in the IT profession.
I would rarely see a resume without at least one of them because they touch on systems as well as database administration, security and communications, programming and development, and even network services. This has put Microsoft in a unique position for setting standards as well as influencing what other exam providers would be offering.
How Microsoft would be handling the tests impacts the general debate about the value of certifications as well as the 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.
Thus, if you wish to have the Certification, you should gain the proper training first, for which I would recommend you to get enrolled in the courses which are being provided by the SPOTO Club.
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.
Exam difficulty
Microsoft's aim about the making exam changes was to make them echo real-world scenarios. However, some of the new questions may 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.
I didn't feel that was 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 have seen little benefit of learning Rights Management Services and Federation Services, which are part of Exam 70-640: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, 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.
I feel Microsoft is marketing its new features by forcing certified admins to learn about them to pass the exams. This is a good strategy, assuming that the features are production-ready, useful and moreover easy to implement.
However, when the exams make the new features seem hard to implement, or not that useful, admins will have a negative response to this and may avoid exploring these services in real life.
Do not be discouraged by this, though. The good news is that a passing score of 700 doesn't mean that you would have to answer 70 percent of the questions correctly, as Microsoft utilizes scaled scores. This would be meaning that the number of questions needed to clear the exam may range from 50-85 percent of the total number of questions.
So, while taking an exam, you are required to do the best you could until the end and hope for a good surprise. During at least three exams, I was sure I wouldn’t clear, but in the end, I was able to score a nice margin above the 700 cut mark.
But, clearly, I wouldn’t be able to do that if; I have the help of the SPOTO Club. SPOTO Club would be the best place for you to gain the required knowledge, for clearing the exam in a single attempt.
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