Congrats to blog jam
Congratulations to Brian Lamprecht (blog entitled blog jam) for passing his first certification exam . . . he's taken the red pill (or is it the blue pill?) and, I predict, will soon be in acronym nirvana for his resume. I'm sure he will make sure to balance those acronyms with real experience, though! He's welcome to put Grant Certified on his resume, if he thinks it will help.
I hate the fact that Brian points out “I was more or less right about the Transcender” . . . we talked the other day and I jokingly pointed out that Transcender has a knack for being awfully realistic in their exam simulations. Short of Msft updating the test question bank every month or so, I don't know how to keep the exam prep materials from being too effective. I know Microsoft has a rigorous process for question creation and evaluation, so retiring every question after 6 months would be tough for them to do. Back to that whole scalability thing. Besides, Msft doesn't treat questions as individual entities so much as units of an entire test experience -- each one careful to not give away the next, etc. You could retire groups of questions on a rotating basis, I suppose . . .
Am I the only one concerned about this? It's not a matter of life or death, but it does speak to the legitimacy of the certification program. This issue has been around for years and there probably is no momentum for changing it . . . still, it's a bummer.
I've blathered enough about certification lately and I really don't want to detract from Brian's accomplishment . . . I know for a fact he's worked and studied many months to get here. Welcome to the MCP world where you never need a dinner reservation for those fancy restaurants, can command 20% raises each year, and get a tiny pin with the Microsoft logo it!
Seriously, now, congratulations Brian!