Sharing Experience - Azure Certs
This post I am writing on the request of all the enthusiast who wants to clear the MS certifications specially giving exams from their home or online, rather walking up to the center. Few days ago, I shared my recent certifications that includes the Expert Badge as well and my inbox were full of messages asking about my experience and preparation recommendation hence the blog post covering most of the questions and sharing the experience.
This
is the Acclaimed link for the certifications and badges I hold.
All the latest certification I achieved is from home though I
was always skeptical scheduling from home because of proctor which could be
difficult sometimes like it will not start easily if it finds odd things in
place or can be stopped if someone enters room or you get up or light goes off
things like that but due to pandemic I have too, and it was far better
experience then I was thinking.
You can schedule exam from here and
check your certification and badge from here
remember to use the same email ID that you scheduled your exams with.
You can reschedule or cancel your exams and you can find the policy here basically it says you should reschedule or cancel 6 business days prior to the exam date.
Most of the exam I scheduled in the noon time, but I should
have in the night for the quite purpose, but you know it is the evening we love
the most in weekends 😉 & just to be on time and though with all
the pre-requisite I always check-in before 30 mins though it takes only 10-15
mins for the pre-requisite which includes: -
Quick System check which includes download of a small
“OnVUE” exe which will check the mic, camera and bandwidth before start, so
make sure if you are using office laptop you should have the local admin
details else it could be difficult, but it always recommended to use home
laptop.
After the quick system check it would ask you to upload the
· Government approved Identification.
· Your Photo and rooms photo all 4 side.
The best way to do this having Mobile Phone handy though you
shouldn’t have the phone in your arms reach but for upload tasks its always
good to have your phone handy and Exam also asks you if you have phone as well.
Once all uploaded you need to refresh the Page on your laptop
and keep your phone away now here you would have the serious considerations
which includes things like don’t leave the room, None is allowed, your phone should
be away from your arms reach, no food material allowed etc. and an option to
hit next so make sure you adhere to the rules and brace yourself because you
are entering to the Most difficult Phase of this process.
Most difficult part is the wait part because once you hit
next you are not supposed to move , you should be in front of camera all the
time and you do not have phone in hands & it takes 15 mins to verify your
details by Proctor. So you are sitting for 15 mins in front of camera doing
nothing 😊 . Well if you are lucky it will get start little
sooner then it mention or if not then after 15 mins it would say cant start the
exam and do not close it and click here for support. Well I have had both the
experiences where my exam started in 5 mins and once it took almost 45 mins.
The only exam which took 45 mins and help of support, I scheduled it in the night
& the issue was my winter cap which I was wearing because of cold and
proctor not able to find out the difference in my cap and not cap pic I guess
anyways I clicked on the help button and start the chat like any other customer
care.
I waited for 30 mins before I could get the response, well
this was the unlucky me but yes, I cleared the exam to what It counts. Exam Support
I was talking about called me on laptop and inspect the room via laptop camera
and ask me to remove the cap though I mentioned its super cold here but she
confirmed it’s the cap you need to remove only then it would start 😊
so there we go I scheduled in night first time, its already late and I don’t have
my winter cap and if you could guess the exam its 304 😉
what else we need to make it better. I
only asked her can I have a sip of water and she said why not please do.
So, to conclude you need to wait for proctor to start your
exam for 15 mins without your phone and it could be less then 15 mins or more😊.
Well, this all about the experience prior to initiate the exams from home but
yes once you have done it or though with all the initial process you would more
comfortable and next time it would be all fun.
Now, lets talk about the exam experience, as soon as Proctor
starts your exam, it would ask you to accept select yes kind of screen and once
you hit next you need fill the survey which has the questions like why you are
doing the certification, are you expert or general questions regarding your
knowledge on the Topics. I find till here everything is same in all the exams
including survey and screen.
Well, if I talk about the Exams especially the advance one
like AZ-303, AZ-304 or AZ-500 I found same kind of pattern for the exams in 180
mins for 60-65 questions as discussed below –
· Case Study
· Multiple choice questions
· Scenario
Case study usually has 5 to 8 questions and you would have existing
environment or planned requirement tabs that you can go though and answer
accordingly. What I found when you go back to read the requirement or scenario and
you hit next you would be landed to the next question, so best way to hit
previous button or you would get the option in the end like you missed one
question. As per my experience MS provides more then enough time for the
questions but my old habits , I usually got though the questions and come back to
see the requirement. I am not saying its effective method, or it could be if
there is a time constraint but there is not, so I am sure best way to perform
is to go through the entire scenario and answer the questions.
