My experience in clearing MCSE(Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert) certification

About Me:

A Little background about me for those who are not connected to me via LinkedIn yet. I'm a Seasoned IT professional with rich experience in Enterprise Java ,Unix,python , Data engineering,designing BigData solution architecture comprising On-Prem , public cloud such as AWS and Azure . Exploring GCP (Google Cloud Platform) as of this article date.

I recently have cleared the MCSE(Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert)-for Data Management and Analytics in Azure certification.


I tried to document  here the best I can on my preparation experience , tips and tricks . Hope it will be helpful. Please feel free to comment , Like, Share and Subscribe , don't forget to Click the bell icon :-)

Why Certification ?

   Certifications are a way to ensure technical competency at different levels. What else could bring more pleasure than being endorsed by the technology pioneer of your field.?
 
Why Azure?
   I've been working on both AWS and Azure and wanted to assess my skill sets in them , Gave my Azure certification first as it was more relevant to my current project. 

Certification path ?

   I wanted to give the Architect/advanced level certification MCSE , cause MCSA which is a developer level one, i felt i needed a complex route.

How i got confused ?
I prepared and gave my elective exam (70-475) first without knowing that I should've completed MCSA already,to be eligible to become MCSE . I emphasize you read the Microsoft Learning site for clear details.

Certification Path  - Learning Flow


High Level Tips 


1. Coming out of comfort zone

First step is always the hardest, that is to come out of the comfort zone, I kept my self on fire and did a little research online on time needed ,preparation etc. I paid for all 3 exams upfront and had chosen the exam dates also, i booked dates in 2 weeks intervals between each exam.  I did this even before starting to study so that I have a commitment .

2. Time-boxed preparation

I put a plan for myself including wake up time, time to bed,reading hours, lab hours etc

3. Read -> Practice Lab -> Repeat

I did stick onto my schedule , woke up at 5AM , go through the edX videos. Make notes, come back home in the evening , spend solid 1-2 hours for the lab exercise using my personal cloud account.


4. MeasureUP  Practice tests

  I would highly recommend if you want to face the exam with more confidence, give measureup practice tests a try, as they will cover more relevant questions and detailed solution along with the answer for each question,  some of the questions in-fact repeated in real exam

Links below for the practice exams.

70-775: https://www.mindhub.com/product-p/mu-70-775_p.htm?utm_source=microsoft&utm_medium=certpage&utm_campaign=msofficialpractice

70-776 : Unfortunately there were no practice tests for this exam :-(  But the edX courses and the lab practices are more than enough

70-475:  https://www.mindhub.com/70-475-Designing-and-Implementing-Big-Data-p/mu-70-475_p.htm&utm_source=microsoft&utm_medium=certpage&utm_campaign=msofficialpractice

5. Pearson Vue Proctored exam vs Physical centers

    I preferred giving the exam at the convenience of my home , I chose Proctored exam route. Its pretty simple and useful. Another reason for this route is that i can have same exam study feeling with the same laptop even at the real exam, instead of a shrunken monitors offered at the physical test centers which might take some time to adopt to it



edX Courses

Few of the Useful courses in edX which helped me understand in detail. These courses are free to read, you can also upgrade these courses individually by paying $99 if you require a course completion certificate with a final challenge score

70-775
Processing BigData with Azure HDInsight: https://aka.ms/edx-dat202.1x-about
Implementing Realtime analytics in Azure HDInsight :https://aka.ms/edx-dat202.2x-about
Implementing Predictive Analytics with Spark : https://aka.ms/edx-dat202.3x-about

70-776
AzureSQLDW: https://aka.ms/edx-dat220x-about
Azure Datalake Analytics: https://aka.ms/edx-dat223.1x-about
Real time data streams in Azure : https://aka.ms/edx-dat223.2x-about
Azure DataFactory : https://aka.ms/edx-dat223.3x-about

My scribbled notes i prepared during my course can be found here
https://github.com/rockssk/azure-scripts/blob/master/README.md