Tom's MSDN Belux Corner : certification

Pre-register to get certified at TechEd EMEA 2008 Developers

tommer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:48:56 GMT

Currently already more than 200 Belgians and Luxembourgers have registered for TechEd Developers in Barcelona from 10 to 14 November. The certification group of Microsoft Learning just sent us a notice on their onsite testing offer that I want to share with you.

You can benefit from an exam voucher with 25% discount and a free retake (“Second Shot”) if you don’t pass the exam at your first try. If you pass your exam at the conference, you also get an extra free eLearning voucher. Plus, the first people to get certified will receive a t-shirt “Certified at TechEd 2008 Barcelona”. To receive your voucher code for pre-registration, please send an email to v-tries@microsoft.com.

Free eLearning on Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008

tommer — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:01:31 GMT

Microsoft Learning provides a collection of 3 eLearning clinics on different components of .NET Framework 3.5. Each clinic takes about 2 hours to complete. The collection is available for free for a limited time only.

Online learning: Developing Rich Experiences using Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008−free for a limited time!
This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.5. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.

Technorati Tags: MSDN Belux,elearning,free,Visual Studio,training,.NET Framework,WCF,WF,WPF

Update on Microsoft Certifications - Free "Second Shot" Offer Extended, And More...

tommer — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:17:12 GMT

In the past months, I've been writing a few posts on Microsoft certifications. Since there is more information available now, it's time to give an update:

Free Second Shot offer has been extended

From the website:

"Due to popular demand, the Second Shot offer has been extended through June 30, 2008! For a limited time, you can take advantage of this free offer—a second shot at any IT professional, developer, or Microsoft Dynamics certification exam. Just register for this offer before your first exam, and you will get two chances to pass."

Several developers (and some their managers ;-) ) have been telling me that they have been taking successful use of the offer. (And of course, almost everybody succeeded at the first shot... <grin> It seems to remain difficult to admit that one failed an exam. But don't worry, you don't have to tell anyone that you used the Second Shot offer...)

Webcasts on certification

Microsoft Learning has been running several webcasts on certification:

If you're interested in knowing more about certifications and the certification exams, you should subscribe to Trika's blog.

.NET Framework 3.5 beta certification exams

Gerry O'Brien announced that .NET Framework 3.5 beta exams have been extended for a short time. Without giving any guarantee that you'll be able to take them, in his blog post Gerry also shares the code that allows you to register for the following beta exams (depending on availability of a seat):

71-502 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 - Windows Presentation Foundation (Extended through 8 February 2008)
71-503 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 - Windows Communication Foundation (Extended through 1 February 2008)
71-504 TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Windows Workflow Foundation (Extended through 8 February 2008)

Did you know that Serge Luca, a Belgian MVP, has been helping Microsoft on the Windows Workflow Foundation exam as a subject matter expert?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,certification,mcp,mcts,mcpd,visual studio,visual studio 2008,vs2008,second shot,gerry o'brien,trika harms zum spreckel,msdn

Microsoft Certification Exams: Free Second Shot

tommer — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:13:00 GMT

If you're taking Microsoft Certification exams, you might be interested in the Second Shot offer that Microsoft and Prometric are running. If you take your exam between ~~15 September 2007 and 31 January 2008~~ 30 June 2008, you can get a free retake on Microsoft IT professional, developer and Dynamics exams if you fail the first time.

In order to take advantage of this offer, you must register on the Microsoft website and follow specific instructions while scheduling your exam.

Info at Prometric: http://www.prometric.com/microsoft/2ndchance

Update: the Microsoft webpage for this promotion is http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx.

Update: the offer is extended till 30 June 2008!

Technorati tags: Microsoft, exams, MCP, certification, second shot, Prometric