Second shot is back!

Jency83

Hi guys and happy New Year to all of you!

For those wondering about taking an exam in first half of 2015 or those frustrated with a failure and hesitating to retake the exam, here is a great news from MS!

They have the 2nd shot free promo back!

https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/b/weblog/archive/2015/01/05/get-a-free-second-shot-on-mcp-exams-through-may-31

lmoworld

Best news ever!!!!!!!
Horrrayyyyy!!!!

kriscamaro68

Awesome thanks for the heads up.

Chitownjedi

Right on time.

thatguy67

Haha, I noticed this just now and my first reaction was "I gotta run over and tell the folks at TechExams"...this made my hour.

jfmcaninch

Happy New Year indeed! Good for us 70-410 folks

impelse

Good, I was deciding for Cisco or MCSE.

xnx

Thanks for the heads up, I might go after 70-410 now

pjd007

Great news.

The switch from prometric to vue has seen the cost of an exam drop from £99 to £55 and now with a 2nd shot potentially you're looking at £27.50 per exam if you fail first time !

Zorodzai

Chev Chellios

Thanks for the heads up dude, think plenty of us were lurking waiting for this. Happy New Year!!!

Chev Chellios

pjd007 wrote: »

Great news.

The switch from prometric to vue has seen the cost of an exam drop from £99 to £55 and now with a 2nd shot potentially you're looking at £27.50 per exam if you fail first time !

Great news indeed

barberj66

pjd007 wrote: »

Great news.

The switch from prometric to vue has seen the cost of an exam drop from £99 to £55 and now with a 2nd shot potentially you're looking at £27.50 per exam if you fail first time !

Where have you seen It for £55 mate? I've had a look on Vue and it's showing as £99 for me?!

EspiOne

Pure Awesome ness, I will be setting time aside, just for 70-417. Two shots at it last year, NO GO, but that was also preparing for 415/416. I think I will just focus on 417 solely. Thanks for the info.

Piers

Just what I've been waiting for.. thanks for the link!no code required, am I understanding this correctly? you just book the exam again?

pjd007

barberj66 wrote: »

Where have you seen It for £55 mate? I've had a look on Vue and it's showing as £99 for me?!

So once you select the exam you want to book (I'm choosing 411) it shows £99 then once you click through to schedule a test centre it drops to £55.

Maybe some exams are still £99 but prior to xmas I just thought it was a case that prometric were charging £99 and vue £55 so they weren't showing both prices.

barberj66

I just tried the same and still £99, oh well at least there is a 2nd shot on them at the minute. Best get labbing and try getting the 410 done!
Cheers

thatguy67

Maybe this sounds stupid...but we have to simply take Microsoft's word for it? There is nothing indicating a code or anything like that when you register for the exam. If we take any qualified exam during this period, it's only when we schedule the retake that it's free?

I guess a problem with Second Shot a year ago gives me this hesitant feeling.

iBrokeIT

thatguy67 wrote: »

Maybe this sounds stupid...but we have to simply take Microsoft's word for it? There is nothing indicating a code or anything like that when you register for the exam. If we take any qualified exam during this period, it's only when we schedule the retake that it's free?

I guess a problem with Second Shot a year ago gives me this hesitant feeling.

I guess we can't take Microsoft for their word because someone somewhere once had a problem You're right it does sound stupid.

They also switched testing vendors from Prometric to Pearson Vue and changed the Second Shot process.

Yes, according to the terms if you schedule the retake within 30 days its free.

pjd007

iBrokeIT wrote: »

I guess we can't take Microsoft for their word because someone somewhere once had a problem You're right it does sound stupid.

They also switched testing vendors from Prometric to Pearson Vue and changed the Second Shot process.

Yes, according to the terms if you schedule the retake within 30 days its free.

A word of caution, make sure you're really ready for an exam because with this offer it's quite easy to clock up exam attempts and I think you can only take the same exam 5 times in a year.

About this time last year I attempted 410 because I just thought what the hell, I can have a crack at it and do the re-take, in the end I did it on my 3rd attempt (technically it was my 4th time but that's another story !) after a lot more time had passed and I'd put in some solid study.

Burnsie

Tagging this for use later.

B

Louie1277

Well that's awesome!!!!!!!! I already failed twice this would of came in handy right about now.. but it's okay I won't need it when I take my 70-410 in march... wish me lucky again!!!!

alokin123

pjd007 wrote: »

Great news.

The switch from prometric to vue has seen the cost of an exam drop from £99 to £55 and now with a 2nd shot potentially you're looking at £27.50 per exam if you fail first time !

hmm, still costs the same in Australia unless i am doing something wrong.? I just went from the MS website to register for an exam unless going straight via VUE makes it cheaper?

pjd007

alokin123 wrote: »

hmm, still costs the same in Australia unless i am doing something wrong.? I just went from the MS website to register for an exam unless going straight via VUE makes it cheaper?

