My Experience with a Microsoft Online Proctored Exam

This morning I sat for the Microsoft 70-689 exam (Upgrading your Skills to MCSA Windows 8).  For this exam I decided to give the new offering of taking the exam online as opposed to driving out to a testing center.

[With 2015 Microsoft changed testing partners here in the US and they began to offer the ability to sit for your exam and take it online.]

This was new to me but I thought I’d give it a try at least and see if it would be a method I would use again.

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More Microsoft Exams

Last night I received an invite from Microsoft to sit for the 70-695 and 70-696 beta exams.  Unfortunately there isn’t a big window to schedule them, so I have them lined up back to back on December 3rd.  This is on top of 70-689 I have scheduled for December 1st.

Three exams in 1 week?  My boss is not going to like the time off request…. 🙂

MCSA: Windows 8 – Day 1

“The first step is to say that you can.”

-Will Smith

Scheduled my 689 exam today.  December 1st at 9:00 am.  Now the work begins.  I’ve made a promise to myself that I’m going to be ready.  I will not postpone the exam.  Come that Monday morning it’s going to be me and that exam.  I put up the results of the failed exam on my wall.  When I’m tired or just do not feel like studying it’ll be a reminder of where I started.

I will rise when I have fallen.

Last Fall I was able to participate in a number of beta Microsoft exams.  Some I passed and some I didn’t.  The ones that I failed have always bothered me.  So with that in mind I’m going to retake those exams and prove to myself that I can do it.

Will I get a better job with these certifications?  

No.  That’s not my goal in tackling these certifications.  Call me idealistic, but I feel that it should be about bettering yourself, achieving something you thought was beyond what you knew, pushing yourself to attempt something new.

So, over the next few months I’m going to focus on and prepare for these exams:

• 70-689: Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows 8
• 70-417: Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows Server 2012

 “‘I failed’ is ten times more of a man than someone who says, ‘What if?’.”

– Greg Plitt