Passed 70-448!
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I passed the 70-448 exam for the MCTS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification this weekend. According to the MCP numbers, I’m now around person #334 certified for this exam. I hope this information helps anyone else preparing for certification.
Exam basics: 50 questions, 120 minutes, 700 passing score
This exam covers Integration Services (SSIS), Analysis Services (SSAS) and Reporting Services (SSRS)
On my exam, all questions were either multiple choice or select the best two answers. I didn’t have any questions that required ordering steps in a process or “select all the correct answers”.
Background: I have 13 years experience in IT and earned my MCDBA on SQL Server 2000 five years ago. I skipped the SQL 2005 certifications, but wanted to add a fresh SQL 2008 certification to my resume now that SQL 2000 is looking pretty old. I’ve worked with SQL Server 2008 since February on a data warehousing team.
Preparation resources: I primarily used the Microsoft Self-Paced Training Kit book along with installing the evaluation edition of SQL Server 2008 on my home PC. The Training Kit book is like other Microsoft Press certification books I’ve read. It’s lacking in details but gives a good overview of the topics. To fill in the details, I used SQL Server Books Online (BOL) along with these reference books:
Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services
SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Unleashed
SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
The Microsoft Training Kit also included a practice exam with 201 questions from MeasureUp on the CD that was in the book. This practice exam was OK, but neither the Training Kit book nor the included practice exam prepared me enough to pass the exam. I purchased a 30-day online subscription to the Transcender practice exams for this certification and the flashcards and three practice exams from Transcender were excellent. However, because this is a low-volume exam, it seems they recycled some material from the SQL 2005 practice exams. The Transcender exams allowed me to focus on the details that were important for the exam and their explanations and references for each question were outstanding as always.
I prepared for about 5 weeks before taking the exam, but I could have used another week to study SSAS which was my weakest subject.
The exam started out very difficult but seemed to get easier as I progressed through the questions. I marked five questions for review and after reviewing those questions I still had 30 minutes to go back and double-check every question on the exam before my two hours was up. I didn’t have any “new format” questions like ordering steps or completing a dialog box but there were quite a few questions where I had to study an exhibit to answer the question.
The questions jumped around from SSAS to SSIS to SSRS instead of ordering the questions in blocks with SSIS first, SSAS second and SSRS third. Sometimes this required me to re-read the question a few times to be sure I was focused on the right topic (was that a SSIS role or a SSRS role?). The exam really seemed to hammer on a few topics and I began to double-guess myself when it seemed like three SSRS questions in a row all should be answered with the same config file name. In the end I passed with an 842 so I am happy to be certifiable. (pun intended) Once my transcript gets updated I plan to order the new certificate for my wall and download the new logo for my resume.
Now I’m going to take some time off and enjoy the summer! Maybe I’ll tackle an Oracle 11g certification in the fall. Good luck to all those preparing for certification…
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Congratulations, and thanks for the information.
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Grats and well done!
And, of course, thanks for the information. Very good write-up, without being any sort of brain dump or anything. That's good.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
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Congrats!!!!!!!!!! Very useful Information. Thank You.:-)
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Thanks, It was very informative.
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Congrats..!!
Thanks for the information
I have to take exam next week.
Let me know if you have some study material...
Thanks
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Congratulations and thanks for the information.I believe new exam takers will benefit from your reviews and from your studies.
Eralper
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Thanks for the information,
I went for the exam today and passed with 899 marks...........
This is my first certification......
Very Happy to be an MCP...................
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Hello Everyone,
I just joined this forum because of my interest in database field.I am a student and taking one of the class about Data mining and Warehouse. All the answers on the fouram are very useful.Specially Mr.cppwiz information is very important for me to prepare myself in future certification exams along with other exams.Thank you so much sharing the information.Have a wonderful summer!
Jalpa
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Congradulations,
Your exam mark is very nice.
I hope you will go on taking exams 🙂
Eralper
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congrats...!!
Thanks for share your experience with us.
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Congratulations!!
That was good information.
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Hey,
Congratulations!! I am also interested in certification exam.I am currently enrolled in database administration certification program through community college. I have a one question:Do you require any previous experience in database to give this exam or are you able to give this exam as a student?
Jalpa
New member
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jpatel474 (8/14/2009)
Do you require any previous experience in database to give this exam or are you able to give this exam as a student?No experience is required to take the exam, but it is required to pass the exam. It is very unlikely that you will pass the exam without at least having a test server to practice on.
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Congrats, on passing.
Just curious on the mix of questions. Did integration services feature heavily, or was it pretty evenly matched across all the technologies.
My integration services isnt one of my strongest points, so I just wondering how indepth your knowledge of SSIS would need to be, to cover the questions that you had to answer. so many people consider themselves as "expert" in SSIS, and I find that doubtful to be honest, as SSIS is such a big product.
~Silverfox~
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