Have Fun Getting Certified

My quest for Microsoft Certification started off innocently enough by getting study material for the MCDST certification (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdst/default.asp). Our management and senior team members had evangelized certification and distributed material so that everyone could have a go. The first two shots were hits - I wrote 70-271 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-271.asp) and 70-272 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-272.asp) on Fridays of 2 subsequent weeks in June 2004 and emerged successful with a MCDST certification. These were just exams on supporting users and applications on Windows XP – which were pretty easy and gave confidence that MCPs were possible. Then there was a lull as I decided to strategize on the best way ahead with certification.

During the lull, I played with many an opinion ranging from "Certification holds no real value" to "Certification will add value". Luckily, I was among a small percentage of the population for whom certification was subsidized ... 100% Not only that - I also had access to study guides and official curriculum :) With such an advantage, it did not make sense to stay away from it. Besides, if I was able to contribute to the learning effort within the team or the company, it would benefit the employer in terms of employee skill development. So why not! Thus my journey began towards achieving a "premier" Microsoft certification.

That was when I found that there was a plethora of options to choose from - http://www.microsoft.com/learning/default.asp .I decided on a path of maximum certification with minimum exams. As far as studying goes, I was sure on 2 things - 1 thing at a time, and certainly not on weekends!

One thing I forgot to mention was that, at the time of considering all this, I was working for another company and one that wanted me back at some point of time. That was relevant from point of view of the time I would have to finish the certifications. If you tell a kid that you would be taking them away from the beach in some time, they try to prolong their stay there and try to enjoy all that they can. I had a good reason to do as many certifications as I could. But I would be sensible – the certifications had to add value and they should not interfere with my work or my weekends.

That led to “the plan” in terms of certifications and dates for the exams –
MCDBA - 228, 229, 290/291, 293
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdba/requirements.asp)
MCSE - 290, 291, 293, 294, 270, 297, 228/229
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcse/requirements.asp)
MCSA - 290, 291, 270, 228
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsa/windows2003/)
MCSD - 305, 306, 310, 300, 229
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsd/requirements.asp)

I was clearly targeting MCSA, MCDBA and MCSE because of the synergy between the exams required for those certifications. I decided to leave MCSD for last…like saving the best for the last.

Date Exam
Sep 30 270
Oct 8 229
Oct 15 228
Oct 19 291
Oct 21 290 (MCSA)
Oct 29 293 (MCDBA)
Nov 1 294
Nov 5 297 (MCSE)

These exams I planned to do based on the results of the earlier ones -
Nov 12 305
Nov 19 306
Nov 26 310
Dec 3 300 (MCSD)

I decided that I was going to give it all a nice shot and see what happened. It is not really as simple as deciding to give it a shot – you got to allocate your waking hours to the preparation as much as you can – that is the only guarantee to a hint of success. Success needs a lot more than that including experience with the topics covered in those exams.

Date
Exam Result

Sep 30
270 Pass
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-270.asp)

This exam involved reading a big book about installing, configuring and managing Windows XP – you’ll discover that there’s more to XP than meets the eye. I had to do this straight after a night shift till that afternoon when I had the exam. I had been reading a different book till then and had to really pull my socks to read this big one. Suffice to say that it really paid off

Oct 8
229 Passing score: 700 My Score: ??? 700!!!
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-229.asp)

How lucky can a man get? Designing databases was something I did in my first job and obviously I was still rusty there. The official curriculum material that I had was pretty good but it provided more details than needed. I could not work with SQL on my machine due to various reasons and depended more and more on the book.

This was a big turning point – now it was major league certifications – no more easy papers like windows XP ones.

Oct 15
228 Passing score: 700 My Score: ??? 700!!!
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-228.asp)

Designing databases is my strength. And I had problems clearing that exam. Installation and configuration of SQL was something that I was not too much familiar with as the SQL Servers were zealously guarded by the DBAs in my previous organizations. Despite this I found…. lightning does strike the same tree twice – I couldn’t believe my luck when I cleared this paper!

Oct 19
291 Fail
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-291.asp)

Too much Windows can stop you on your tracks – especially if too much IP numbering and details were involved – at least for me – as I could not really get going with my preparation for this exam. I got stuck in the early chapters of the book and did not really focus on the tools that hogged the questions.

Oct 21
290 Pass
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-290.asp)

I was still positive and this Windows Server 2003 paper did not really offer much resistance – this was one of my better papers as I could really study the book thoroughly. I had always been meaning to learn more about operating system issues and had never gotten to that. This exam was a time when I could really ramp up the learning.

Oct 29
293 Fail
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-293.asp)

This was the last straw – the preparation was not really great and the exam questions gave choices of which I knew nothing – I decided to cancel the upcoming papers and prepare for battle afresh.

Nov 1 294
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-294.asp)
Nov 5 297 (MCSE)
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-297.asp)

At this point, I had the option to join Microsoft and continue enjoying the privileges of certification. I was very glad to take up the offer and decided to give certifications a shot once I got settled in as a full timer. This was in December.

At some point in February I realized that I had unfinished business to take care of and started preparations again. I always looked at performance from a quarterly perspective and each quarter I decide to play and relax some and then get into serious study groove for 1 month at least. Somehow I could not get studies really going and fared poorer in my exam attempts in Feb than at earlier times. That was on the 18th of February and the culprit was 291 again.

Feb 18
291 Fail

Somehow, I felt more confident with 293 where the details were not really tested in the exam and took up that on 18th March after some juggling with the schedule as my preparation wasn’t really taking off – I was flabbergasted to find the score pop out the screen as 650 just 50 marks short of an MCP in 70-293 and the much coveted MCDBA certification remained out of grasp.

Mar 18
293 Fail (by 50 marks)

Even though I had a booking for 291 on 29th March, I was not really confident about that and neither did I have the books which were out of the library. I allowed the booking slot go to someone else and to try the certification later. Suddenly, I had the inspiration that I had not considered one option to complete the MCDBA certification – a programming certification. I was determined to somehow complete the certification by March and decided to go for a programming certification where I was more familiar with the terminology and could make informed guesses if things did not go my way – luckily, I got the same slot and booked an exam 70-306.

Mar 29
306 Pass
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-306.asp)

Successfully attained an MCDBA!
(http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdba/requirements.asp)

The exam was pretty easy and provided ample opportunities for intelligent guessing provided you had good knowledge of ADO.NET, Global Assembly Cache and Visual Studio .NET project types. Finally, the much coveted “premier certification” mountain had been scaled – not just by intellect, but by persistence and perseverance.

To put things in perspective, let’s not forget that all this was achieved working different shifts, and roaming around Bangalore and Chennai on weekends totally having fun! Except for that one weekend when I preferred to study rather than watch India lose to Pakistan in the final test match.

Hopefully, I will continue adding to this collection and serve as a reminder that, with proper planning and dedication, you can achieve more than you thought possible!