Given that yesterday we launched a new version of Born to Learn, I thought it might be fitting to bring back one of the Oldies But Goodies. This is one of Trika's posts from the "So, a booth babe and a geek walk in to a bar..." days. It's great information that people often have questions about. Though Trika moved to the Windows Embedded team a couple years ago, we still miss her.
Trika's post, in all its glory, follows. I only updated the links. Enjoy.
***************************************************************************************
All of the exams associated with Microsoft Certification start with a prefix of two numbers (7something) and then a three-digit identifier (check out this example). Here is an explanation of the "seventy-something" prefixes, if this has ever caused you some consternation:
If you want to know why they all start with "7" to start with, sit still for a minute, for once, and I'll ask someone who knows things like this. OK, I'm back. I talked to Jim Clark, who knows most things about everything. I thought maybe we picked "70" because of the building 7 mystery on the Microsoft campus. Or because 70 was how old the program manager's dog was, on the day of our first exam release. Or because 7 is the fourth Mersenne prime exponent (don't believe me?). But really, it is just because: back in the nascent stages of this program we released exams with 10-, 20-...60- prefixes for early days certification products. And by the time we locked on the current program, we happened to be at "70-", where it has stayed since. Is it just me, or is my story about building 7 better?
*Or should I say, 70-101.
What about some exams that start with 8?
Hi Bruno,
Great point. The exams with emulations begin with "83-." Times change, I guess!
That's cool, but I prefer the building 7 meaning.
What happens with Emulation based exams whilst they are in beta? Do they beta under 71, 83 or something else entirely?
Hi Ed, long time no hear. I don't know the answer to your question, but will refer to the expert on the subject and get back to you.
Hi Ed,
Emulation beta exams are 84- exams.
Hey Krista. the problem with simply copy/pasting old work is that we often overlook the content for correctness.
Not only do we now have the 83 prefix for virtual lab based exams, we also have a 73 prefix.
I blogged about the IT Academy prefix change back in January 2010 (http://bit.ly/ITA_073) that the Prometric vouchers changed to the 073 Prefix rather than the 072 prefix.
I belive there is no change to the actual exam content, this change is merely an internal way for Prometric to monitor the usage of IT Academy discounted exams.
Kind regards
Andrew Bettany
In addition to those already mentioned, a few other Microsoft exams are being / have been offered with unusual prefixes.
<b><i>Current:</i></b>
<b>78:</b>
78-700 TS: Microsoft Office PerformancePoint 2007 Management Reporter, Report Design
78-702 TS: Designing and Managing a Microsoft Business Intelligence Solution
<b>88:</b>
88-918 through 88-923 are apparently being used for MCM SQL and Active Directory exam registrations (don't know why there aren't any listed for the other MCM programs)
88-924 Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Unified Communications Voice Specialization (now moved to 74-924)
<b>96:</b>
IT Academy discount offering of '83' performance-based exams (currently only 83-640 as 96-640)
<b>98:</b>
98-361 Software Development Fundamentals
98-364 Database Fundamentals
98-366 Networking Fundamentals
"This exam is designed to provide candidates with an assessment of their knowledge of fundamental software development concepts. It can also serve as a stepping stone to the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist exams."
"This Associate exam is designed to test the candidate's knowledge on core software development fundamental topics."
"Candidates for this exam are seeking to prove introductory knowledge of and skills with databases, including relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server."
"This exam is designed to test the candidate's knowledge on core database fundamental topics. It does not cover any specific vendor's database product."
"This exam is designed to provide candidates with an assessment of their knowledge of fundamental networking concepts. It can also serve as a stepping stone to the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist exams."
<b><i>Previous:</i></b>
<b>75:</b>
75-003 International Microsoft Employee: Applications Exam, Apple Mac v6/7
(never seen anything about this anywhere, but it's been in the Prometric list of available exams for years, and still is)
<b>76:</b>
used for ~32+ Microsoft Trainer Assessment exams in ~1998-~2000
used for 76-210 and 76-215 Refresh Experiment exams in May 2003
<b>77:</b>
in addition to the current usage for MCAS exams (and the MCAP exams that still haven't materialized), in ~1998-~1999, it apparently was used for four Microsoft Sales Specialist exams (77-110, 77-111, 77-112, 77-114)
---
PS: Bring back the 'number of people certified' page already!!!
Well, looks like we can't use bold/italic tags in our comments anymore, hmm? They're not working in the comment I just submitted.
@ Andrew, you are so right. I got so excited about reviving Trika's great post that I didn't consider what might NOT be in it.
@ Alice, holy moly. You must have a lot of time on your hands. I've forwarded your request for the "number of people certified" page to the web folks--we'll see what happens. You aren't the first person to make that request. Regarding the 98-series, those aren't released yet, regardless of what it says on the web site--more news on that when we actually have something solid to say. Regarding the 75- prefix, I've seen the "International Microsoft Employee" thing too, and have no idea what that is. I'll ask around.
Here's a more complete list, thanks to Liberty:
Series Program
070 MCP IT Pro/Dev Live
071 MCP IT Pro/Dev Beta
072 MCP IT Pro/Dev Academic--old
073 MCP IT Pro/Dev Academic--new
074 Partner Competency
077 Office Live
078 Microsoft Dynamics Live (used on an exception basis; most Dynamics exams have MBx prefix below)
079 Office Beta
083 MCP Virtual Lab Live
084 MCP Virtual Lab Beta
088 Masters Live
089 Masters Beta
MB2 Microsoft CRM
MB3 Great Plains
MB4 Solomon
MB5 RMS, SBF, other
MB6 Axapta
MB7 Navision
Thanks, Krista! I do try to keep an eye on exam information, but many people spend much more time than that following sports stats, for example. ;)
While we wait for the "bring back the 'number of people certified' page" requests to finally have an effect (I look forward to seeing an announcement here when it does), is there any chance someone at MSL could do a one-time number lookup, as they have done occasionally for LiveMeeting presentations in the past?
The most major recent certification release that never got numbers posted before the page disappeared is TS: Windows 7 Configuration. What I would most like to know is how many people passed it in the beta period (it went live on July 14, 2009; a total through the end of July or something like that would work if it can't be narrowed down exactly); a current total and/or a total through the end of 2009 would also be of secondary interest.
Thanks Krista,
Especially beta exams are question mark on developers minds. Generally it is thought to gain no credentials when a beta exam is successfully passed.
And from your notes and comments, I see that it is not easy to handle so much different kinds of exams in different categories :)
I thought Krista was fired already, as usual clueless.