The MCSE is back! Microsoft has redefined the certification paths and brought back the MCSE for the ITPros and MCSD for developers. In this session I’ll help you understand the new certification paths and help you figure out how you can get certified. We’ll talk about what certification you might want to take, what exams are required, and some tips on how to study and take the exams. Susan Ibach is a developer evangelist at Microsoft Canada. That means she loves to talk about Windows 8, Windows Phone, HTML5, and the cloud. She has worked as a consultant doing programming, testing, data conversions and roll-outs. She has also worked as a trainer teaching Oracle, SQL Server, .NET, and Business Analysis. When she is not staring at an LCD screen, she is probably doing martial arts with her kids, out running or enjoying her husband’s cooking. The recording of the webinar is available here: http://www.traincanada.com/site/event/microsoft-certification-101/

1. Microsoft
Certification 101

2. Who am I
• Susan Ibach
• Technical Evangelist
• Microsoft Canada
• Sibach@microsoft.com
• @hockeygeekgirl

3. Session Objectives And Takeaways
• Session Objectives
o Identify certification that matches your skills
o Identify resources to help you prepare for your first
certification exam
o Identify strategies to help you take your first
certification exam
• Takeaways
o Action plan to select, prepare for, and take your first
step towards becoming Microsoft certified

4. You want a successful career
• Getting certified builds your
skills
• Getting certified shows your
employer (or potential
employer) you are taking
initative to keep up with
technology

5. You already know a lot!

6. How do you turn that knowledge into certification

7. There are 4 steps to certification
4 - Take exam
2 - Find gaps
3 - Fill gaps
1 - Choose
certification
goal

8. 1 - Choose certification goal
1 - Choose
certification
goal

9. Which best describes you?
• I have hands-on experience
• I design solutions using the product
• I am a Product Guru (I want to be the expert!)

10. Your answer determines your target certification level
• Master: Master series
Master • Expert:
MCSE, MCSD, MCPD,
Expert MCITP
• Associate:
MCTS, MCSA
Associate

11. Regardless of your final goal, start with
associate exams
• Shows you know “how” to work with the product
• MCSA
o Windows Server 2012, Windows Server
2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, SQL Server 2012
o Require 2-3 exams
• MCTS (some of these exams retire in July 2013)
o Exchange, Lync, Project Server, SharePoint
o Require 1-2 exams

12. If you are a designer/architect, next, tackle the
“Expert”
• Experts know why and when to use products
• Has one or more pre-requisites from Associate level certifications
• MCSE
o Desktop, Server, Private Cloud, SQL
Server, Messaging, SharePoint, Communication
• MCITP (many of these exams retire in July 2013)
o Windows 7, Window Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Project Server
2007, Exchange 2007, SharePoint, Lync
• MCSD
o Windows Store, Web Applications
• MCPD (many of these exams retire in July 2013)
o Windows Developer, Web Developer, Azure Developer

13. Finally, if you want to be a guru, set Masters as
a long term goal
• Masters identify individuals with the deepest
technical skills available on a particular Microsoft
technology
• Expert Series is a pre-requisite
• Requires completing a 2-3 week course (or self-
study) + a lab exam and computer based tests

14. Find the Associate Certification that best
matches your skills
• Visit Microsoft Learning site for a list of all the
MCSA and MCTS Certifications and the
corresponding exams

15. Which exam should you try first?
• Windows Server
o 2012: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
(Exam 70-410)
o 2008: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring
(Exam 70-640)
• Windows Client
o Windows 8: Configuring Windows 8 (Exam 70-687)
o Windows 7: Windows 7, Configuring (Exam 70-680)
• Exchange 2010
o MCTS Exchange Server 2010, Configuring (Exam 70-662)

16. Which exam should you try first?
• SharePoint 2010
o MCTS Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring (Exam 70-
667)
• SQL Server
o 2012: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (Exam 70-461)
o 2008: SQL Server 2008 Installation and Maintenance
(Exam 70-432)
• Visual Studio 2010
o MCTS .NET Framework 4, Web Applications (Exam 70-515)

