Category: Career Growth

You are invited to take beta exam 71-564: Pro: Designing and Developing ASP.NET Applications Using the Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5. [more] If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The results will not appear on your transcript until several weeks after the final form of the exam is released. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.

71-564: Pro: Designing and Developing ASP.NET Applications Using the Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5 counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

·          Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: ASP.NET Developer 3.5. In order to earn this certification you must also hold the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Applications.

Availability

Registration begins: November 5, 2008

Beta exam period runs: November 6, 2008– December 1, 2008

Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions).  All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: RSC43
You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.

To register in North America, please call:

·          Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

·          Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Test Information and Support

You are invited to take this beta exam at no charge.
You will be given four hours to complete the beta exam. Please plan accordingly.
Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-564.mspx

You are invited to take beta exam 71-563: Pro: Designing and
Developing Windows Applications Using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. [more]
If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your
transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.
The results will not appear on your transcript until several
weeks after the final form of the exam is released. The 71-xxx
identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when
the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used
for registration.

71-563: Pro: Designing and Developing Windows
Applications Using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 counts as credit
towards the following certification(s).

· Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Windows Developer 3.5.

Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-563.mspx

Availability

Registration begins: October 11, 2008

Beta exam period runs: October 13, 2008– October 30, 2008

Receiving
this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend
that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and
are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots
are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing is
held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not
be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions).  All testing
centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: DW897
You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.

To register in North America, please call:

· Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

· Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Test Information and Support

You are invited to take this beta exam at no charge.
You will be given four hours to complete the beta exam. Please plan accordingly.

 Good luck

** Also note that today is also the last day for the MCTS Database Developer SQL 2008 exams. Unfortunately as much as I would like to I won’t be able to take this exam. Would encourage everyone to take it though, you might be surprised you actually know more than you think you do (like my MCTS BI SQL 2008 exam :D)

Took the MCITP PRO Business Intelligence Developer (71-452 or 70-452 when it becomes live) sometime ago and although there is a non disclosure agreement I hope a few comments would hel. [more]

First of all, let me warn you that I’m not a dedicated BI professional but rather an enthusiast or at least interested and learning to be one someday so I’m not really an expert on the subject.

Secondly, for exam review I would recommend as always no other than the Prep Guide for the exam itself (see following link : Prep Guide for 70-452). If you are not at all familiar then any review would likely do the same thing if you are a bit familiar. Pick up those items you don’t know or familiar of and your bestfriend will be MSDN or google (or any search engine of your choice).

Moving on. Although I know not much it seems that the PRO exams are not too different with the TS exam for BI developer. A good number of technical know how rather than design. Though they may be related for someone not adept on BI I was able to intelligently guess some of the questions.

It is also worth noting that the number of SSRS questions seems to noticeable vs SSIS, SSAS questions.

Nothing that will follow is likely to be not found in the prep guide but will mention a few anyways. Also, unfortunately it has been sometime since I took the exam so I could not recall perfectly whether a certain item was from the TS or PRO exam. But will review the prep guide again soon and update this post accordingly.

Be sure you know when to use data mining algorithms, perform predictions and the basics.

Also review hierarchies and relationships and Change Data Capture (CDC)

You are invited to take beta exam 71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development.
[more]

If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your
transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.
The results will not appear on your transcript until
several weeks after the final form of the exam is released. The 71-xxx
identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when
the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used
for registration.

71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

·          Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2008, Database Development (earned when passing 70-433)

·          Microsoft
Certified IT Professional: Database Developer 2008. In order to earn
this certification you must also pass exam 70-451: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing and Optimizing Database Solutions.

Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-433.mspx

Availability

Registration begins: September 19, 2008

Beta exam period runs: September 22, 2008– October 10, 2008

Receiving
this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend
that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and
are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots
are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing
is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may
not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions).  All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: F589G
You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.

To register in North America, please call:

·          Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

·          Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Test Information and Support

You are invited to take this beta exam at no charge.
You will be given four hours to complete the beta exam. Please plan accordingly.

You are invited to take beta exam 71-451: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing and Optimizing Database Solutions.
[more] (will be 70-451 when live) If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your
transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.
The results will not appear on your transcript until
several weeks after the final form of the exam is released. The 71-xxx
identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when
the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used
for registration.

71-451: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing and Optimizing Database Solutions counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

·          Microsoft
Certified IT Professional: Database Developer 2008. In order to earn
this certification you must also pass exam 70-433: TS: Microsoft SQL
Server 2008, Database Development.

Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-451.mspx

Availability

Registration begins: August 29, 2008

Beta exam period runs: September 2, 2008– September 30, 2008

Receiving
this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend
that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and
are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots
are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing
is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may
not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions).  All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: 14F65
You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.

To register in North America, please call:

·          Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

·          Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Test Information and Support

You are invited to take this beta exam at no charge.
You will be given four hours to complete the beta exam. Please plan accordingly.

