For many IT specialists, and not only for them, summer is a time when you can not only have a good rest, go on vacation, deal with cases put into the back box, but also ... learn. A logical completion of training is the exam. This is what this article is about.

In this article I want to raise the topic of certification exams. You ask what? Yes, almost any. Want to prove your knowledge in building Microsoft infrastructure? No problems. Are you going to finally pass a couple of exams for Cisco? No problem. For many years engaged in the audit of information security and do not yet have a certificate of CEH (Certified ethical hacker)? There is also an easy way for you to pass this certificate.


')
Of course, for people who take exams long enough, I will not tell you anything new. But we are in the sandbox, so ... go ahead.

There are a lot of reasons for obtaining this or that certificate. Someone does this to boast a cherished crust in front of colleagues, someone - in order to assert themselves. Someone trite company works with customers, and for the successful sale of the project, you must have a team of certified professionals. For someone, this is a requirement of a potential employer.

So, let's leave aside the prerequisites for obtaining crusts, to which we return a little at the end of the article and get down to business. We chose the certificate program that we want to receive, what next?

For example, select the Microsoft MCSE Certificate (Microsoft Certified Solution Expert: Server Infrastructure).

According to the description, it is difficult to obtain this certificate: you need to pass as many as 5 exams:

• 70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
• 70-411: Administering Windows Server 2012
• 70-412: Configuring Advanced Windows Server 2012 Services

After passing three exams, you will receive a certificate of MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solution Associate)

• 70-413: Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure
• 70-414: Implementing an Advanced Server Infrastructure

After putting five, you will finally become the MCSE.

We read the certificate description and think, “Um ... comrades, do you want me to pass 5 exams? How much is it to prepare to pass each of them? "

Well, surrender them for 2 months.

Register for exams

There is such an online service PearsonVue . Hear about the delivery of certificates - you most likely here.



Do you see this charming lady on the video preview? You are on the right track. In the search, we enter Microsoft and select the certificate of interest (MCSE: Server Infrastructure). Next, we boldly choose the first of five exams and try to register for the exam.

When you try to register for the exam, it turns out that we need to create a Microsoft account. We get and we form a profile. Please note that if you fall under one or another preferential category, for example, you are a student, try to display it in your profile. For example, to confirm student status, simply attach a photo of your Student ID and send it to confirm status. This will reduce the cost of each exam from 60 euros to 33. Thus, the total cost will be 165 euros, not 300.
For example, I confirmed my status by sending a local “Student card” while taking four-month courses abroad.

We wait a couple of days (usually during this time there is a confirmation) - and the discount is in our pocket. Well, or polite apologies that they can not accept the attached id as confirmation of student status.
Only after receiving confirmation (or not confirmation) of the status of the student continue to register for the exam. Next on Pearson Vue we carry out the selection of a certified test center, where we will take the exam.



Important: even if you are offered to choose Russian as the language for passing the exam, I do not advise you to agree to this. Why - the answer further.

By the way, if there is no certification center in your city, you can try to pass the exam online. How to do this is described in detail when choosing a method for taking the PearsonVue exam. From the basic requirements - the presence of a webcam, microphone, stable Internet connection.

I must say that the transfer of exams is a normal practice. In most cases, you will be able to postpone your exam 24 hours before X and it will not be worth anything.

You should also follow the various promotions that vendors offer. For example, Microsoft this spring provided a free retake of a failed exam. In general, Microsoft often provides various promotions, so if you are not in a hurry with passing the exams, it makes sense to wait for them.

I advise you to set the date of the first exam so that you have 2 weeks to prepare. You can prepare faster, but more reliable. After the first preparation, you will be able to pick up your pace and take it more often or vice versa less often.

Training

We turn to the most disgusting main thing. Most people who take exams are prepared using dumps. A dump is a set of questions with answers that you will most likely meet in your exam. Everything is exactly the same as in the theoretical driving license exam. First you teach 20 tickets for 40 questions, then you hand them over. Nobody gives on the rights, not teaching these questions. Only here you learn in English, not in Russian. And the questions are not 800, but about 200-250 for each exam. That is why when registering for the exam should indicate English.

