Price reduction on retiring Microsoft exams (and upgrades)

Price reduction on retiring exams (and VS/SQL upgrade exams)

Complete your Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), or Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA) certification or upgrade your certifications to Visual Studio 2005 or SQL Server 2005 with a 40 percent automatic price reduction on retiring and upgrade exams. The price reduction is valid on:

* All exams scheduled to retire on March 31, 2009
* Upgrade exams from MCAD and MCSD to Visual Studio 2005 and from MCDBA to SQL Server 2005 MCITP... you benefit from the shorter upgrade path AND you get set up for another upgrade path to 2008

This is not an “offer,” meaning you don’t need a code or voucher or anything. To get the reduced price, you just register like usual with Prometric at any worldwide location. Across the board, all of the exams listed below will be priced 40% less than the normal price, permanently. We’re doing this to encourage people to finish up their MCAD, MCSD, or MCDBA certifications before the underlying exams retire. And, of course we want to encourage people who have certifications on older technologies to upgrade.

Last time we retired exams we allowed a “grace period,” where people could complete their exams for a little while after the official retire date, to accommodate people who didn't know in advance or couldn't get a seat in time. Even though that was well intentioned (this just in: we actually prefer that you are not mad at us) the grace period also caused confusion for people who stuck to the dates we announced, and I don't think we'll do that again. So, we’ll try and let everyone know well in advance in case one of these exams is on your to-do list. We're sending out a notice sometime this coming week with a reminder of retiring exams and notice about the price reduction. But not everyone gets that - so please help get the word out.

Here are the exams with reduced price:

* Exam 70-228: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
* Exam 70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
* Exam 70-447: Upgrade: MCDBA Skills to MCITP Database Administrator by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
* Exam 70-300: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures
* Exam 70-301: Managing, Organizing, and Delivering IT Projects by Using Microsoft Solutions Framework 3.0
* Exam 70-305: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
* Exam 70-306: Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
* Exam 70-310: Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework
* Exam 70-315: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
* Exam 70-316: Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
* Exam 70-320: Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework
* Exam 70-330: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
* Exam 70-340: Implementing Security for Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET
* Exam 70-551: Upgrade: MCAD Skills to MCPD Web Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework
* Exam 70-552: Upgrade: MCAD Skills to MCPD Windows Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework
* Exam 70-553: Upgrade: MCSD Microsoft .NET Skills to MCPD Enterprise Application Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework: Part 1
* Exam 70-554: Upgrade: MCSD Microsoft .NET Skills to MCPD Enterprise Application Developer by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework: Part 2
* Exam 70-558: Upgrade: MCAD Skills to MCTS Windows Applications by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework
* Exam 70-559: Upgrade: MCAD Skills to MCTS Web Applications by Using the Microsoft .NET Framework

Those last two are the new upgrade path from MCAD that Gerry talked about.