I passed 70-417, MCSA Windows Server 2012! My Experience

Last week I sat for exam 70-417, Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012 and I was able to take it successfully. I am now Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate on Windows Server 2012 and also, this is the first exam when I get the Charter Member Certificate!

What is a Charter Member?

Charter Members are the pioneering group of individuals who achieve a certification within six months following the retail release date of the certification. (People who pass the beta exams will receive the Charter certificate after the certification is commercially released.) Charter Members are recognized by receiving the Charter version of the certificate, acknowledging their early adoption of the technology solution. The Charter version of the certificate has the word “Charter” imprinted across the top.

Here is the new Logo I got :

My opinions about the exam:

As you know, when you take an exam you are under a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) so I wont talk or answer questions about the questions in the exam, however I can say this:

The exam is in 3 parts (one for every exam that you usually need for your MCSA 2012) and you have 20-20-21 questions. You do them one section at a time, and once you finish a section, you cannot go back to review or change the answers.
In a question on the exam, they refer to “Windows Server 8” instead of “Windows Server 2012” (I actually made a comment about that at the exam review at the end )
Your final score is the lowest score of the 3 sections, so if you score 900-900-680, you fail the exam at 680.
The exam software doesn’t warn you that you didn’t read the full question anymore. Before, when you made an answer, and lets say you didn’t read the last 1-2 lines of the question, you had a popup warning you.
Lately, Microsoft has been pushing a lot towards PowerShell, and in ALL the new products certifications you need to know about PowerShell. I don’t know how many PowerShell questions you will have in your exam, but if you don’t know PowerShell, you won’t pass for sure!.
The graphics on the new exam are a lot better!

Study Material and Special Thanks

All the Materials in this post: Free Windows Server 2012 Learning Material & Resources! Part 1
Windows Server 2012 Upgrade Jump Start that can be found here: JUMPSTART
Keith Mayer’s Early Expert Challenges that can be found here: Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” Challenge
Special Thanks to Mitch Garvis and Pierre Roman for the Windows Server 2012 IT Camps
Canadian IT Pro Connection’s Listing of learning opportunities (done by the same two guys above)

My Certification Path

As I posted a few weeks ago, having the MCSA Windows Server 2012 is required to get MCSE SharePoint 2013, and that is what I want to reach eventually.

Now, that the 70-331 and 70-332 won’t be out until February 5th, 2013 I got time to play around with SharePoint 2013 so when they come out I will be comfortable to take them.

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