Microsoft Exams- Subject to Change After Release

I read an interesting post today on Trika’s Microsoft Learning Blog regarding Microsoft exam changes. To give you an overview, Microsoft may update the content of their exams after their initial release; however the exam objectives themselves do not change. Microsoft does not alert customers regarding exam changes because any updated exam items continue to map to the course objectives. Any exam updates should not change how you study and prepare for the exams.

According to Microsoft, exams are updated for the following reasons:

• When the underlying technology has a significant update that makes questions within the exam incorrect or irrelevant

• When a question’s performance indicates that the question is not a fair/good representation of your skills and should not be on the test

• When we feel an exam’s integrity may have been compromised.

• We may update an exam to implement a new testing technology (i.e. simulations).

As a Microsoft Certified Partner, all QuickCert Microsoft Certification Training Courses are developed using the official Microsoft course curriculum. In developing our course content, QuickCert has access to the published objective domains, learning kits and prep guides, but not the actual exam questions. This is all keeping with ANSI and ISO accreditation standards. QuickCert courses are taught by MCT’s that are subject matter experts in their particular technology.

My take Trika’s post? If you have the recommended experience in the technology and have prepared for the exam using materials developed with the official course curriculum, any potential exam changes will not pose a problem for you. If you memorize questions and expect that you will pass your certification exams, you just may be out of luck.

In Demand Skills: Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007

Last week at the Tech Ed 2008 Conference in Orlando, FL, all the buzz was about Microsoft’s new SharePoint Server 2007. In short, SharePoint Server 2007 is an enterprise management tool organizations can use to facilitate collaboration, content management, implement business processes, and supply access to information that is essential to organizational goals and processes. One of the great features is that companies can use it to deploy behind the firewall Social Media platforms to facilitate communications and collaboration.

At the date of this publishing, only approximately 6,400 professionals have achieved the MCTS SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring certification to date. Yesterday, I read an article in Redmond Developer reporting a serious shortfall of talented SharePoint developers. My husband, an IT recruiter for a large, national staffing firm agrees with that assessment.

Want to brush up your skills with one of the hottest new technologies and make yourself more employable? Get certified in SharePoint Server 2007! It’s a single exam certification for achieving your MCTS.