Passed AZ-900 even on a day of bad luck
I am in my 50s and have not done an exam since 1997. I have always had to work to pass exams. I was quite nervous.
Purchased a subscription to Measure up planning to spend the 6 hours before the exam doing practice tests but that fell through as I prepared to run through all the tests and take pictures of my room I realised that my passport, the only ID I have is currently with immigration for a visa extension.
I expected to be refused because I did not have an approved form of ID.
So spent all the time stressing about that and then thought I would at least run through a Measure up practice test and discovered the key they gave me which I had registered was not applied to my account with the subscription tied to it.
I suspect when I registered via the email they sent on my phone, I was already logged into my MS learn account and it had somehow applied it to another email account I have. I found this out after the exam so was unable to take that practice test.
I was considering not even bothering to show up for the test or contacting them and mentioning the thing about my ID but then decided to do the MS learn practice test.
I passed it with about 85% which boosted my confidence slightly/
I had a laminated copy of my passport that is life size that the agent gave to me if I ever got stopped and did not have a passport and at signup, the picture was accepted. A real person would have picked it up but the automated checks passed it no worries.
Because I had not had a chance to really to any practice tests I just accepted I would fail and for some odd reason thought there were 55 questions in the test so I was quite surprised when it got to I think 37 and finished. I thought it meant the first section.
I only work with Azure when my responsibilities cross paths with having to know something but over the years I have gotten a bit more comfortable with it.
I passed, only just and I am not giving too much away by saying the questions that fooled me were the ones that could legitimately go either way.
Plus I need to know storage terminology a bit better.
If we were all asked, does Azure need an internet connection I think there would be a 50/50 split on what answer you would get.
I know you can have an offsite network with a private link and no internet connectivity but somewhere along the line, that Azure network you connect to does have internet connectivity so legitimately it could be either answer.
The only study I did was:
John Savill - 65 AZ=900 videos
John Savill - az-900 study cram videos
Another dude who I cannot remember but he had an extremely well organized diagram on the learning required for AZ-900 which was 90 minutes long.
Then the MS Learn practice test
One thing I will say is that guys who have many years experience often say that while they are working they do not need to do certification. I for many years was one of those people that thought that way and I was completely wrong.
I learnt more in 2 weeks than the last 5 years and my way of thinking was so archaic that I would be a hinderance more than a help. Backups as an example, so many redundancy and HA options I did not even know exist and makes the things I was worrying about redundant.
I think my next exam is going to be another 900 series and leaning towards SC-900 for two reason, get my confidence back up when it comes to taking exams and because my knowledge is so lacking in these foundation areas.
Plus I enjoy learning the concepts as well. After that I might look at which path is the best one to take.
For me it is more about cementing my position and becoming more useful over getting a new position or getting certified. I like the people I work with and do not plan on going anywhere however it is always good to be remain relevant.