Helmers Blog

Just received an e-mail from Microsoft Learning today. I passed the MCTS Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Client Virtualization exam! Strange, normally you have to check the Prometric website to see if you have passed a Microsoft exam. Probably the system is working a lot smoother then with the last exams, let’s hope it stays this way with all the upcoming exams!

According to my earlier blogpost and the news on the MS Learn blog the beta code for the 71-669 exam should be e-mailed to us around 15:00 CET (9:00am EST). For now the exam is available on the Prometric website, but sadly enough I didn’t receive the code yet. If I read the responses to the earlier blogpost correctly, nobody did receive the code…

When is the exam available? When the beta code for the exam is available you will be able to register the exam for a date between March 5th, 2010 and March 25th, 2010.

Code is available for SME’s Just a few minutes ago (16:20 CET) I received the e-mail with the beta code: (no the beta code will not be published!)

{My SINCERE apologies for the delay, had a problem with Connect so am sending to you directly.}

Register for Beta Exam 71-669: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization

You are eligible to register for beta exam 71-669: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization. You were specifically chosen to receive this notification because of your Microsoft Learning SME Profile or previous participation with Microsoft Learning. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form.

This opportunity will also be offered to the general public. However, please do not post the beta code publicly. If you do post the beta code publicly, you will be excluded from future beta notifications.

By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.

71-669: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

· MCITP: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

So all the SME’s will probably receive the code within a few minutes. Probably something went wrong (again!) with the Connect e-mail system, because the e-mail was received from Krista W herself .

I was able to register for the exam! Let’s hope you all are able to register for a exam spot.

A few days ago I already blogged that MS Learning would announce the last out of three new Virtualization exams. Next week, on Monday March 1st, the registration for the (beta) exam will open!

Registration old school Until now the first possibility to register for an exam was at 12:00 am EST (6:00am CET), because the last time Prometric made a beta exam available there were ‘a few’ things that didn’t go that well! The beta exam code leaked to the internet several times which allowed everybody to register for the beta’s, instead of the people that were originally invited!

During the last beta exam, the 71-693, everybody in Europe was awake very early (the exam became available around 6am in Europe), but we were unable to register for the exam. Later that day MS Learning fixed the issues and the Europeans were able to register for the 71-693.

Registration 2010 This time everything is different. A couple of hours ago I received a ‘beta-exam’ notification which told me registration for the beta exam will open on March 1st (Next Monday that is!) at 9:00am EST (What time is this in my region?). The beta code will be e-mailed on March 1st at 9:00am EST, so let’s hope the e-mail system does what it has to do and everybody will receive the beta code in time!

Will this be the solution? I think something has to change to give, at least the SME’s, a fair change to be the first to register for the exam. So if the new procedure works the way it should, this could be a proper solution to prevent the code to be posted on the web before the beta registration opens. And if something goes wrong the Prometric office at the Eastern part of the USA will be opened up so MS Learning peeps can contact them to fix the issues that may appear.

So, when is the registration for the 71-669 is available?

What : 71-669 : TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization Time : 9:00am EST (What time is this in my region?)

At the moment it’s not known when you can attend the exam, but this will probably be part of the e-mail of March 1st!

It took them a while over at Prometric…but the beta code is working right now in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Hungary and Germany…so be quick and register for the 71-693 before it’s all filled up!

Whole day long we were waiting for Prometric to fix their error, and finally they did! Check out my previous post for all the discussions about this exam.

NOTE : If you are unable to register for the exam, please also leave a comment at this MS Learning Blog Post so they will know who as unable to register

Update (11:00am CET) : Unable to register for this exam in the following countries : Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany. Probably some other European countries you’re unable to register for this exam right now.

UPDATE 2 (13:06 CET) : (thanks to Bas Steeloper) Prometric can’t take any action before 14:00 CET (that’s when the Prometric HQ will be available), but it will probably take until 20:00 CET before registration can take place for the European countries named above.

UPDATE 3 : The Beta code is working!!! Be quick and register for the 71-693 before it’s too late!

At 12:00am (EST) the 71-693 became available for registration. And also this time there will be a limited number of seats. With the last exam (71-659) it took about 8 hours before all the seats were filled. What do you think, will this exam be filled quicker?

Too bad this time the exam code for the exam isn’t working in Europe, or at least in the Netherlands! Last few times there have been some issues that had something to do with some dudes leaking the promotional codes on the internet. I asked some friends over at MS Learning, but the told me there is only one beta code available, so it should work. The strange thing is…over at Canada there was at least somebody who was able to register for the exam, with the appropriate beta code, but in Europe nobody succeeded!