Another beta invitation. This time for exam 71-452 (70-452 when live): Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008. This is a PRO (MCITP) level certification to compliment the MCTS exam 71-448 (70-448 when live) released in beta some time ago. [more]

As of this time, I don’t seem to see the exam showing up in prometric’s exam list when I tried to register but I think we should expect to see it very soon.

Read the full article from Gerry OBrien’s blog from the following link : SQL Server 2008 Beta Exam: 71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

There is also some post for a PRO/MCITP level exam for DBA but registration will not be open until August 15 :See following link from TechNet Beta Exam announcements blog that and I think we can expect it from Gerry’s blog soon. 71-450: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution

I don’t think I have time to review for this and my BI skills are only TS level or not even but trust me you learn a lot from just taking the exam. Of course you learn more from reviewing and study for it

Besides, I don’t have to repeat that since it’s a beta exam it’s for FREE (just use the promo code)

If you happen to not know about the Microsoft Learning First To Know promotion (where registration is actually for free) but happen to check out this blog then I’m posting here the communication being sent to those registered (as of today Aug 6). You will find the list of new MCTS exams, the voucher number / promotion code you can use for these exams to get 40% of the standard price in your country and finally some learning resources [more]

I’ll be posting the email as is and I hope someone would find it useful.

Thank you for registering for the “First to Know” Visual Studio 2008
and SQL Server 2008 Exam Offer. Today, we are pleased to announce the
availability of two new Visual Studio 2008 Microsoft Certified
Technology Specialist (MCTS) exams and provide your savings voucher,
helping you to be among the first to certify!

———————————————————————-

Took the SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintainance beta exam today (exam 71-448 which will eventually become 70-448 when it goes live) and here are some of my thoughts [more]

Business Intelligence is more like a hobby (or just in something in my wishlist) for me as of the moment since I haven’t worked on a real world BI application involving all three major components except for Reporting Services.

Nevertheless I’m guessing that someone who passed 70-445 would find the exam easy and pass it like a breeze since like other reviews, there weren’t really much SQL 2008 specific questions.

Going over the preparation guide (here), it looks like most (if not all actually) of the items describe there had corresponding questions in the exam so it’s definitely worth a look. So that’s my hint, pay attention to every item in the prep guide.

The questions are also distributed well across SSIS, SSAS and SSRS and although the prep guide seems to show that SSAS is expected to have more coverage I didn’t feel it that much.

I learn most of the BI stuff from the 70-445 training kit and is a good compliment to the prep guide. If you need to cram though then I suggest just going over prep guide and research the item you’re not that familiar with. I also have the 70-445 transcender prep but I haven’t even seen half the questions so not really sure if it will help a lot. As far as those I’ve encountered from the test prep though, they were definitely helpful.

Overall the exam was satisfactory for me as the prep guide was helpful and being an MCTS exam it was indeed generally more focused on getting a job done rather than making decisions and design for PRO level (MCITP/MCPD exams).

I’m not expecting a very good result from this one but at least got an bit of idea where I am in (relative to the exam and not necessarily in the BI world) and will probably take 70-445 when I get the chance to review. And if I do flunk this one then I’m determined to take the live version even if I don’t really need this for my current work. BI is fun! 🙂

Despite seeing my site being down due to “cannot connect to SQL server” error it was getting for some hours (courtesy of GoDaddy – again not recommended for production), I just received the good news today. I passed MCTS .NET Framework 3.5 – ASP.NET Applications [more]

Received an email with subject “Congratulations on Your Microsoft Certification! Access Your Benefits”.

Congratulations on earning your Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Applications certification! We hope you enjoy the benefits of your certification and of membership in the Microsoft Certified Professional community.

It was in plain text and was of inferior quality compared to previous congratulatory MCP emails (not that the look counts – but just to mention it) but the sender seems authentic and it wasn’t April 1. Nevertheless I went over to prometric website, viewed my candidate history and there it was : Passed. Went further to the MCP site and the logo was available. Here it is:

It might not prove anything to some but I knew I passed it by my own time and efforts so I’m proud of it.

I also just noticed that I have a welcome kit pending. One for my previous MCTS Workflow Foundation and this new one. And wait, I just realized that since this were both taken as beta exams, it would be a charter member kit (so as it says in the web page). I am yet to receive my first charter member kit so not sure what difference it makes. And besides it’s not the benefit, I’m just glad that coming in late to the world of software development somehow I’m making my way to the front.

I’ve posted some blogs about some information/pointers previously (most AJAX client side development) but hope to have a few more soon. And seeing this one, I’m also inspired to move forward to ASP.NET MVC so despite the tons of stuff on my todo list, I ought to find time for it. For the meantime, I haven’t reviewed any for the coming SQL Server DBA and BI MCTS beta for the coming two weeks. I hope I can at least have time to take it. Wish me luck and why don’t you take it too? Could take a few mins/hours but the fruit of your efforts are priceless (whether you get a raise or not) 😀

Ohhh and they had the same beta period and took them the same day, no word from MCTS ADO.NET 3.5 yet. Not confident about that one but maybe 🙂