Episode
What to expect on your Microsoft exam
with Liberty Munson
Join Liberty Munson, our Director of Psychometrics, as she talks about preparing for and taking a Microsoft technical exam. If you’re not familiar with the term, psychometrics is all about ensuring the validity, reliability, and fairness of whatever tool or process we use to evaluate skills so that when you earn a Microsoft certification, it means something. In this video, Liberty focuses on our role-based and specialty exams. We hope this video answers a lot of your questions as you embark on your Microsoft Certification journey.
Highlights and tips from Liberty
- Our exams are rigorous, and we know from analysis that a successful candidate typically studies for 120-140 hours before taking an exam.
- The exam study guide is your roadmap to preparing for the exam and knowing what skills are measured.
- At Microsoft, we review and update our exams quarterly. To stay up to date on what’s changing and when, we encourage you to check the exam details pages regularly.
- As you review the list of skills measured and the associated tasks, ask yourself if you have that skill and if you can perform each task. You could use the bulleted lists in the skills measured as actual checklists for your preparation.
- To be prepared to take an exam, engage with our learning resources, practice tests, and exam prep videos.
- You can do self-paced training with the learning paths available for free on Microsoft Learn or take a class with a learning partner for a more guided approach to training.
- Take advantage of opportunities to complete labs, which can be leveraged to gain the experience that is so important to passing the exam. You can find hands on labs within the modules on Learn or you can experience robust labs by taking a class with one of our learning partners.
- We have built the exam sandbox to help you gain firsthand experience with the exam user interface, question types, and navigation. You can also familiarize yourself with how progress through the exam is tracked, where the exam timer is, and practice marking questions for review or comment, and you can even submit comments.
- Review question types such as build list, drag and drop, case studies, and others.
Number of questions on an exam
Most exams have between 35-50 questions. The number of questions can vary between exam attempts because Microsoft regularly updates exams to reflect changes in the underlying technologies and solutions.
Exam time and labs
For specialty and role-based exams, plan for 120 minutes: 100 minutes to answer questions and 20 minutes for instructions, comments, score reporting, etc.
- If your exam contains labs, you will have 120 minutes to answer questions and perform the hands-on tasks in the lab and 20 minutes for instructions, comments, and so on.
- The exam will contain at least one lab with approximately 10 tasks.
- The labs will be at the end of the exam, and you are informed in the introduction of the exam if there are labs.
- If your exam has labs, it will take on one of three forms. You will complete the tasks in a single virtual machine, in multiple VMs, or you will use the lab as a resource where you will explore the lab and answer a series of questions that can only be answered if you thoroughly understand what’s in the lab.
- Because lab availability is based on any number of unpredictable factors, such as Azure outages and bandwidth, we cannot tell you which exams will have labs. However, you should prepare as if there will be one because this will get you the experience you need to be more likely to pass the exam.
Accommodations
Request exam accommodations if you need extra assistance during the exam.
- We regularly approve requests for extra time for learning disabilities, ADHD, PTSD, or test anxiety, use of assistive technology, and much more.
- You must request accommodations before you schedule your exam.
- A request can take up to 10 days to be processed.
Breaks
If you think you’ll need a break during the exam, we have built time into the exam experience so that you can take one without requesting additional break time through the accommodation process. Five minutes have been built into the exam time that can be used for break time.
- Once a break is launched, you will not be able to return to the questions that you viewed before the break even if they are unanswered or marked for review.
- You can take a break at any point during the exam, including the middle of a case study, except in the middle of a lab or within our problem-solution question sets (where you are presented a problem and asked if the solution provided would solve the problem); breaks can be taken before or after these sections but not during them.
Exam scoring and strategies
Exam scores can range from 0-1000. Each exam has a cut or passing score. This score is used to determine if you have passed or failed. You must achieve a 700 on all of Microsoft exams to pass.
- Points are not deducted for incorrect answers, so make sure you answer every question.
- Read the instructions carefully. There may be questions on the exam that you cannot return to or review later. Make sure you don’t skip them.
- Some questions are worth more than 1 point. Keep in mind that there is no penalty for guessing so you should answer all the questions.
- If you aren’t sure about an answer, you can mark most questions for review and return to them before leaving the section or exam.
Certification renewal
Make sure you renew your Microsoft Certification annually through Microsoft’s FREE certification renewal process that is designed to ensure you stay up to date on the latest changes in the job role or specialty area.
You can renew your certifications by passing a free, self-paced, un-proctored online assessment on Microsoft Learn. The assessment is shorter than the original exam because it focuses only on the latest technology changes, ensuring you have the skills and expertise necessary to stay up to date with your role. You will be notified 6 months prior to your expiration date to renew your certification.