17. Which exam should you try first?
• Web developer
• Visual Studio 2010 MCTS .NET Framework 4, Web
Applications (Exam 70-515)
• Windows 8 developer
o Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3
(Exam 70-480)
o Programming in C# (Exam 70-483)

18. 2 – Find gaps
2 - Find gaps
1 - Choose
certification
goal

19. Check the exam preparation guide to see what is covered
• The Skills Measured tab gives a list of the topics
on the exam and the % weight on each topic

20. Take a practice test to find out what you don’t know
• Microsoft has two partners that create practice tests
you can use to study SelfTest Software and
MeasureUp
• You have to pay for them, but personally I find it
worth a few bucks.
• At the end of the practice test, use score sheet to
identify areas for further study
• For the newest certifications, there may not be
practice exams yet, but when you are ready to
study, go check to see if they have been released.

21. 3 – Fill gaps
2 - Find gaps
3 - Fill gaps
1 - Choose
certification
goal

22. Identify study materials
• The Exam Preparation Guide includes a
Preparation Materials Tab which lists
recommended materials for study

23. What types of resources will be listed?
• Learning Plans (free) – these are created by Microsoft Learning to
point you to articles and materials for a particular technology or
exam
• E-Learning ($) – these are online courses you can take to learn a
particular technology
• Books (free/$) – MSPress and other publishers will produce good
books you can study, e-books are sometimes free
• MSDN (free) – MSDN articles and whitepapers
• TechNet (free) – TechNet articles and whitepapers
• MSPress Exam guides ($) – For the more popular exams, MSPress
actually produces books to help you prepare

24. What if there are no resources listed!!!
• Then you use the Skills Measured tab as your checklist
• Download the software and try features for yourself
• Then for study materials I recommend you just *Bing it!*
o MSDN
o TechNet
o Blog Posts
o Dev.windows.com (has tons of Windows 8 developer content)
o You can often get free e-books for new content like Windows 8 and
Windows Server 2012 keep an eye on the Born To Learn blog

25. Here’s good free e-books for the MCSD & MCSE
www.aka.ms/ws2012ebook

26. Search for online labs like this one
www.aka.ms/servervlabs

27. Check for a Learning Plan
• Search the Learning Catalog for a Learning Plan
that corresponds to your exam or technology

28. Customize a practice test to quiz you on weak areas
• Both Self Test Software and MeasureUp allow
you to customize the practice tests to give you
questions on a specific topic or subject area

29. 4 – Take exam
4 - Take exam
2 - Find gaps
3 - Fill gaps
1 - Choose
certification
goal

30. Second Shot is your friend
• Watch for second shot promotions that can give you a
free second try if you fail the first time.
• Register for this BEFORE you schedule your exam.

31. Register for the exam
• Register at www.prometric.com
• When you register you choose the testing centre where
you want to take your exam, as well as the date and time.
• Your best bet is to book the exam and then plan your
study time. Booking the exam gives you a deadline.
• A few of these exams are still in beta, so you may not be
able to schedule them today. Most of them are live by
end of October.

32. What to expect when you arrive
• Arrive 15-30 minutes before exam starts
• Bring Photo ID
• Get a good night‟s sleep
• Closed book exam
• Cell phones must be turned off
• You will receive a sheet for note taking during
the exam

33. When you start the exam
o DON‟T PANIC
 You will not know all the answers
 Don‟t give up half way through

34. All exams have similarities
• 40-60 questions
• 700 to pass (700 <> 70%)
• 1-4 hours to complete exam
• Some exams have simulations
• You must scroll through entire question and answers
before going to next question
• Yes, when you finish you get an opportunity to review or
go back to change answers
• 80/80 Rule

35. Exam questions follow a standard structure
• Background: Existing technology environment
and business scenario
• Problem Statement “You need to…”
• One or more correct answers
• Multiple incorrect answers

36. Answers can be provided in different ways
• Multiple-choice, single-answer questions
• Multiple-choice, multiple-answer questions
• Hot area questions
• Drag and drop questions
• Build list and reorder questions
• Case studies