Dumps usually have the extension .vce and open with software like VCE Player. When you hear the word "dump" - you go to www.examcollection.com . It is worth noting that not all dumps are good. Moreover, almost all dumps are not good. They may be more valid, less valid, contain errors. Valid dump is a dump that contains relevant questions that are encountered in the exam. Not valid == outdated, not containing the last questions added. When you select a dump, the only thing you are targeting is comments in the comments.

How can you trust the dumps

I will tell from my own experience. Two of my friends passed one of the Microsoft exams, focusing on the premium dump from the examcollection. We learned it perfectly. At the exam, I got about 6 new questions (that is, the dump was really good), they thought that they would get about 900 points out of 1000 possible. Got 700. Both. 700 is the minimum required to pass the exam. Extremely surprised at the results and went to celebrate this case.

Problems with VCE Player

There are different versions of VCE Player, some are sharpened for mobile devices, some for ordinary PCs. If you do not want to use the official VCE Player, advertising which is covered with an examcollection, you will have to independently monitor the relevance of the player version. That is, if you downloaded some kind of dump, and it simply doesn’t open at you - try searching for a more current version of the player. In my opinion, finding an unofficial version of VCE Player for mobile devices is easier than for a PC. A friend of mine used the mobile version of the VCE Player on a PC using the BlueStacks App Player emulator. This emulator can be downloaded for free from the official site .

I will not throw off the link to the VCE Player, but if anything, you know where you can find a lot of mobile applications. Of course, I'm talking about the Play market.

Having installed the application for working with vce files, we proceed to search for the files containing questions and answers. Let's go back to examcollection.com.



You see a lot of dumps with a different number of questions - take two popular ones. The questions in the dumps overlap. Strong. Although there may be their own features. For one exam, we chose one dump with 200 questions, the second with 300 - we will have to learn about 375.

Even in different dumps, the answers to the same question can be different. Moreover, 3 different answers can be indicated in three different dumps. So do not be lazy, if you can not independently answer the question - look for the answer on the Internet. Well, or hope that the question does not fall on the exam. To search for the right answers, you can use www.aiotestking.com , TEHNET , laboratory work on the Microsoft website.

When preparing, do not forget to set a mode in which the answers and questions will be displayed in random order. Otherwise, you can unknowingly remember the location of the answer, but not its essence, and this is fraught.

It should be noted: using dumps, many exams can be passed, being absolutely not in the subject.
Thus, the exam for the exam, we are absolutely legally get the desired certificate. 5 exams in 2 months is quite doable.

Conclusion

Well, understanding how people prepare and pass exams, one begins to unwittingly look at people with certificates.
At the beginning of the article I said that we will return to the prerequisites for obtaining certificates. And it is impossible not to return - there are a lot of bad thoughts and just facts in the head, which we should not forget:

• Passing certificates and “training” is a business, they make money for us;
• Some companies are more likely to have leaks of dumps on purpose;
• We do not know who exactly suits the leak issues. It can be both training centers, certified centers for surrender, and the vendors themselves;
• Before you admire someone's certificate, you should first check whether there is a dump for it on the examcollection;
• In Russia at the moment there are still not many companies requiring international certificates. Abroad (I do not speak about the CIS) - this is much more common. Moreover, certificates are required at the initial positions.

It is also not entirely clear how to treat a person who has passed the certificate on dumps. That is, it may of course not be such an expert in this field, but ...

• firstly, if you passed this certificate, you would still insure dumps (you did not pass the theoretical exam in the traffic police, not using those 800 open questions);
• secondly, a person is purposeful (to learn a dump, and especially a series of dumps requires patience) and knows English;
• thirdly, when preparing by this method, something remains in the head;
• fourthly, perhaps his resume was not lost in the stack of all the others only thanks to this single line in the resume.

In the end, do not forget that often companies that provide certain IT services force their employees to receive certificates. At the same time, employees can really be great specialists, and then dumps are just a means of saving time. However, it may be the opposite.

And finally. Not all exams can be prepared by focusing only on dumps. It is just nice to know which exams from your professional field are being taken. Where you really need to have years of experience behind you, where in addition to dumps you need to read a couple of books, and where you can just memorize the answers to the questions.