Voice of the DBA

Tag: certification

  • SQL Server 2012 Beta Exams

    I signed up for a few of the SQL Server 2012 Beta certification exams, and have been going through them over the last few days. The exams I signed up for are:

    I took the first one on Monday, and the second on Wednesday. I have the other two scheduled for Friday and next Wednesday.

    I can’t really comment on what was in the exam, but I did see some evolutions of the testing software, which was nice. I like a few of the changes, and they should help people demonstrate a few more skills than the old multiple-guess exams. There are still multiple choice questions, but some new ways to ask someone to show knowledge.

    I’m not really worried about being certified, but I do like to see how the certification process works, I might write some stuff to help people (I’ve worked on three cert books in the past) and most importantly, I get a rough idea of what I know on the exams. They’ll ask me a few things I might not have looked at in depth, and I certainly found a few holes in my knowledge over the last few exams.

    If you have the chance to take a beta, I’d encourage you. They’re free, and the time they take can be a valuable aid in helping plan your future learning.

  • Prepping for Certification

    Having prepped for, taken, and then failed the MCM exam this year, perhaps I’m not the best person to give you advice for certification preparation. However the MCM is a hard test, I did better than I expected, and I was close. Lots of people haven’t passed it on their first try, including a couple people that work with SQL Server every day to build solutions that must work in the real world. A few of them passed on their second try, though I’m not sure if I’ll take it again anytime soon.

    Recently I ran across this preparation post from Susan Ibach on MSDN. I think it’s good advice and if you follow it, you’ll be prepared for the exam. At least you’ll have a good idea on which general areas the exams focus on since there are %s given for each area. I’ve shown part of the SQL Server exam 70-450:

    cert1

    Note that this section, which includes security for the instance, database, schema, and encryption, is 15%. Since the exam is supposed to be around 50-60 questions, this means that you should get about 10 questions on security. You might get 8, you might get 12, but I wouldn’t expect to get 20.

    I know most of you would like a step by step list of things to do for the exam. However these exams are going to test a wide variety of skills, and since 50 questions isn’t a lot, the exam can’t specify tightly which questions will be asked.

    Sidebar: Personally I’d like to see more specific exams, perhaps as specific as security, replication, SSIS, etc., but lots of people don’t want to certify in all those areas. Plus it changes the profits for MS since they have more exams to administer. We’ll see if this changes in the future.

    As a result you need to study a wide variety of materials. For example, for the security section above, you ought to tackle this in 5 sessions. Build yourself a short list of skills to have in each area. I’ll do section one for you. Here is what I’d go read about in BOL and practice in SSMS.

    If you can explain each of these things to someone else, and perform the skills, you should be fine. I would recommend you blog or write about these, because that helps you to learn and remember this stuff. If you blog about them, ask a friend to look at your blog and see if you have correctly described things.

    Once you think you’re OK with all the sections, not perfect and a guru, but you understand these areas, take the exam. If you want extra practice, get a MeasureUp or other practice test.

    There’s no guarantee and you shouldn’t expect one. Go through the material, explain it back to yourself or someone else and you should be able to pass the test.

  • Braindumps and Certification

    I saw a post recently that said that braindumps were the best way to prepare for certifications. It was posted from a certification vendor, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think a lot of people think this.

    That somewhat torques me off. I understand that certification can help someone get a better job, and it is good for a career. That’s fine, and I understand that if you are out of a job, or searching for a better job, that the price of the exam seems a little steep, and if you fail, you are out a decent amount of money. An exam costs $125 in the US, and that’s not an insignificant amount of money.

    However.

    We have enough people that don’t know what they’re doing. We have lots of people that struggle in their jobs, and often then don’t know what to do. Their bosses and co-workers aren’t happy. The struggle and get stressed, and they complain about their jobs. Stability is lower, software quality slides along the floor, and it’s a bad fit.

    Not everyone falls into this category, but having taken quite a few exams, I’d say that if you have some knowledge of SQL Server, and you work through a lot of exercises from any certification book, you’ll be fine. It’s hard, but it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to be competent if you pass the exam.

    Finding ways to pass without being competent, or searching for a guarantee, isn’t good for your career. And it’s certainly not good for mine. Every person that passes who doesn’t really understand what they’re doing makes certifications that much more of a joke, and that much less valuable to employers.

    Which is the point for most people. They get the certification so that employers will be *more* likely to pay them more.

    Do yourself a favor. Study for the exam, learn how to handle the objectives, and then take your chances on the exam.

    There are a number of deals for second takes as well, so be on the lookout for those.