August 7, 2012 at 6:34 am
Hi,
I need help on deciding the track for certification in BI. I did search MS website , however it left me a little confused. Looking for latest information on :
1.The Path/track and time involved in preparing and taking the test. How effective are MS training materials?
2. What is the cost if one takes it independently?
thank you !!
August 7, 2012 at 8:39 am
SQL_path (8/7/2012)
Hi,I need help on deciding the track for certification in BI. I did search MS website , however it left me a little confused. Looking for latest information on :
1.The Path/track and time involved in preparing and taking the test. How effective are MS training materials?
2. What is the cost if one takes it independently?
thank you !!
First of all I'm assuming you are looking at the 2008 track since you didn't specify otherwise :-). The 2012 track is completely different and I've only looked at it briefly. I've done the 2008 Administrative track and I'm working on the Development one (no BI) but hopefully my experience will be close enough.
First the MCTS. I'm fairly cheep so I don't do any of the classes I just went out and bought the MS Press book on the test, read that, and then bought another book on the subject and read that. That was enough, just barely. You need to look at the "Skills Tested" link for the exam and make sure you are at least familiar with each subject. Even then you will get some screwball questions. I ended up with one about trace flags. I'd never studied trace flags, they weren't in either book. I had to guess.
Second the MCITP. There are no books specific to this test. At least no books that get anything like a good review. There are classes but again I'm far to cheep. I reread the books I had and got a couple more. I watched selected MCM readiness videos. You can search for them on line. They are really excellent free training videos. They are at a higher level, but to my mind that is all to the good. Then I went through the "Skills Tested" list and made sure I had hit every subject at least once. This went much better than the MCTS test had.
Right now I'm reading the sections of the books I have on development, making sure I hit the skills on the "Skills Tested" list that I'm not strong at, and watching the MCM Videos that seem appropriate. I'm hoping to test in the next month or so.
Both tests were $150 each + 4-5 books at about $50 each for a total cost of ~$500. One thing you should note though is that the 2008 exams will no longer be given after the middle of next year. June or July I'm not sure off the top of my head which.
Hope that helps. If you need help with the 2012 BI track I can probably take a look and walk through it here but I don't have any experience with 2012 yet.
Kenneth FisherI was once offered a wizards hat but it got in the way of my dunce cap.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/[/url]For better answers on performance questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/[/url]Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLStudies.com[/url]
August 8, 2012 at 6:41 am
Thank you a bunch !! 🙂 🙂
I see exams 70-448, 70-452, 70-467 , 70-460.
I work on 2008 what would be better ?
these are the videos you talked about ?
August 8, 2012 at 11:53 am
SQL_path (8/8/2012)
I see exams 70-448, 70-452, 70-467 , 70-460.
I work on 2008 what would be better ?
these are the videos you talked about ?
70-460: This is if you already have your MCITP in 2008 BI to transition over to 2012 (one of several)
70-467: This is part of the 2012 BI Certification
70-452: MCITP BI 2008
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-452&Locale=en-us
70-448: MCTS BI 2008
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=70-448&Locale=en-us
I would personally start with 2008 as it will help with 2012 and you already have the experience. You just need to remember that these exams are only offered through July 31 2013.
Yes that is the link for the videos. Here is another one http://www.sqlskills.com/T_MCMVideos.asp.
SQL Skills also has additional reading links/suggestions for each video listed here
http://www.sqlskills.com/MCM.asp
Kenneth FisherI was once offered a wizards hat but it got in the way of my dunce cap.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/[/url]For better answers on performance questions, click on the following... http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/[/url]Link to my Blog Post --> www.SQLStudies.com[/url]
August 10, 2012 at 8:36 am
Thank you for your advice !! That helped a lot !!
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