Microsoft's Certification Booster Pack Program Set to Expire
From time to time, Microsoft Learning, the certification and training arm of Microsoft, runs promotions that trade discounts or add-ons to standard Microsoft certification exam voucher purchases. This approach is meant to stimulate fence-sitters to get up off their perches and get cracking on a certification exam.
The latest promotion is called the "Microsoft Certification Booster Pack" and it's going to be withdrawn at the end of September. That means that interested parties have one week from the date of this posting to exercise this offer before it goes away for a while.
The promotion ran from early March through the stated expiration date (Sept. 30), so it's likely that we won't see another MS promotion of this kind until the end of the first quarter of 2017.
Why might somebody want to jump on this offer before it expires? Here are some potential reasons:
1) For $200, you can purchase an exam (normal price $165) and get a practice test from MeasureUp thrown in for another $35. Because they normally cost $50 and up, this is a decent discount.
2) For the same $200, you can purchase an exam and get up to four free retakes for that exam. For tricky or troublesome exams, this could be a Godsend.
3) For $225 you can combine both the practice test and the four free retakes. Those concerned about passing on a first try may want to pony up the extra $60 for "pass insurance!"
4) You can sign up for an exam up to 6 months after the purchase date of your booster pack. That means if you wait until the last day (September 30) you can sit for the exam any time up through March 31 of next year.
Obviously, if you're worried about failing on a first try, you'll want to schedule the exam sooner than that.
5) The Booster Pack exam voucher applies for proctored exams (which let you take them online, instead of in a testing center). That means that as long as your PC meets system requirements, and the exam you want to take is proctored, you can do it at home.
For more information, check the Microsoft Learning page Online proctored exam delivery. Most, if not all, of the MCP exams that apply to MCSA, MCSE and MCSD are available in proctored form.
This means you can schedule the exams entirely at your convenience without having to worry about availability of local testing center seats.
For those who are considering a Microsoft certification exam in the next six months anyway, this offer may be too good to pass up. Please check it out! If you decide to exercise the offer, be sure to do so before or on Sept. 30.