General Questions about MS Certification process 2

[sm43]

Hi,
I'm going to take my first Micorosoft Certification exam. It's going to be the 70-175 towards an MCSD. There were some questions I was pondering on, that I would like to get answered the exam.

First, If a question has multiple answers and you get part of them..for instance a Q has A,B & E as the answer but you put down A & B ... is that question considered completely wrong, or is there some sort of partial consideration that you would get.

Who grades the exams? Is it the ol' black-lead SAT-like scanning way, or is it a human grader? The reason for asking is the need to know if there is existence of any subjective interpretation or not?

Now that I think about it, I know VERY little about the actual process of the exam.. is there some text somewhere that talks about that... the books that I've been preparing from don't contain much about that stuff..

Lastly, is it possible to challenge your score, request a recount or something?


Thanks.


Saad

 

[sm43]

I'm sorry the exam I'm taking will be 70-176

Saad

 

[jonscott8]

Refer to

http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/mcpexams/faq/default.asp

for more in depth explanations.

Yes, you will receive partial credit. See

http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/mcpexams/faq/innovations.asp

I would highly recommend you download the simulation exams to familiarize yourself with all the types of questions you may encounter.

The exams are scored as you are taking them by the computer. You'll know within 2 or 3 minutes of completion whether you passed or not.

Yes, you can challenge the results, but I havent been down that road. See

http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/mcpexams/policies/itemchallenge.asp

Good luck. Jon Hawkins

 

[culshaja]

If you want to see how the exams work download the demo ferom

http://www.transcender.com

This is as close as you can get to the real thing.

James James Culshaw
james@miniaturereview.co.uk

http://www.miniaturereview.co.uk

http://www.caninerescue.co.uk

 

[sm43]

Hey James,
I don't know which file I'm suppose to download from transcender.com . It is a pretty big site, and I don't know which demo you mean.. help me get the one..

Hey Jon. Thanks for the explanations and the links. so, I've surfed around and tried to learn different facts about the MCSD and the process. I downloaded one demo from microsoft on the types of questions that can appear on the exam. The demo showed questions that I hadn't realized at all would appear on the exam..tree-structure, move<->remove, Arrange/Sort.. Microsoft says that its exams might include adaptive testing technology and simulation type questions and that the exact format of the actual exam is unknown until the exam itself..is this true? Do Microsoft exams throw a surprise attack like that? I had thought that the exam comprised of multiple-choice questions and you had the option to voluntarily sign up for adaptive type exam..

I didn't really find anything on partial credit in the faqs..i still don't quite know how it works..but I'm continuing looking.. I might just call Microsoft Testing one of these days and bug them with a few questions..

On the stuff about challenging your score, it appears that it's petition-based and not very interactive.. you can challenge on a specific question and have to state your reasons very articulately, and then here's another confusing trip.. I'm not sure if your challenge can actually change your score, and from the sounds of it, they don't even tell you the result of your petition, and your score cannot be changed by it. Is it just used for feedback purposes, it would seem to me? hmm..not sure exactly how the process works, if anyone is actually lucky in getting something out of it..


Saad

 

[jonscott8]

I wouldn't necessarily refer to it as a &quot;surprise attack&quot;, but yes, they do try to vary things from tester-to-tester to maintain the integrity of the tests.

Anticipate the two exams you've cited to be in a conventional format. Thus, you'll be able to skip/return questions.

Regarding partial credit, goto

http://www.microsoft.com/traincert/mcpexams/faq/innovations.asp

and do a search for the word partial. It's near the bottom.

Contacting a testing center with some of your concerns is a good idea. They are generally ready and willing to assist. Jon Hawkins

 

[CharlieJax]

Here is the testing process...

You go to the testing location
You register
They place you in a monitored room
You take the quick survey at the beginning of the test then you start the actual test.

You can skip and return to any question in the system, you can also make questions for review / comment.

When you reach the final question and click next it takes you to the review screen where you can go back and review the questions you marked for review.

After that you can submit any comments back to Microsoft about the questions, but there is no real &quot;petition&quot; to get your grade changed.

The test consists of multiple choice, drag and drop, and other types of questions. There should not be any manualy entered answers due to the computer not being able to tell if you just misspelled something.

The test is taken completely on a computer (Unless you are outside the US, then some countries take them on paper)

Microsoft has been known to use &quot;trick questions&quot; or tricky wording to try to throw off the test takers, and many of the questions will try to simulate real world experences where you may not have all the information you need and you have to select the most approprate answer.

The best thing you can do is get ahold of a practice test for the exam you want to take and spend some time getting use to the question formats.

As for the partial credit, Microsoft tests do offer it, and it depends on the question and what answer(s) you get correct. The partial credit ONLY comes into play when there is a question with more than one correct answer and you get part of the answer correct. It does not come into play when there is only one &quot;best answer&quot; and you choose the wrong one.

Some of the Microsoft exams do have adaptive testing, although I have yet to take one with it. You will know you are using the adaptive testing when it tells you that you CANNOT move back or forward to the other questions, as they don't exist yet or cannot be changed.

Once you have taken the test, I do not belive it is possible to get the score changed... at least I have never heard of Microsoft changing any test scores... I guess it is possible.

Hope this information helps you out. CJ
Don't listen to me, I wanted to be a forest ranger.