2ND Free Shot: Dont go away! [Edit: It's Back!]

This is my official goodbye to 2nd Free Shot offered by M$. This offer encouraged me to study heavily. Microsoft please bring it back!!

This was a good marketing ideal by M$. Maybe Comotia should try something similar in order to make additional revenue. I know that M$ benefited greatly from this offer in the last 2 quarters. I think once they realize how much money they have made, they will be re-offering the deal.

Anybody else feel the same way about the 2ND Free Shot offer? Share your thoughts! Also, do you think its CompTia turn to begin offering such deals to help build revenue and popularity for their certs?

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Comments

Baredor

I agree completely. Along the same topic, I'd like to see Comptia reduce their prices. A Microsoft exam costs $125. A Comptia exams costs $207. That pulls a big "WTF" from me.

Chivalry1

I agree. It is a shame that CompTia Exams are so expensive. I am currently studying for Security +, and think the price is expensive. Given the fact that M$ Certs are valued more than CompTia certs. Although after Security + I am finish with Comptia, the Linux + still looks attractive.

So wake up Comptia lets gets some deals going. Maybe if we are lucky Comptia and M$ will go into a price war for certs, and we will begin seeing exams for $50.

RussS

Heck - Sec+ is $500 here in NZ.

That sucks big-time.

NPA24

RussS wrote:

Heck - Sec+ is $500 here in NZ.

Geez, that's expensive.

I think Microsoft should reinstate that offer again. It's a great marketing ploy but I'm sure they benefited as well.

Webmaster

It's a mystery to me how CompTIA can get away with those rates, especially considering the low quality of some exams and their value on a resume. I doubt the certs will ever get any cheaper though, especially the MS exams. Though MS profits from having more MCSA/MCSEs available to implement (supposedly the right way), support and promote their products, not directly from people buying vouchers. After tax, VUE/prometric, your local training center, and the cost of exam developement there's really not much left of the $125 that actually goes to MS.

I'm sure there will be a similar offer in the future. The "hot deals" section at getcertified4less.com is one place to check once in while.

D-boy

yeah I took advantage of the 2nd shot promo. I booked 3 exams and passed 3 exams during that time period, I wish I could of slipped in a couple more exams.... O' well.... For my MCDST I failed one exam and was able to retake for the next week which was very handy....!!!

I would like to see them bring it back!

Ricka182

I used it to my advantage, they should at least extend it for a while.

jbethke70

I just checked the mcp website and it says the 2nd shot promotion got extended to 08/31/05. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/2ndshot/
So now we have an extra 3 months to get all those exams done.

Webmaster

Thanks for the update.

jmc724

Yahoo, yipeee!!! Hooray...

I am amazed with ms...hell yeah, I have no doubts in finishing my mcse now since you get the 2nd shot....I havent done a re-take since I got the promo code but its always good to have it when you need it...thanks ms...

Non-Profit Techie

why pay full price? i havent payed over $100 bucks for a test. I paid only $69 for one. (comptia test)

Starter

I guess the extended 2nd shot includes Prometric testing centers. Can anyone verify this for me?

jmc724

It does...

NPA24

This is pretty sweet and good news that Microsoft extended their offering for the 2nd free shot!!

Baredor

Good stuff. It's nice to have a safety net.

Non-Profit Techie wrote:

why pay full price? i havent payed over $100 bucks for a test. I paid only $69 for one. (comptia test)

Is there any secret you could share to that? I'm getting Comptia vouchers from the local tech college for ~$150, but less would be better.

/usr

Though MS profits from having more MCSA/MCSEs available to implement (supposedly the right way), support and promote their products, not directly from people buying vouchers. After tax, VUE/prometric, your local training center, and the cost of exam developement there's really not much left of the $125 that actually goes to MS.

If you think about it, that makes sense. I'm guessing CompTIA's prices are a bit higher so they can generate a profit from the actual exams. Microsoft most likely sees their profit as the people who are introduced to and certified on their software.

Ricka182

Sweet news!

garv221

jbethke70 wrote:

I just checked the mcp website and it says the 2nd shot promotion got extended to 08/31/05. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/2ndshot/
So now we have an extra 3 months to get all those exams done.

Nice...... I was scrambling yesterday for a testing location because I have a voucher in my inbox I needed to use....Thanks for the update. Thats soooooooooo nice....I love it.

Starter

starter wrote:

Webmaster wrote:

. After tax, VUE/prometric, your local training center, and the cost of exam developement there's really not much left of the $125 that actually goes to MS.

Thanks Johan for the information. It opened my eyes because I was paying like 35 bucks for the testing center on top of the voucher I was buying just to use their facility. I have now changed testing centers and rescheduled the exam with another center for Free.

Chivalry1

I am glad that they have decided to extend the offer. Now I have 3 additional months to finish these exams for MCSA 2k3.

Comptia will still need to come up with some type of marketing strategy. I am sure that the 2ND Free shot offer affected how many people took M$ exams vs Comptia exams. Which in turn affected Comptia's profit margin. Oh well..... Keep it going!

garv221

Chivalry1 wrote:

I am glad that they have decided to extend the offer. Now I have 3 additional months to finish these exams for MCSA 2k3.

Comptia will still need to come up with some type of marketing strategy. I am sure that the 2ND Free shot offer affected how many people took M$ exams vs Comptia exams. Which in turn affected Comptia's profit margin. Oh well..... Keep it going!

Comptia Sucks.