Join Liberty Munson, our Director of Psychometrics, as she talks about preparing for and taking a Microsoft technical exam. If you’re not familiar with the term, psychometrics is all about ensuring the validity, reliability, and fairness of whatever tool or process we use to evaluate skills so that when you earn a Microsoft certification, it means something. In this video, Liberty focuses on our role-based and specialty exams. We hope this video answers a lot of your questions as you embark on your Microsoft Certification journey.
Highlights and tips from Liberty
- Our exams are rigorous, and we know from analysis that a successful candidate typically studies for 120-140 hours before taking an exam.
- The exam study guide is your roadmap to preparing for the exam and knowing what skills are measured.
- At Microsoft, we review and update our exams quarterly. To stay up to date on what’s changing and when, we encourage you to check the exam details pages regularly.
- As you review the list of skills measured and the associated tasks, ask yourself if you have that skill and if you can perform each task. You could use the bulleted lists in the skills measured as actual checklists for your preparation.
- To be prepared to take an exam, engage with our learning resources, practice tests, and exam prep videos.
- You can do self-paced training with the learning paths available for free on Microsoft Learn or take a class with a learning partner for a more guided approach to training.
- Take advantage of opportunities to complete labs, which can be leveraged to gain the experience that is so important to passing the exam. You can find hands on labs within the modules on Learn or you can experience robust labs by taking a class with one of our learning partners.
- We have built the exam sandbox to help you gain firsthand experience with the exam user interface, question types, and navigation. You can also familiarize yourself with how progress through the exam is tracked, where the exam timer is, and practice marking questions for review or comment, and you can even submit comments.
- Review question types such as build list, drag and drop, case studies, and others.
Number of questions on an exam
Most exams have between 35-50 questions. The number of questions can vary between exam attempts because Microsoft regularly updates exams to reflect changes in the underlying technologies and solutions.
Exam time and labs
For specialty and role-based exams, plan for 120 minutes: 100 minutes to answer questions and 20 minutes for instructions, comments, score reporting, etc.
- If your exam contains labs, you will have 120 minutes to answer questions and perform the hands-on tasks in the lab and 20 minutes for instructions, comments, and so on.
- The exam will contain at least one lab with approximately 10 tasks.
- The labs will be at the end of the exam, and you are informed in the introduction of the exam if there are labs.
- If your exam has labs, it will take on one of three forms. You will complete the tasks in a single virtual machine, in multiple VMs, or you will use the lab as a resource where you will explore the lab and answer a series of questions that can only be answered if you thoroughly understand what’s in the lab.
- Because lab availability is based on any number of unpredictable factors, such as Azure outages and bandwidth, we cannot tell you which exams will have labs. However, you should prepare as if there will be one because this will get you the experience you need to be more likely to pass the exam.
Accommodations
Request exam accommodations if you need extra assistance during the exam.
- We regularly approve requests for extra time for learning disabilities, ADHD, PTSD, or test anxiety, use of assistive technology, and much more.
- You must request accommodations before you schedule your exam.
- A request can take up to 10 days to be processed.
Breaks
If you think you’ll need a break during the exam, we have built time into the exam experience so that you can take one without requesting additional break time through the accommodation process. Five minutes have been built into the exam time that can be used for break time.
- Once a break is launched, you will not be able to return to the questions that you viewed before the break even if they are unanswered or marked for review.
- You can take a break at any point during the exam, including the middle of a case study, except in the middle of a lab or within our problem-solution question sets (where you are presented a problem and asked if the solution provided would solve the problem); breaks can be taken before or after these sections but not during them.
Exam scoring and strategies
Exam scores can range from 0-1000. Each exam has a cut or passing score. This score is used to determine if you have passed or failed. You must achieve a 700 on all of Microsoft exams to pass.
- Points are not deducted for incorrect answers, so make sure you answer every question.
- Read the instructions carefully. There may be questions on the exam that you cannot return to or review later. Make sure you don’t skip them.
- Some questions are worth more than 1 point. Keep in mind that there is no penalty for guessing so you should answer all the questions.
- If you aren’t sure about an answer, you can mark most questions for review and return to them before leaving the section or exam.
Certification renewal
Make sure you renew your Microsoft Certification annually through Microsoft’s FREE certification renewal process that is designed to ensure you stay up to date on the latest changes in the job role or specialty area.
You can renew your certifications by passing a free, self-paced, un-proctored online assessment on Microsoft Learn. The assessment is shorter than the original exam because it focuses only on the latest technology changes, ensuring you have the skills and expertise necessary to stay up to date with your role. You will be notified 6 months prior to your expiration date to renew your certification.
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