The New MCSE: How Microsoft Exams Are Changing

In this video, live from TechEd 2012, Krista Wall, Certification Product Manager at Microsoft Learning talks about the new MCSE certifications and how the new exams are changing. Krista explains how the new MCSE certifications are meant to increase the rigor and relevance of Microsoft certifications and how the exams are more challenging than ever before.

Learn how Microsoft is raising the bar with their new certifications and how the changes impact current and aspiring IT professionals working with Microsoft technologies.

MCSE - Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert Exams

I’m sure a similar article was posted before, but I like how they added pictures/video to give you a better idea of some of the changes.

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RomBUS

Interesting video

I think I might've seen the new look on the last exam I took, the way they just showed the screenshot in the video looked exactly the way I had my exam looked before with the questions and the way the UI looked

mikedisd2

Great, they're bringing back 'choose all that apply'. Very rigourous.

I had a few question 'sets' with the same answer choices in the exam I failed last week. Because I didn't know all of the parameters that went with a particular cmd, I got to fail 3x questions instead of 1.

pumbaa_g

Saw the Questions with 8+ options the last time on 642, difficulty level is definitely more. Unless you read it really carefully and know what you are doing you will opt for the incorrect answer.

mikedisd2

pumbaa_g wrote: »

Saw the Questions with 8+ options the last time on 642, difficulty level is definitely more. Unless you read it really carefully and know what you are doing you will opt for the incorrect answer.

It just means you need to know all switches/options for all commands/action items. If this was realistic, we wouldn't need /?.

pumbaa_g

I didnt mean the commandline switches for my exam. I got a few questions which are like small essays, and had 8+ answers. Within that paragraph they will have a sentence which if you can pick it up and understand the topic give you the correct option. On the flip side if you overlook the statement while reading the question you will definitely come up with a completely different answer.

Slowhand

It's not really so much about knowing all the switches and options for the exam, it's about knowing the common ones. Keep in mind that these tests assume you have a certain amount of experience before going in, so asking you for the most-used switches on NetDom or knowing what the common parameters are for most PowerShell commands isn't unreasonable. Since they assume you've used these tools for a while, or at least labbed out what's on the exam blueprint, you've used most of the tools and interfaces enough to know what you're doing without stumbling back to the help files for everyday-type of things.

Imagine how long it would take you to do just about anything if you didn't have any familiarity with the tools and had to look at the help files for every step you took, whether it was on the GUI or the command-line. Just think how much fun managing Core servers would be if you had to stop and look at the help files for every other word you typed. It would be an absolute nightmare to try to get anything done with GPOs even in the GUI; there are help-files for every single GPO setting for example, but at least being familiar enough with ones you would use on a regular basis will increase your productivity significantly and make you look that much more professional while the boss (or underlings) are watching.