Microsoft Certs explanation please 1

[Starwind]

I've been looking at different certifications for a while and have been in IT for 3 years in October and will have my Bachelors in Information System Security next June. Microsoft certifications are setup differently than say CompTIA's an Ciscos where you take one or two exams and you become whatever certified. My question is how exactly do these Technology Specialist Exams like 70-680 Win7 Config add up to a MCITP cert. Is there a website that would show all the available to create the MCITP. I've been looking around on google and nothing is too straight forward or is very outdated. I know this all seems jumbled, but I would like to understand exactly how they do theirs. A technology specialist test is a certification? Adding a few of those together creates the higher level certification like the MCITP? Thank you for any input.

 

[mrdenny]

MCTS certs don't make up MCITP certs. While MCITP certs have MCTS listed as a pre-req there are seperate exams which are also required to get the MCITP cert.

You can look at Microsoft's

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/

site for info about their various certs.


Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2008 BI / MWSS 3.0: Configuration / MOSS 2007: Configuration)
MCITP (SQL 2005 DBA / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2005 DBD / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 BI)
MCM (SQL 2008)
MVP

My Blog

 

[Starwind]

I understand that just blindly taking a few of the exams will not make you a MCITP. I see on the microsoft site the exact courses for that which are 4 exams plus an additional elective type course creates the MCITP right? Thank you for your response.

 

[mrdenny]

The numbers of exams that you'll need to take will totally depend on the MCITP cert you are trying to get.

For example the Exchange 2007 MCITP requires that you take 3 exams, while Exchange 2010 MCITP requires that you take 2 exams.

The MCITP: Server Administrator requires just a single exam plus two MCTS certifications.

The MCITP: Enterprise Administrator requires just a single exam plus a bunch of MCTS certifications.

The SQL Server 2005 admin and dev certs requires two exams, while the SQL Server 2008 MCITP certs requires one.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2008 BI / MWSS 3.0: Configuration / MOSS 2007: Configuration)
MCITP (SQL 2005 DBA / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2005 DBD / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 BI)
MCM (SQL 2008)
MVP

My Blog

 

[Starwind]

Yes, thank you. I am curious though why are there less tests for the newest certifications? Just that much more information bundled into each test? Just out of curiosity.

 

[mrdenny]

It depends. For some tests they have simply changed what they are testing for in the exams. I can't really comment on the content of the exams as the exam content is under NDA.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2008 BI / MWSS 3.0: Configuration / MOSS 2007: Configuration)
MCITP (SQL 2005 DBA / SQL 2008 DBA / SQL 2005 DBD / SQL 2008 DBD / SQL 2005 BI / SQL 2008 BI)
MCM (SQL 2008)
MVP

My Blog

 

[kmcferrin]

Yes, thank you. I am curious though why are there less tests for the newest certifications? Just that much more information bundled into each test? Just out of curiosity.

I assume that you're referring to how there were 7 tests required for the MCSE versus only 5 for the MCITP: Enterprise Admin? Back in the day that the MCSE first came around it was considered a general certification on "all things Microsoft". Over the years their product catalog grew so much that it's literally impossible to be an expert on all of their products, and probably not even possible to be proficient in them unless you did nothing but study. So the new generations of Microsoft certifications were targeted at specific job roles and products rather than a general, overall, systems engineer role (which could mean many different things).

Going forward, just remember that the MCTS exams correspond to specific products, whereas the MCITP exams correspond to certain job descriptions/roles. At least that's the official thinking behind them.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Server Administrator
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator
MCITP:Virtualization Administrator 2008 R2
Certified Quest vWorkspace Administrator

 

[Starwind]

Ok that breaks it down even more. I thank you for that, and as expected no one can know every part of their software.