Not sure why there's a difference to be honest but maybe it's to do with where you take the exam, it's showing as £55 for both 411 & 412 when I've looked at booking so it doesn't appear to be for just 411.

Skelly

iBrokeIT wrote: »

I guess we can't take Microsoft for their word because someone somewhere once had a problem You're right it does sound stupid.

They also switched testing vendors from Prometric to Pearson Vue and changed the Second Shot process.

Yes, according to the terms if you schedule the retake within 30 days its free.

Hey iBrokeIT! Don't be so quick to give thatguy67 a hard time.

The way it's SUPPOSED to work is that when you fail an exam, there should be a retake link that appears on your cert dashboard, or will appear after you select the test.

However...I've spent the last couple of days arguing with both MS and Pearson who keep pointing fingers at each other because the second shot thing isn't getting turned on for me.

I passed an exam the week before, and the results were uploaded to MS in less than 24 hours. But when I failed the test on Saturday, they're saying that the upload failed. I just manually submitted my failed report to MS, and they're going to have to manually enter it in their DB.


So yeah, Second Shot is still having problems.

iBrokeIT

Skelly wrote: »

Hey iBrokeIT! Don't be so quick to give thatguy67 a hard time.

The way it's SUPPOSED to work is that when you fail an exam, there should be a retake link that appears on your cert dashboard, or will appear after you select the test.

However...I've spent the last couple of days arguing with both MS and Pearson who keep pointing fingers at each other because the second shot thing isn't getting turned on for me.

I passed an exam the week before, and the results were uploaded to MS in less than 24 hours. But when I failed the test on Saturday, they're saying that the upload failed. I just manually submitted my failed report to MS, and they're going to have to manually enter it in their DB.


So yeah, Second Shot is still having problems.

He clearly didn't bother to read the article before asking questions about the new Second Shot process.

I've had 2 issues with certification vendors, one Microsoft and one Comptia - both times I've called the vendor number and it was quickly resolved. Any time you have a technical process going between multiple vendors there is the potential for problems for which there is a contact number to resolve them. To suggest Microsoft won't honor their Second Shot program as detailed in their terms is in fact "stupid".

thatguy67

iBrokeIT wrote: »

He clearly didn't bother to read the article before asking questions about the new Second Shot process.

I've had 2 issues with certification vendors, one Microsoft and one Comptia - both times I've called the vendor number and it was quickly resolved. Any time you have a technical process going between multiple vendors there is the potential for problems for which there is a contact number to resolve them. To suggest Microsoft won't honor their Second Shot program as detailed in their terms is in fact "stupid".

I read it, I was just expressing my doubts. I don't care for their new approach (previously they emailed you a Second Shot voucher number). When it comes to discounts/Second Shot I would prefer a voucher code just for the peace of mind, Microsoft could easily withdraw the offer.

I realize it might be some paranoid idiosyncrasy that others might feel is stupid, and you just wanted to chime in and say "yeah it's stupid". It's not a big deal guys...It's pretty much why I added in that phrase "This might sound stupid, but..." because I acknowledge it, some people still want to take it upon themselves to repeat it.

pjd007

thatguy67 wrote: »

I read it, I was just expressing my doubts. I don't care for their new approach (previously they emailed you a Second Shot voucher number). When it comes to discounts/Second Shot I would prefer a voucher code just for the peace of mind, Microsoft could easily withdraw the offer.

I realize it might be some paranoid idiosyncrasy that others might feel is stupid, and you just wanted to chime in and say "yeah it's stupid". It's not a big deal guys...It's pretty much why I added in that phrase "This might sound stupid, but..." because I acknowledge it, some people still want to take it upon themselves to repeat it.

The way I look at it, you book an exam when you think you're ready then if you fail the 2nd shot is a bonus which you can worry about if/when you need it..

These exams are hard enough so I'd spend my time prepping rather than wasting it on worrying about a 2nd shot which I might (hopefully) not need !

ccnpninja

thanks for the info

thatguy67

pjd007 wrote: »

The way I look at it, you book an exam when you think you're ready then if you fail the 2nd shot is a bonus which you can worry about if/when you need it..

These exams are hard enough so I'd spend my time prepping rather than wasting it on worrying about a 2nd shot which I might (hopefully) not need !

Yeah I am taking the exam regardless. I think the more info you have, the more likely you can resolve an issue with the vendor/testing center. Again, it might sound stupid to some and I'm inviting those people to jump in and remind me how dumb it sounds haha.

Jency83

Just FYI, the second shot is back again
"When you schedule and take an MCP exam between July 12, 2015, and January 12, 2016, you are eligible for a free retake if you don't pass on your first attempt. You have 30 days from the date of the failed exam to schedule a retake."