July 24, 2014 at 10:57 am
If you're just starting with certifications, why not start with an exam on a product you have experience with already? Since these exams assume 1-2 years of experience, you'll have a better chance of passing an exam in an area you've been working with, such as Windows 7 or Office.
Frankly, the attitude of some employers where someone must have a certification before they are allowed into a job that works with a certain technology is backward. None of the training materials, including those published by Microsoft, is guaranteed to cover all exam questions. The people who write books and training materials don't have access to the pool of questions used in the exams and even if they have taken the exams themselves, they are not permitted to reveal actual questions. Microsoft does not want people to pass exams unless they have had actual experience and the exams are designed that way. As a result, the actual exams contain questions that no one would know unless they had come across that specific situation in an actual environment.
So starting with an exam in an area you have already have work experience, you'll have a greater chance of passing, obtaining a certification to add to your resume, and you will have exposure to how exams you take in the future will work.
Here's a good place to start:
https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-overview.aspx
July 24, 2014 at 11:46 am
dan-572483 (7/24/2014)
If you're just starting with certifications, why not start with an exam on a product you have experience with already? Since these exams assume 1-2 years of experience, you'll have a better chance of passing an exam in an area you've been working with, such as Windows 7 or Office.Frankly, the attitude of some employers where someone must have a certification before they are allowed into a job that works with a certain technology is backward. None of the training materials, including those published by Microsoft, is guaranteed to cover all exam questions. The people who write books and training materials don't have access to the pool of questions used in the exams and even if they have taken the exams themselves, they are not permitted to reveal actual questions. Microsoft does not want people to pass exams unless they have had actual experience and the exams are designed that way. As a result, the actual exams contain questions that no one would know unless they had come across that specific situation in an actual environment.
So starting with an exam in an area you have already have work experience, you'll have a greater chance of passing, obtaining a certification to add to your resume, and you will have exposure to how exams you take in the future will work.
Here's a good place to start:
https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/certification-overview.aspx
While that's a good idea, I really need a DB certification because of the job advertisement that's going out in September... I'm very new to databases, but I've got a nice overview on the basic here now I think.. Tables and views that's connected to the database, and uses a query language to fetch and manipulate data.. I took a test now and scored 80% (but I dropped off early though).. While I'm not overly confident in myself regarding SQL, this at least gave me a little boost 🙂
July 24, 2014 at 1:58 pm
I took a test now and scored 80% (but I dropped off early though).. While I'm not overly confident in myself regarding SQL, this at least gave me a little boost 🙂
IMHO
That is good testing score, now come to the dark side of the exams.
It always test about something that we normally not face everyday something like XML (auto, raw...etc), Rank, over partition, union etc..
So If you know all command structure inside out, how it works, and result outcome, you may be in good shape.
Just my 2 cents.
JJ
July 24, 2014 at 2:26 pm
kimmedim (7/23/2014)
By the way, maybe the 70-461 certification is a long shot for a newbie as myself?
To be blunt, yes. The exam's intended candidates are DBAs/database developers with 2+ years experience. If the possibility of failing doesn't phase you, then go ahead (especially if you can persuade your boss to pay for the attempt), but don't be discouraged if you fail it.
You have a lot of studying ahead of you. If you're able to buy a book, get Itzik Ben-Gan's T-SQL Fundamentals. It's not a study guide for the exam, but it is an excellent basic T-SQL book.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
July 28, 2014 at 8:46 am
I am taking my certifications in SQL Server 2008 R2: Database Developer soon. I've been studying for the past week and I thought I would toss some tidbits for ya.
I had no prior database experience like you. My boss gave me a shot simple because I worked in software development for the past 8 years. I was only supposed to find and manage the work on the database, not actually do it. I ended up taking on the work instead because it came very natural to me due to all my experience in working around databases and object-oriented languages.
For me, I have company resources that provide me with a free video course on the exam and a practice test. For you, you only have books and free courses that you can find. However, the tactics are still the same.
My tactic is very traditional. I've been covering a lot of material and taking notes in question form from everything that I've been consuming.
What is a distributed partitioned view?
How do you create a partition table?
What is a federation server?
Etc.
I've been storing my notes in Evernote, which is a free online tool and application that is available for every device. Every piece of information I consume goes in that tool and it's been helping me study for all the exams on top of live training in SQL Server. The best part is that Evernote works on all my devices. I have it on my PC, cellphone and tablet. I'm pretty much always reviewing and studying everywhere I go now.
I think it's a good way to cram if it was me.
July 30, 2014 at 9:26 am
So many great advice on this thread.. At the moment I am going through the CBT Nuggets videos for 70-461.. I am on the third video about creating and altering table views, and I got stuck running a sampledata.sql to be inserted into my tables.. I'll add an attachment. Maybe you guys know what the problem here is.. It's holding me back from continuing my video-lessons 🙂
It's on the sales and employee rows.. The product part runs just fine
July 30, 2014 at 10:07 am
Good that you put error message.
I can not access to CBTNuggest at this time, but you can check table structure by right click on the table-->Script table as--> create to --> XXXX and see whether the structure is different.
Example Sales, it should look like.
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Sales](
[ID] [uniqueidentifier] NULL,
[Num1] [smallint] NULL,
[Num2] [smallint] NULL,
[Num3] [smallint] NULL,
[DateAdd] [datetime2](7) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
If you still have the issue, posted your tables structure here.
It may be lot of reason, this may be one of them.
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks
JJ
July 30, 2014 at 10:38 am
And that's why it is considered best practice to include the column list of the destination table. Something like the following, but I don't know how the real structure of the table is.
INSERT INTO Products(
ProductID,
ProductName,
Price)
SELECT 1,
'Shirt',
12.99
EDIT:
You can use Object Explorer to make this task easier. Navigate to the table and use your mouse to drag the Columns folder of the table to the desired place in your code.
July 30, 2014 at 12:21 pm
hmmm.. ok, this is my structure afaik:
-------------------------------------
USE [NuggetDemoDB]
GO
/****** Object: Table [dbo].[Employees] Script Date: 30.07.2014 20:21:18 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Employees](
[EmployeeID] [int] NOT NULL,
[FirstName] [nvarchar](59) NOT NULL,
[MiddleName] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
[LastName] [nvarchar](75) NOT NULL,
[Title] [nvarchar](100) NULL,
[HireDate] [datetime] NOT NULL,
[VacationHours] [smallint] NOT NULL,
[Salary] [decimal](19, 4) NOT NULL,
[ActiveFlag] [bit] NOT NULL,
[ModifiedDate] [datetime] NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[EmployeeID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
July 30, 2014 at 12:47 pm
You're missing the last 2 columns in your insert statement. You need to modify it to include those values.
July 31, 2014 at 11:54 am
Ahh ofcourse! Thanks! I thought that the query was smart enough to rule them out if they were not "mentioned". Thanks man!
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