The Logistics Of Microsoft Testing - How Does It Work?

[Skittle]

How does the testing process work once you have booked an exam?

Does the exam get downloaded as a big .exe the day before the test?

How are the results communicated back to Microsoft?
Since you can put in comments on the test ( anybody EVER done that? ) I assume the whole package with each question and answer is transmitted back to Microsoft. Does this happen as soon as the print comes off or as a job triggered at the test centre at the end of the day? Perhaps this is why is often takes so long for my transcript to get updated!! I can well imagine some of the little test centres I have encountered leaving to the end of the week.



Dazed and confused

 

[kss444]

The testing centers have all the tests already... They are ready for you too take the day and time of your test.
As soon as your done with your test, you know immediatly if you passed or failed.. These result are transmitted to MS by the testing center, this can take 1 to 5 days...
I have never added comments, but these would also be transmited to MS with your test results.

Ordinary Programmer
MCAD

 

[mrdenny]

The test results and comments are sent by the testing center to the testing provider (Vue or Prometric) who then sends the results to Microsoft in a batch job.

For the most part the testing centers already have the exam, unless it's a new exam which no one has taken before, in which case it is downloaded the night before (which is why you have to book ahead). I would assume that if no one takes a specific exam for a while then the exam would be removed from the local system for space and security purposes.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration)
MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

My Blog

 

[Skittle]

Interesting.

So the exam must be a self contained package that never changes - unless a new release is sent out. For some reason I always assume the program was downloaded for each individual test with a set of questions taken from a large pool.



Dazed and confused

 

[mrdenny]

As I understand it the pool exists at the testing site.

The test questions are rairly changed after the test goes GA.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration)
MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

My Blog