{"id":13,"date":"2007-01-21T19:41:51","date_gmt":"2007-01-22T03:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/2007\/01\/21\/took-290-and-passed\/"},"modified":"2007-01-21T19:41:51","modified_gmt":"2007-01-22T03:41:51","slug":"took-290-and-passed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/2007\/01\/21\/took-290-and-passed\/","title":{"rendered":"Took 290 and passed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been working on some <span class=\"ubernym uttAbbreviation\" onmouseover=\"domTT_activate(this, event, 'content', 'A person who has passed an MCP Exam. Also used to refer to the actual exam.','caption', 'Microsoft Certified Professional' );\"><abbr class=\"uttAbbreviation\">MCP<\/abbr><\/span> exams since I started my latest job. I studied for a while when I took <strong>70-270<\/strong> which is <em>Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional<\/em> and I was quite prepared for it. I also took <strong>70-271<\/strong> which is <em>Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System<\/em> just because I figured it was close to 270 and I get a raise for having any <span class=\"ubernym uttAbbreviation\" onmouseover=\"domTT_activate(this, event, 'content', 'A person who has passed an MCP Exam. Also used to refer to the actual exam.','caption', 'Microsoft Certified Professional' );\"><abbr class=\"uttAbbreviation\">MCP<\/abbr><\/span> pretty much. I also passed 271. Now came 70-290, <em>Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment<\/em>, which I also studied for and thought I was prepared for. <!--more-->When I took the test though, it was pretty tough. One different thing about this exam was there were some questions as simulations. This means they give you a simulated computer desktop and you have to configure it to achieve the desired result. I didn&#8217;t find them too difficult but the exam as a whole had things I had never done and some I hadn&#8217;t even read about. I just chose the answers that seemed to be the correct choice and apparently I was correct enough to pass!<\/p>\n<p>Reall, I was quite surprized to see a <strong>Congratulations<\/strong> screen at the end of the test. I&#8217;m not upset that I passed of course but I feel I don&#8217;t know enough <em>yet<\/em> based on the questions I was asked to really deserve the title. This is what annoys me about certifications. Just possessing a piece of paper doesn&#8217;t show that you know how to actually do what the exam was about &#8212; it only shows you can pass a test. People <em>say<\/em> they know this but it was certainly a requirement for a lot of jobs I applied for and received no response from when I had no certifications.<\/p>\n<p>So my plan is to keep learning about Server 2003 and take 70-291, <em>Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure<\/em>,  sometime in the next several months. Work should be getting a bit more hectic soon so I won&#8217;t have as much time to study as I have. Feels weird studying for 2003 when Longhorn is just around the corner but hopefully I&#8217;ll get my Server 2003 <span class=\"ubernym uttAbbreviation\" onmouseover=\"domTT_activate(this, event, 'content', 'A person who has passed a certain series of MCP exams resulting in the title MCSE.','caption', 'Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer' );\"><abbr class=\"uttAbbreviation\">MCSE<\/abbr><\/span> and start to learn Longhorn and eventually upgrade. Until then it&#8217;s the 2003 <span class=\"ubernym uttAbbreviation\" onmouseover=\"domTT_activate(this, event, 'content', 'A person who has passed a certain series of MCP exams resulting in the title MCSE.','caption', 'Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer' );\"><abbr class=\"uttAbbreviation\">MCSE<\/abbr><\/span> track for me.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been working on some MCP exams since I started my latest job. I studied for a while when I took 70-270 which is Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional and I was quite prepared for it. I also took 70-271 which is Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oliverhansen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}