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70-293, 70-294 Simulation Exams Delayed to August
Microsoft to delay simulations for 70-293, 70-294 to work on smoother rollout for international language versions.
In the "we're mentioning it again because we buried the story last week"
category: Microsoft originally planned on releasing simulation versions of exams
70-293, Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure,
and 70-294, Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server
2003 Active Directory Infrastructure, at the end of next week, but the company
has delayed their release to late August/early September. Microsoft's chief
certification strategist Keith Loeber at the Tech Ed Conference in Orlando cited
rollout problems for international language versions of exams 70-290, Managing
and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment, and 70-291, Implementing,
Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure exams.
"We're working with our test providers to ensure a smoother rollout [in
August]," said Loeber.
Back in March, Microsoft announced that it had added a performance-based component—a.k.a.
"simulation"—to exams, in which a live computing environment
is simulated during an exam. Testers then have to answer the question as if
performing a required task. Besides the rollout of the 70-293 and 70-294 exams
in August, Microsoft expects to pace the release of other performance-based
exams. Not all exams will contain those types of questions, according to Microsoft.
MCPs who already passed exams that will be coming out in simulation mode do
not have to retake these exams. To read more about performance-based questions,
click here.
Loeber has confirmed that exams for SQL Server and Visual Studio are expected
to be released, soon after the release of the respective products later this
year. He also says that release of the 70-293 and 70-294 exams with performance-based
questions has been pushed to the August/September time frame, citing problems
in rolling out international language versions of the 70-290 and 291 exams in
March.
Also during Tech Ed: Loeber hinted at the possibility that the company will
announce by the end of June some exams that will be retired. MCPmag.com will
have details once the announcement is posted on the MCP Web site.
About the Author
Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.