Certification Watch Volume 9 #16

Certification news regarding Microsoft exam insurance, two CCIE beta opportunities, and an extension of the CompTIA A+ 2003 track.

Published December 19, 2006
By Anne Martinez

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Microsoft Offers Exam Insurance Through Partners

Microsoft is now offering what it terms "exam insurance." This product allows you a free retake if you fail your Microsoft exam on the first try and a 25% discount on the next Microsoft exam you take if you don't. Unfortunately, this is only available through Microsoft's Learning Solution Partners. The partners we checked with do not charge extra for this but instead include it in their course price. Currently the exam insurance is slated to be available for purchase through May 31, 2007.

For a FAQ on this product see Microsoft's exam insurance page.

Cisco News, $50 betas

The CCIE Routing and Switching written exam v3.0 (351 001) will be available worldwide through December 30, 2006 for $50. The CCIE Security written exam v2.0, originally scheduled to replace v1.0 in January, will now be released as a beta exam from January 2, 2007 through January 23, 2007, also for $50. Passing either of these beta exams will give full recertification or lab qualification credit granted to all passing candidates.

In other Cisco news, according to Cisco's Web site the Cisco IP Communications Support Specialist designation will retire on April 17, 2007.

CompTIA A+ 2003 Extended Into 2007

CompTIA has announced that the 2003 version of it's A+ certification program will continue to be available until June 30, 2006. 2003 Exams will remain available a bit longer in some areas outside the United States with exceptions for the UK, Korea, Japan, and Ireland. Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek and Spanish versions of exams covering 2003 objectives will remain available until translations of the exams covering 2006 objectives are available.

For the full list of dates see CompTIA's A+ calendar.

That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to news@gocertify.com.

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