Colin's exam links page

The first professional exam I ever took was Microsoft's Windows 3.1 (70 030 now retired) exam in London on February 8th 1995. This, consequently, was probably the most difficult one I have taken. I had no idea what the exam would be like - I had used the MS PEP exams, and read up on the format of the exam, but the actual experience was new for me. My preparation was several years' experience with Windows 3.1 from a support perspective plus lots of reading the Microsoft Windows Resource Kit. The kit was the recommended Microsoft reading, and they also gave me a list of subjects I would be tested on (setup/installation, troubleshooting, memory management etc.). Needless to say, the actual test consisted of more subjects than that - OLE for example, about which I had read nothing. This taught me one thing (and should teach you the same if you're embarking down the MCP/MCSE route) - do not trust Microsoft's preparation requirements. If you only follow them, it is likely you will fail. I passed with a 756 out of 1000 with a required passing score of 714 - that means I passed by two questions.........

Next, I went down the OS/2 route. Didn't know you could be OS/2 certified? That's because IBM keep it a good secret. The reason I took the exams was that the company I was (and still am) working for had struck a deal with IBM - we would get a cheaper support contract if we could get three people certified. We worked out that to take the certifications we wanted, it would be nearly as cheap to send us to Disneyland Paris and take the exams at the IBM Europe Technical Interchange as they were running the exams free of charge. You could take the tests as many times as you wanted in the event of a fail - the only time they have run it like this. Subsequently, IBM has restricted examinees to only one retry at free of charge testing events.

To become a Certified OS/2 2.1 Engineer (not many of them about), you had to take the following three core exams:-

Test 010 - Using and Customising OS/2 2.1
Test 009 - Installing and Supporting OS/2 2.1
Test 012 - OS/2 2.1 Advanced Support

and one of the following two elective exams:-

Test 013 - OS/2 2.1 Performance and Tuning
Test 014 - OS/2 2.1 Problem Determination/Problem Isolation.

As Test 014 was mainly about analysing traps (sort of like a GPF - or UAE if you remember them - only much more fun), I plumped for Test 013.

Test 009 was passed with a 91% score, test 010 with 84%, test 012 with an 82% and test 013 with 86%. All on the 3rd of October 1995 - that's four tests in one day.

The next day (4th October 1995), I took Test 119 - Warp Engineer Update - to become a Certified OS/2 v 3.0 Engineer - passed with 77%. Also that day, I took Test 003 to become a Certified LAN Server Administrator - again I passed, with a score of 82%.

I took one more test that day - Test 004 LAN Server Adminstration II and passed with 76%. My revision consisted of:-

four year's thorough knowledge of OS/2 and LAN Server - I started with OS/2 1.2 a long while ago.....
the IBM sample exams (CERT94.ZIP if you're interested to see what they were like - 879958 bytes)
the OS/2 Certification Handbook

The most important of all of these (and this is true for all exams I have ever taken) is the first. If you know the product (and by know it I mean really know it - not just install it once or twice), you're more than half way there.

That was the end of my testing for that year, and I attended lots of the actual seminars which was what the TI is all about really (plus a good night in Disneyland which was open only to attendees of the TI.........).

The next TI my employers were good enough to send me on was in Nashville, Tenessee. This was so I could become a certified LAN Server 4.0 and Warp Server Engineer.

My revision this time consisted of:-

CERT95.ZIP (861093 bytes) - IBM's newer (and last set of) sample exams
the OS/2 LAN Server Certification Handbook
the IBM Red Book - Inside OS/2 Warp Server Volume 1

Again, the best thing I had was my experience with the products.

The required core tests were

Test 103 - OS/2 LAN Server Administration I - 770 (590) - 22/4/96
Test 104 - OS/2 LAN Server Administration II - 754 (548) - 22/4/96
Test 106 - OS/2 LAN Server Workstation - 92% (70%) - 23/4/96
Test 107 - OS/2 LAN Server Performance - 71% (65%) - 23/4/96
Test 109 - Installing OS/2 - 773 (608) - 23/4/96

The elective test choices were from

Test 001 - Token Ring Implementation
Test 102 - OS/2 LAN Server and Netware Client Coexistence (beta)
Test 005 - Introduction to Integrated Networking
Test 008 - Ethernet Implementation and Problem Determination
Test 015 - REXX for OS/2
Test 116 - Remote Software Installation using CID (beta)
Test 016 - IBM TCP/IP for Workstations
Test 126 - OS/2 Warp Connect

My results (together with minimum pass marks) were as follows:-

I then went for the elective test on Test 126 - OS/2 Warp Connect on 23/4/96 and passed with a score of 725 with 602 being the required score.

Whilst I was there, I took Test 015 - OS/2 REXX because I'd revised loads on it before I went and passed with a 547 mark - 530 being the pass mark.

The last OS/2 test I took in Nashville was Test 131 - OS/2 Warp Server Advantage for LAN Server 4.0 Engineers to become a certified Warp Server Engineer. I passed with a score of 608 (560 pass mark).

Only one more lot of IBM exams to read about............whilst I was at a Transaction and Messaging Congress (in Italy this time), I took the opportunity to take the two remaining exams open to me - OS/2 Warp 4 Engineer (Test 203 - passed with 71% - 50 out of 71 - 28/10/97) and the elusive Warp Server Administrator (Test 134 - 80% pass with 66 out of 83) on 27/10/97.

Two more useful links - Index of IBM Tests by title and Index by test number in case you're really interested.

Having accepted (after a fierce internal battle with myself) that IBM had lost the desktop market, I decided to go down the MCSE route. I was already an MCP thanks to the Windows 3.1 exam mentioned at the top of the page.

First taken was Networking Essentials (058) - 6/7/98 - passed with 931/1000 - needed 793. For this exam, I used the Transcender test exams and also the official Microsoft book. This was the only time I used the Microsoft book as I found it to be lots of reading, but not too much help.

After this, I took Windows NT Workstation 4 (073) - 9/11/98 - passed with 679 - needed 547. This was my first experience with the new type of Microsoft exam - the adaptive exam. This is Microsoft's attempt to make the exams more difficult, but I found it to be easier because I had to answer only 15 questions. I guess it's more difficult if you don;t know your stuff, but easier if you do. For this exam, I used the Braindump Heaven web site - brilliantly useful to polish up your knowledge. If only there had been something like this for my OS/2 stuff.

Next was Implementing and supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 (067) - 14/12/98 - 927/1000 - needed 764. Traditional 50-odd question exam again - not too bad.

Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 in the Enterprise (068) was next - 26/2/99 - 655 needed 560 - adaptive exam again. This was a complete swine and taxed me greatly. Braindump Heaven
helped again, but there were a few questions I hadn't seen anywhere.

This left me two elective exams to do. My choices were TCP/IP and IIS. I passed the latter exam in April 1999 and am now an MCSE and also a MCP+I.

So what have I got out of it all (so far)? A few badges, some certificates, some CDs, a Red Book on OS/2 and a mouse mat or two. What I've really got out of it is the personal satisfaction that I can demonstrate to others that I know something - we all know that certification is no substitute for knowledge, but we also know that some other people put a disproportionate weight on certification.

Email me if you want some more information.

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Date 22/09/1999