Opinion: Are certification exams useful for experienced people?

Over the years, I’ve seen so many discussions regarding the certification process and exams. I’ve seen posts from many people that are very experienced with products saying they can’t see any point in the certification exams and also argue that competencies in the Microsoft Partner program shouldn’t be based on exams. They feel these people should somehow just be recognised for their other contributions.

Grandfathering

Regarding the certification process, I don’t agree that anyone should be just grandfathered in. Any of the people that have a great deal of knowledge and experience really should be able to just take the exams and be done with it.

I’ve worked at locations where, when someone applying for a job says they haven’t taken the exam, but they claim they could do it easily, the employer just says ok, we’ll book you in to take it. So often, that confidence then just disappears.

I also question that none of them would get any learning benefit from the process of taking the exams. I often see people that have worked with a product for ten or more years who can’t pass an exam on it. Mostly, that’s because they use 30% or 40% of a product every day and the exam covers aspects of the product they never look at.

Taking exams

Nowadays, exams are really easy to take, particularly if you ever attend any in-person Microsoft events that provide them as an option. If I’m at one of those events, I typically book in for an exam each morning at 8am and usually it’s at a reduced price. But even if I’m not at one of these events, I find it very convenient to be able to take the exams at home when I choose.

Beta / pre-release exams

I often take exams in beta or pre-release. At that point, they are usually (but not always) free. The biggest hassle I used to have with doing beta exams was that it required me to know where I was going to be on a particular day in a few months time. I usually didn’t have a clue even what city I would be in that far out, unless there was an event on. But now with the ability to take the exams remotely, and to book in with a beta voucher, that challenge is gone.

The only thing left that I don’t love about the beta exams, is how long it takes to find out your results. It’s a pain to prep for an exam, take it, and then not know if you’ll need to prep for it again in a few months time.

I also often get frustrated when people who didn’t take the beta have already started passing an exam that you haven’t received your beta results for. Usually that’s not for too long though, if it happens.

Why take the exams?

I take a lot of exams. I’ve taken 88 Microsoft exams at this point, so I’m very used to the process.

One of the reasons I do take the exams is it makes me study the whole product. Using SQL Server as an example, it helps avoid the problem I see where people use SQL Server 2022 or 2025 the same way they used SQL Server 2000.

I like getting the prep guides and making sure I’ve covered off all the topics on it. Given I spend so much of my time evangelising topics at the pre-release or early adopter stage, there usually isn’t much in the exams that’s a surprise by the time the product comes out. After I’ve covered the material, doing the exam is then almost an afterthought.

I decided long ago that any day I don’t learn something is a partially wasted day. I make sure that at least 30 mins to 1 hour each day is set aside to work through material on something technical I’d like to learn about. Over time, that lets me get through a lot of content, about a lot of subjects. I don’t have any specific requirement to learn detail about so many topics, but I’m endlessly in meetings where being able to sensibly discuss a topic is valuable. And if I’m going to learn the content, I might as well then do any exam on it.

Do the exams have value?

I don’t consider that having done an exam means much at all, on its own, at least not to someone else. When you can easily get a complete word-for-word copy of the exams online, you’d argue that there’s no real value in the exams. Until this nonsense stops (and Microsoft is getting better and finding these and shutting them down), you could argue that the fact that someone has done an exam means almost nothing on its own.

The exception to this is for those who took them in the beta phase where no such cheating options are available. It’s another argument (apart from the price), for taking beta exams.

So why then?

For those professionals who take the exams seriously, there definitely is value in the preparation process, more so than in actually taking the exam. And once you’ve done the prep work, you might as well do the exam.

An additional benefit is that many people are timeline driven and having an exam booked tends to create a sense of urgency in preparation. I know that I like to always have some exam that I’m prepping for. I like how it broadens your knowledge, and I like the discipline involved in the preparation.

2026-03-17