Once you through with case study, next pattern will start
which has multiple choice questions (50-55 questions) which I found easy but sometime confusing when
you think none of the options fit as per question and worst part you do not
have None of the above in the question 😉 and same goes when you think all seems the
relevant answers, but you do not have All of the above. In such scenarios you
need read the question multiple times and you would know it’s the words of the
question which is creating confusion. But this section I find very interesting
because you also get couple of straight forward questions that helps you build
the confidence because you know this the correct answer then and there.
Now its time for the next pattern which includes scenario and
multiple questions (5-6 questions) which includes the answer for the scenario, and
you may to need select true False as per the question. This pattern is more
like there is one answer for the scenario and all the question will giving you
different options for e.g scenario asks for the 99.99% availability for VMs
& we know AV-zone is the answer, but questions may have “will AV-set is the
solution” or will Managed disk help here. Long story short if you know what is
needed for your scenario then you will get the marks for all the question 😊
& I have seem this is the only pattern where you can not go back and correct
your answer means if you choose the answer and you hit next then there is no
previous button.
As per my experience in almost all exams we have same kind
of pattern and its very important to read can we go back, or we can’t before hit
next or finish.
Now once you finish your exam it will give you your result
then and there with in seconds, but you will receive the cert or badge within
24 hours. This how these exams would be and my experience appearing and
clearing from home.
Let us talk how could you prepare for these exams or rather
how I prepared for these exams. It has been years I have been working with Azure,
so this helped me immensely because most of scenario, limitations, and usage I have
already encountered multiple times in my career however to be sure that I could
clear the exam and it would be waste of money I did prepare with the help of below
courses :-
For AZ-303
1. Course by James Lee on Linux Academy (cloud guru) - AZ-303 and AZ-300
2. Skylines Academy Nick Colyer – AZ-303 Course
3. Exam Reference Book by Mike Pfeiffer
4. All the Labs possible to cement the knowledge you acquired. Linux Academy provides lab with the course, but I would suggest create your own free account and for each topic create your scenarios and do labs – MUST
5. MS Learn
For AZ-304
1. Course by James Lee on Linux Academy (cloud guru) - AZ-301 only as 304 is not good as per my experience on Cloud guru may be they will recreate it.
2. Skylines Academy Nick Colyer – AZ-304 Course
3. Alan Rodrigues on Udemy AZ-304
4. All the Labs possible to cement the knowledge you acquired. Linux Academy provides lab with the course, but I would suggest create your own free account and for each topic create your scenarios and do labs – MUST
5. MS Learn
For AZ-500
1. Course by Shawn Johnson on Linux Academy (cloud guru) - AZ-500
2. Skylines Academy Nick Colyer – AZ-500 Course
3. Exam Reference Book AZ-500
4. All the Labs possible to cement the knowledge you acquired. Linux Academy provides lab with the course, but I would suggest creating your own free account and for each topic create your scenarios and do labs – MUST
5. MS Learn
For AZ-104
1. Course by Robert on Linux Academy (cloud guru) - AZ-104
2. Skylines Academy Nick Colyer – AZ-104 Course
3. Exam Reference Book AZ-104
4. All the Labs possible to cement the knowledge you acquired. Linux Academy provides lab with the course, but I would suggest creating your own free account and for each topic create your scenarios and do labs – MUST
5. MS Learn
For AZ-900
1. Course by Larse on Linux Academy (cloud guru) - AZ-900
2. Skylines Academy Nick Colyer – AZ-500 Course
3. Tim warner AZ-900 course on youtube
4. MS Learn
For DP-900
1. Course by Eshant Garg on Udemy DP-900
2. Course by Alan Rodrigues on Udemy DP-900
3. MS Learn
For DP-200
1. Course by Eshant Garg on Udemy DP-200
2. Course by Brian on LA "DP-200"
3. MS Learn
For DP-201
1. Course by Eshant Garg on Udemy DP-200
2. Course by Brian on LA "DP-200"
3. MS Learn
If I talk about the MS documentation, it’s tough to go through
that enormous documentation but here is my suggestion if you like to read
through MS doc go through Concept and FAQ to make the grip on the topics and
tutorials & how to if you want to implement.
After all the discussion let’s talk about changes in the
certification renewal process, that you can read through here
for details and the crux is you need not to re-exam for the renewal of the
certifications but MS will send you the notifications before 6 months of cert
expiry date , to do the learning and
assessment on MS learn to extend the expiry to one more year and so on but if
you miss to complete the module on MS learn and assessment then you will back
to the old process.
In the end I would like thank my employer Rackspace Technology "which is truly best place to work" which also provided 100% claim on the linked account and university to prepare for the examinations along with my team who inspire and encourage to be more.
Well that's all my experience with exam or cert from home and the recommendations to clear the exams. Thanks for the read & share your comments or experience in the comment section please & All the best for your exams. Happy Learning :) & Do check out below you tube video as well for more information.
