Sunday, April 29, 2012

Certification Test 70-432: School is In Session!

As I've been learning about SQL Server, certification has always been an informal goal. When I heard about Prometric's Two For One offer (take a certification exam by June 30th, and get a voucher for a free upgrade exam), I knew it was time to kick my studying into high gear.

OK, now that we have a concrete goal, how do we go about accomplishing it? Let's see, a hard deadline, a list of topics that have to learned, an exam that has to be studied for...hey, that sounds like grad school!

With that inspiration, I decided to create a college-level class for exam 70-432. The MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit is available at work, and I have access to SQL Server 2008 Administration: Real-World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond and The Real MCTS SQL Server 2008 Exam 70-432 Prep Kit through Books24x7, so there are plenty of resources.

The class is structured around the Skills Measured for 70-432, with each skill taking one to two weeks to cover. Exercises, self-tests and practice tests are assigned and due each week.

I mapped the chapters in the books to the Skill Measured for 70-432 and came up with a syllabus, which is summarized here:

  • Method of Instruction:
    • Each week:
      • Read assigned chapters
      • Complete assigned Self-Tests
      • Do assigned lessons in the Lab Manual
      • Take a related Practice Test 
      • Blog
      • Post in online forum(s)
    • Last week:
      • Take one or more full Practice Tests
      • Take the 70-432 Certification Test as the final exam
The class starts tomorrow (April 29th) and runs through July 1st. Feel free to follow along.

2 comments:

  1. nice 1.
    Thanks for the inspiration.. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi haryik,

      Thanks for the comment. Check back for progress reports.

      Good luck in your studying, and let us know how you're doing.

      Peter

      Delete