Exam on Monday!

I’ve signed up to take the first of the MCDST exams (70-271) on Monday. It would have been nice to have taken them whilst employed (to get the often practised employers rebate of a successful test) but as that does not seem to be happening I’ve decided to fork out to get some more certifications on the resume as after all my most recent ones are some time ago. I took advantage of the Measureup tests where you get the practise tests for free if you sign up for the voucher for the exam. I’ve taken the practise tests and have clarified some of the points that I needed to learn. The hardest bit is remembering which options are on the xp dialog boxes as that is what the test seems to be about – how well can you memorise the menus, screens and dialogs. If you had an xp box in front of you it would be very easy to work out which option in which order you need to use to satisfy the exam question. This is not my favourite kind of test as I’m more of a visual, hands on person as opposed to a remember for the sake of it person.
One of the bad things about the measureup tests is that their sales pitch says it has 150 questions, but there are actually only 106 – seems like false advertising to me – if I had purchased it I would have pursued a 30% rebate (based on the number of questions) but as it comes free, its more difficult to argue. I certainly think that you’d have some case for a rebate if you had paid the (overpriced) $60.
Depending on how this exam goes, I will sit the next exam by Wednesday to get the safety net of the second chance which will then get me the MCDST certification – which is a starter to proving my skill set which is an expensive thing to do when unemployed.