Showing posts with label exams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exams. Show all posts

Thursday 12 December 2019

PL-900 Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals Beta Exam

Overview:  This morning, I took the PL-900 Beta exam; it is seriously tough.  I don't think I passed but let us see as the results come out 2 weeks after the beta is closed.

My Thoughts: The exam covers three products: Power BI, Power Apps & Power Automate (formerly called Microsoft Flow) but is extremely wide-ranging on relying Microsoft technology.  You really need to have worked in detail with the products as the questions were not straight forward and often combine multiple related services/products.

What I learnt:  You need to know the 3 products well, and how the interact.  My connectors knowledge could be better, CDS comes in a lot, and my Dynamics 365 knowledge is lacking.  There were some Cognitive service questions that I was not ready to deal with.  It is a good test of knowledge, that has helped me realize I have holes in my knowledge on the Power Platform.

The exam itself:  Microsoft exams become easier as you learn how they ask questions, I found some of the language and questions difficult to follow.   What is the question actually being asked but this is pretty standard in a lot of Microsoft certification exams.

I did the exam remotely using Pearson/VUE software, which is great.  No need to book and go to a test centre.  They check your environment and identification and watch you throughout.  I got a warning for reading aloud, which until that point was awesome as the wording of the questions is not the easiest to understand, but it makes sense as people could record the questions using audio for cheating with brain dumps.

Summary:
  • I am convinced that I failed PL-900.  
  • I learnt a lot preparing for the exam and it was a good experience.
  • I need to look at Dynamics & Cognitive Services in more detail.
  • Remote exams are awesome and secure the way they are done & don't talk to yourself during the exam.
  • I've missed taking Microsoft and other certifications.

Saturday 17 December 2011

70-668 Exam

I wrote the 70-668 Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administrator exam this morning and failed with a score of 647.  I thought I had managed to scrape through and saw that I had failed, rather bruised my ego for about 30 minutes. 

So I had a voucher that needed to be used this year, I've been busy at work (excuses excuses ..) and thought I would know enough to pass as I am thinking of doing the MCM and still need to pass this last of the 4 basic exams.  On the plus side I know that I need to spend more time on:
  • "Designing a SharePoint 2010 Farm Topology"; and
  • "Planning SharePoint 2010 Deployments".
These exams are very useful for ensuring you actually know SharePoint.  I'll have to pay for the exam again and try do it in the new year at some point.  This has highlighted to me that I need more time administering SharePoint and can always use improvement on the technical side of SP2010.

Monday 24 January 2011

SharePoint certification exam thoughts

Overview:  I passed the 70-667 exam on Configuring SharePoint 2010.  This exam looks at installing, upgrading, deploying applications, environment menagement and basic configuration of SP2010.

Thoughts:  The exam is probably the easiest of the SP2010 certification exams I have taken so far but I scarcely  passed.  It's pretty easy passing MS exams if you use brain dumps, I downloaded a brain dump for this paper and it almost identical to the actual exam.  As a certification I think these exams don't prove the person knows SharePoint.  If a candidate for a job has experience and could be bothered to write the exams you probably are getting some degree of confirmation they know SharePoint 2010.

Personally I enjoy taking the exams to test my knowledge. It helps me identify SharePoint topics/areas I don't know well enough and it broadens my knowledge on areas within SP2010 I don't use regularly in my job. This improved my knowledge/diversity giving me better options for solving my clients solutions.  I think most people tend to use what they know well to solve problems.  Being a developer I tend to choose code as my preferred method of achieving a goal when it isn't necessarily the best option.

Microsoft offer a free retake on all their exams until the end of 2011, this is a good thing as it encourages me to do the exams without a brain dump as if you do fail it is a waste of £88.  The exam special also includes a discount for buying multiple exams.

70-573 & 70-576 Dev exams blog post

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Microsoft Certified Professional Developer

I have been working on 2 CodePlex projects over the Christmas break.  I have been meaning to do the SharePoint 2010 exams for the last 6 months but with project deadlines this is the 1st chance I have really had.  I managed to pass the 70-573 & 70-576 this week.  They were actually quiet fun especially the 70-576 exam that was far more challenging.

I found the 70-573 (Application developer) exam much easier as the answers are more cut and dry whereas the architecture exam is fluffy in that multiple answers would work and I tend to lean towards the areas I would use to implement a solution, my method may not be optimal so i think i got stuck there a bit.  I found some of the terminology/wording confusing but overall they are good examinations of SharePoint knowledge.

Blog post after the 70-667 SP2010 Configuration exam blog post