Mastering Microsoft Certification Exam Prep

About this course

hello and welcome to another Microsoft Virtual Academy course this time we're doing some little bit different instead of talking really about technology about

a specific given product or solution we're going to talk to you more about our certification exams that relate to those product solutions and services and really get you as prepared as we

possibly can to take those certification exams and hopefully join us in the ranks of black soft certified what is it these days what does the my understanding is that it's Microsoft Certified

Professional okay MP I think I should know that but we've uh I know the titles have changed a couple of times so it's good to keep up I would say it's good to keep up on what the what the title is

but at the end today you've got a certification you actually get what we would call a certification from a single exam being passed so we're here for this mastering Microsoft certification exam

prep and we're going to teach you all about that way I'm here with my name is Tim Warner and I work as a author and Technology evangelist for Pluralsight computer-based technology company

training company and I've been a Microsoft specialist since 1997 my first MCP to mention those initials that are still around was in windows NT 4 and yes I filled mine is also an mp4 in short

I'm an IT generalist I love everything the entire Microsoft stack database development windows now with Azure cloud containers you name it and so like you were saying Christopher this training is

going to be highly impactful for you regardless of your job role does it really matter we're focusing on IT certification skills

period our agenda consists of eight modules this one very brief just an introduction to the course then we start getting into the so-called meat and potatoes

understanding Microsoft certification going to the Microsoft learning / learning experiences website and I'll show you we'll show you exactly the best most cogent if you don't mind the

five-dollar weird spots to understand how certification works and module three we look at a what I call the study pyramid more on that later no point getting bogged down with it now but the

next four five and six break down each side of that pyramid essentially we have content knowledge hands-on practical experience and then test taking skills that's really and I think you'd agree

Christopher I mean if you have an imbalance in any of those three sides you're going into your certification exam at a big disadvantage yes absolutely they I would see with some of

the things were going to talk about the the PBT the performance-based testing which is a new thing Microsoft learning has started doing some of that changes a little bit test taking skills

change a little bit when you're actually doing it versus multiple choice fill in the blank true/false questions like that but it is still I mean you're going to need to know time pressures and and

answering questions taking the time to read them answer them correctly while dealing with the fact you're on a clock so yes they also matter yeah and then the final two modules of the course

today we'll look at mastering Microsoft exam workflow practical skills and tips for handling just the same things that Christopher just mentioned time pressure item types and then in the final module

module eight taking your next steps once you earn your first Microsoft certification where are you going next a lot of this course is really about figuring out what colors your parachute

if you remember that old term okay so what's expected of you are learner there's really just three things and the bar to entry is pretty low I think first of all a willingness to learn how to

learn yes there's your willingness to learn the Microsoft technologies but I think also just as important is the desire to learn how to learn not make perfect sense I as funny as I saw

this or as you said that I was thinking to myself that might actually be the biggest barrier for a lot of people it's not the willingness to learn everybody learns every day although most people

don't necessarily some people fight learning what you do you learn something every day learning how to learn is a whole different thing especially you know I'm not in school anymore I don't

need to be taught how to take a test I know how to do that I did it for years all right that doesn't mean you can't get better at it every day yeah to be teachable that that's a big point here

yeah and as we say domain knowledge in other words actual subject matter knowledge is we're going to learn as just one third of the equation well and these days I I'm going to jump right

into the into the meat potatoes and say with with content knowledge I'm sure everybody at this point sir to Azure that's going to be an important one mm-hmm what you're gonna have to learn

is how to keep up which we're still working on trying to figure out how to do yeah well said I often say and I believe myself that in order to be successful

and happy in an IT career you really have to be an eternal student because like crystal like you just said if you're not on top of the game so to speak if you're not keeping your

knowledge up you're going to fall behind quickly what do you need practically to benefit from this course just a single decent laptop or desktop computer with an internet connection the reason why we

say decent is because hands-on study is going to require setting up a practice lab and the most economical way to do that we submit is by using say client hyper-v in your Windows 8.1 or Windows

10 machine signing up for an azure subscription that's going to require an internet connection and I think you're going to be impressed that you can do all of this with literally zero monetary

investment I know that might sound too good to be true but it is true we make it pretty simple we keep the barrier Center pretty low mm-hmm I have a I had entire running labs in fact at this

point now that I am at MCT Microsoft certified trainer I have access to our virtual machines although even outside of that when I was still learning when I was still taking certification exams I

could build out an entire would say kind of a mimicking enterprise environment multiple server hardware servers running multiple VMs running Windows Server sequel exchange sure I can put

them all out there and they're all free it's all it's all trial software I can download for six months and as long as had the hardware and the patience which sometimes either one of those could be

tested mm-hmm but it's all available I mean rule number one is we do not practice on production equipment that when you're working that's not the time to practice I would love to say I never

did that I'd love to be able to say they no good yeah we may all have been tempted once or twice that is absolutely true right and finally basic computer and internet searching skills you know

never using a mouse I think that if you've made it here to MVA and you're studying with us you've probably met that expectation just fine okay technology requirements we've

really already mentioned this we'll be looking at client hyper-v as our foundation for building our certification practice lab that's going to require a compatible Windows client

version so it's going to need to be 8.1 pro or Enterprise 64-bit Windows 10 Pro Enterprise or education 64-bit an evaluation software is really the name of the game you could even use Windows

10 evaluation software you're going to just need if you don't already have a Microsoft account have one of those your email doesn't have to be a Microsoft own domain address it can be Gmail it can be

whatever and although Azure does require a credit card to sign up for your trial they're very clear in their documentation that they're not going to use that for

charging it's just a Authenticator really they're very friendly I think about that because a lot of people have the fear of signing up for a cloud service and at the end of the month

winding up with a big bill that they didn't expect so the main lessons learned I think in this brief introductory module is that our main goal I think is simply confidence

through knowledge we want you to complete this MVA experience equipped with a lot more knowledge than you had before about Microsoft certification and practical study skills and that will

give you confidence that will leave carry you through and into IT search success how's that that's great after you got the idea so come back to the next well I would say a few modules

there'll be a few that's right and hopefully we can get you get you ready yep