There’s been a lot of buzz about getting certified by Microsoft in recent days. People earn this certification not only to make their resume look wonderful, but also to learn more about newer technologies introduced by the industry giant: Microsoft.
So the question comes up that what exactly are Microsoft Certifications? How to get one?
What is a Microsoft Certification?
Microsoft offers competitive exams for many of their technologies such as .Net Framework, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 etc. Each of the exams have a specified exam code. Here’s the link to an overview of all the exams offered.
Exams are based on multiple choice questions. Usually each exam consists of 50-60 MCQs and carry 1000 points. The examinee must reach the 700 points mark in order to pass the exam.
How to register/study for an exam?
After choosing your line of action, you can either get trained from an institute or you can do the hard work yourself. There are many institutes in Pakistan which provide trainings for various certifications, and that too from Microsoft Certified Trainers. For Karachiites, CTTC Pvt. Ltd, New Horizons Learning Centre are two of the renowned institutes.
Secondly, you can make use of the largest knowledgebase in the world i.e the internet to get yourself prepared for the exams. You can find most of the course material on the web. Here’s a website http://it-ebooks.info/ from where you can get ebooks related to any of the exams for free.
Moreover, there’s another way to prepare, which is widely criticized and not very much advisable: the Brain Dumps. Dumps are cracked versions of the actual exams, which contain questions which have recently or at some time been a part of the specific exam.
For practising and comprehending the physicality of the actual tests, dumps are the best option but relying on Brain Dumps to pass a certification exam is a huge risk since exams are updated frequently by Microsoft.
These dumps are also available on the internet. http://www.examcollection.com/ is the website where you can find brain dumps.
So next, you need to register for an exam in a Prometric Exam Centre. You can do this by going to this link http://www.register.prometric.com. You can either pay through credit card or you can go directly to the exam centre and pay your fee in cash.
An exam costs around $80-$100 that equals to PKR 8,000-10,000. However, students get a special 50% discount from Microsoft. The school/university identity card is needed to avail the discount.
The result is shown at the end of the exam. The examinee gets a MCP account which caries all their details and exam history and can download PDFs of their certificate. Hardcopies of the certificates are charged with around $9.95 USD for the first certificate and $0.99 USD for each additional certificate up to 6 total certificates.
So this is how you can become a Microsoft Certified Professional. Best of luck!
Writer is an O-level student at St. Patrick’s High School, Karachi. He is an avid designer, part-time blogger and technology enthusiast who recently became a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist.
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