April 25, 2011 at 6:36 pm
After months of studying, squeezing in the time between work and home life, I passed it (866). I expected it to more comprehensive than it was. I felt like in high school English class where you would get a question that asked fill to in the blank - In Moby Dick, Melville wrote "Call me ____." Instead of a question like "What is the significance of the name 'Ismael'?" I guess that makes it more clear to me why people here downplay the importance of the certification credentials. In my case however, I feel like the process really has helped me gain a more in depth understanding of some of the topics. I definitely learned about features that I don't use in my day-to-day job. Particularly with partitioning, mirroring, replication and encryption. I feel like when/if a situation comes up where we might be interested in using those technologies, I'm a lot more comfortable about suggesting them and being able to support them.
Anyway, for anyone who is looking to take the test, these are the materials I used:
Microsoft Press 70-432 book (author Mike Hotek) and cd with test prep from MeasureUp. If you use the book, please check out the errata for both the text and the included tests. There are some significant errors. The MeasureUp tests had very good questions on backup and restore procedures, putting steps into the right order. But some of the wording was unclear causing me great fustration, maybe this was on purpose.
SQL Steps online training courses. These were okay to get moving along, but nowhere in depth enough to get you to pass the test. I like learning in multiple methods, so it helped me to listen to the courses and they helped keep me to a schedule. The test question package (only in PDF format) was very good - about 180 questions in all. Again, I found some errors in the test, but that seemed to happen across the board.
MS Virtual Labs - helpful if you don't have access to resources to do things like replication, mirroring and clustering. The free labs have been up and down for the past couple of months, so I ended up paying for the High Availability lab. The course was pretty high-level and the lab steps for mirroring were either missing a step to set CONNECT permissions on the endpoint or the virtual lab wasn't set up properly. I wouldn't recommend it if you can set up your own test environment.
Transcender online test and flashcards - the tests were quite good. Lots of question available and definitely more directed to T-SQL commands for things like setting up operators, alerts and jobs. The flashcards came with the test - they could have been easier to print. I liked having them so I could flip through them while doing things like eating lunch to reinforce the test objectives. I liked the test format options (study modes, exam modes, select topics or random) and the results were clear with links to BOL.
I used BOL as needed, but not as my main source. Truly I find BOL dense and confusing at times. It helped when my other sources were thin on material or seemed contradictory. This site was helpful in learning how of the topics apply in real life. Plus, the people here are great.
Thanks,
MWise
April 26, 2011 at 8:49 am
Congratulations! Good writeup of your study resources! It seems like you put a lot of time and effort into studying for this certification.
Did you view your new wall certificate yet? Did it state your certification will go "inactive" on 1/14/2014 when mainstream support for SQL Server 2008 ends?
April 29, 2011 at 2:58 am
Hi Mhlewis,
Congratulations!!!
I am also planning to pass this certificate. Can u pls tell me which sql server 2008 edition will be the best for preparation?
Thanks in advance!
"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits"
April 29, 2011 at 11:32 am
The MS Press Test Kit book comes with an evaluation edition of SQL 2008 which includes all of the features that you can be tested on. I believe it expires after 180 days. At work we are actually on R2 Enterprise so that's what I typically use. You can also try the MS Virtual Labs which don't require you to install SQL locally: http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx.
May 3, 2011 at 11:08 pm
cppwiz (4/26/2011)
Congratulations! Good writeup of your study resources! It seems like you put a lot of time and effort into studying for this certification.Did you view your new wall certificate yet? Did it state your certification will go "inactive" on 1/14/2014 when mainstream support for SQL Server 2008 ends?
Any idea when is the SQL 2005 certificate goes inactive or is it already inactive by now?
May 4, 2011 at 7:54 am
It just went "inactive" on 4/12/2011. Here is the list of dates:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=SQL
May 5, 2011 at 3:19 am
Thanks for the information.
I hope the end of support means that they wont be developing / selling the product anymore, but still would provide support for the existing customers.
Though the certification became "inactive" which means I cannot take that exam anymore, but still I can say that I am a MCTS/MCITP in SQL 2005 if I am already holding it.
May 5, 2011 at 7:08 am
Congratulations on passing the exam. I entirely agree that the main benefit of the certification is in learning about product features that you may not otherwise encounter. Are you planning on doing the 70-450?
May 5, 2011 at 11:05 am
I'll probably take 70-433 next. When I purchased the online training for 70-432 the 70-433 sessions were included in the price. Plus I actually find the code writing and tuning part of my job a lot more interesting and fun than the admin parts.
Re certification expiration: I printed mine out and there was no expiration date listed on it. Just an ID and my certification date.
May 9, 2011 at 2:54 am
Mhlewis (4/29/2011)
Thanks!! it's really useful..
"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits"
May 9, 2011 at 2:55 am
Mhlewis (4/29/2011)
Thanks!! it's really useful..
"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits"
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