Substitute 70-412 exam

Hi guys, I just noticed that MS offers another "second shot free" chance so I decided to finally finish my way towards MCSA:2012 by passing the third exam. I am however not that much interested in 70-412 exam. As far as I understand it is roughly a year since they loosened the rules and instead of 70-412 exam, you can take 409, 462 or 346 exam.

I am not that interested in 412 and wondering if anyone else has rather gone for something else from the list. I would be keen to know more about Hyper-V (exam 409), but I am not entirely sure if I can build a lab easily (PC > vmware > hyper-v). I remember having some troubles last time setting this up, but don't fully remember where I got stuck.

On the other hand, the SQL exam (462) looks also quite interesting. I used SQL language in the past but never looked "under the hood" and it seems this one might be quite a nice way to choose. Moreover, databases are everywhere nowadays and not many companies have a dedicated DB person so this might be a nice-to-have skill.

Does anyone of you have any experience with the alternative exams?
Cheers!

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Comments

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I would be keen to know more about Hyper-V (exam 409), but I am not entirely sure if I can build a lab easily (PC > vmware > hyper-v)

Do you not have a PC capable of running Hyper-V directly? I have a Windows 8.1 Pro computer (64-bit) and a Core i5 Processor and I can just install Hyper-V through Windows' add features screen.

If you really want to go the SQL route, you also have the option of a dual MCSA with both Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012. 70-411 (which it looks like you passed) subs for Exam 70-463. If you take 462 to finish your Server 2012 MCSA, you would just have to pass 461 to finish the SQL Server MCSA.

I haven't read too many tales yet from people who went that route though; I wonder how many people actually got that dual MCSA.