37. There are some strategies you can use for
answering questions
• Eliminate wrong answers
• Spot the difference
• Look for two answers that can‟t both be right (you can‟t
set Security=Public and Security=Private at the same
time!)
• When in doubt, it‟s probably the new feature
• Guess! You don‟t lose points for wrong answers
• Your first guess is probably right
• Mark answers you don‟t know for review, a later question
might help

38. Sample question
You are a database administrator for your company. Your company stores all its
product data in a SQL Server 2008 database named Products.
Eric, a user in your database, complains that he is not able to access the tables
created by another user, Adam, through a stored procedure. However, Adam is
able to access the tables through the stored procedure. You need to ensure that
Eric is able to access the data while minimizing excessive permissions.
* Question courtesy of SelfTest Software

39. Sample question
• What should you do?
o A. Grant the CREATE TABLE permission to Eric so that he can create new
tables.
o B. Ask Adam to recreate the stored procedure with the RECOMPILE
option.
o C. Grant the db_owner role to Eric.
o D. Ask Adam to recompile the stored procedure with the EXECUTE AS
OWNER clause.
* Question courtesy of SelfTest Software

40. Sample question
You are the administrator of the Verigon Corporation. All user workstations have
been upgraded to Windows 7. You want to control the .dll files that users are
allowed to load on their workstations. What can you do to allow only approved
.dll files to be loaded onto workstations
* Question courtesy of SelfTest Software

41. Sample question
• Choose two. Each correct answer is part of the solution
o A. Enable the DLL rule collection in AppLocker in the Local Security Policy MMC snap-in
o B. Create allow rules for each DLL that is used by any allowed applications in AppLocker
o C. Create a new Internet Zone rule for each .dll
o D. Set the security level to Disallowed in the Local Security Policy MMC snap-in
o E. Set the security level to Unrestricted in the Local Security Policy MMC snap-in
* Question courtesy of SelfTest Software

42. Sample question
You are the Exchange Administrator for the Nutex Corporation‟s Exchange 2010
organization. Your company has acquired a state-of-the-art high definition
projector that can be used in meetings. You want to create a mailbox for the
projector so that users in the company can request its use.
What must you do to create a mailbox with the least number of possible steps?
* Question courtesy of SelfTest Software

43. Sample question
A. Use Active Directory Users and Computers to create an account named Projector, then run the
following script New-Mailbox –Name „Projector‟ –Alias „Projector‟ –UserPrincipalName
„Projector@nutex.com‟ - -Database „DB01‟ -Equipment
B. Use Active Directory Users and Computers to create an account named Projector, then run the
following script New-Mailbox –Name „Projector‟ –Alias „Projector‟ –UserPrincipalName
„Projector@nutex.com‟ - -Database „DB01‟ -Room
C. Run the following script: New-Mailbox –Name „Projector‟ –Alias „Projector‟ –UserPrincipalName
„Projector@nutex.com‟ –SamAccountName „projector‟ –Firstname „projector‟ – Initials „‟ –Lastname „‟ - -
Database „DB01‟ -Equipment
D. Run the following script: New-Mailbox –Name „Projector‟ –Alias „Projector‟ –UserPrincipalName
„Projector@nutex.com‟ –SamAccountName „projector‟ –Firstname „projector‟ – Initials „‟ –Lastname „‟ - -
Database „DB01‟ -Room

44. What happens at the end of the exam?
• You have the opportunity to review questions and
change answers
• When you end the test you complete an online
evaluation then you see your final score
• Pick up a printout of your final score before you
leave the exam room (even if you don‟t pass)
• When you pass you will receive an e-mail within the
next two weeks with your MCP registration
information and certification information

45. When you pass are you certified forever?
• The newest certifications (MCSE & MCSD) do
require you to complete a recertification exam
every three years.

46. Follow the steps
4 - Take exam
2 - Find gaps
3 - Fill gaps
1 - Choose
certification
goal

47. Get Certified!

48. Good Luck!

49. Microsoft
Certification
101
Susan Ibach
Technical Evangelist, Canada
Susan.ibach@microsoft.com
@hockeygeekgirl