The +1 Is Now Done...

 My MCSx journey has come to an end. I previously wrote about obtaining MCSE: Data Management and Analytics., and I have now finished up the one test that I didn't have to take, but just wanted to take. Yesterday, I completed 70-761 to earn a second MCSA. I know it's actually a lower cert than the MCSE I just earned, but I already paid for the study materials and the voucher to take the test. 

My original goal was to take the tests for the two MCSAs and combine them into the MCSE, but that got re-prioritized to just aim for the one MCSA then the MCSE. And to be honest, I originally thought that I could take this test without any effort. It's on SQL Development, which I've been doing for many, many years. I thought I'd just take a practice test to see if there was anything I needed to work on and then go in and take the cert when I did the first test. 

So I took the practice test and got a 36%. Talk about an ego-buster. I was extremely disappointed in myself. I'm not sure what I did, but that test got immediately de-prioritized and moved to the back. I pretty much wrote it off so I could focus on the others that I actually needed to do. 

After I passed the first two, I ordered the study materials for both 70-762 and 70-761 together, since I got a discount for getting both at the same time. I set the 761 book aside and didn't look at it until I finished the MCSE. 

After Christmas, I pretty much decided I had a month until Microsoft retired the exam, and I had already bought the stuff, so why not. If I borked it again, no biggie; I'd already spent the money. It was very nice to have absolutely no pressure on this thing. 

I used pretty much the same study method I used for the other tests. 

Study materials:
Udemy Courses
MeasureUp tests - which was the practice test that I did so horrible on
Microsoft Press Exam Ref books
Exam Skills
Microsoft.com Exam Reference

MCSA: SQL 2016 Database Development

This test was difficult, but mostly because of some of the answers weren't very good answers. There were several questions that required me to write out the query, that weren't difficult, but were time-consuming. There were other questions that had correct answers that used old-style ANSI 89 JOINS, like SELECT * FROM x,y ..., that absolutely drove me nuts. I really should have left a comment on those questions, but the cert is being retired in a couple of weeks anyway. Meh.

When I submitted the test, I knew I'd passed it this time, but wasn't sure by how much. I crushed it: 900. I feel slightly vindicated for the horrible practice test score. 

I didn't need to take that test, but it added one more cert to my resume. In addition to the previous MCSE: Data Management and Analytics and MCSA: SQL 2016 Database Administration, I now also have a MCSA: SQL 2016 Database Development.  

Just in time for retirement.