FYI, below is an excerpt from the April 2005 issue of Certification Magazine:
"Microsoft has added simulation components to exams for its Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) credentials. The performance-based tests were added to the programs to raise the bar on exam content and delivery, said Al Valvano, manager of business and product strategy for certification at Microsoft Learning.
Participants will proceed through the new tests in a branching fashion; that is, implementing solutions in stages and even hitting "dead ends" if they apply the wrong answers to problems. 'Basically, how it works is that it's fairly open-ended, much like you would experience with virtual training, where it's up to the candidate to work through the problem and implement the solution,' Valvano said. 'What that means is that there may be multiple right ways to accomplish the end state, and the simulation allows for that. It's not like we're testing for a specific, prescriptive set of walk-throughs that we would evaluate against, unless, of course, there is only one right way.'
A free online demo of the simulation, which was released last month, is currently available on the Microsoft Learning Web site.
For more information, see
www.microsoft.com/learning."
Sounds like Microsoft is making their certification exams more like Cisco's.
