You just don't see these problems in, say, the RHCE ferinstance. (and no, this isn't to point up Linux - most of the *ix community discards certification anyway.)

Back to the point, this is because certs like the RHCE require that you prove your skills in a classroom setting before you take any sort of test, and the tests aren't simply a battery of questions.

I've also gained an MCSE in both WinNT and Win2k... and while I agree that the tests were certainly not easy, they certainly were not designed to test anything beyond how much of 'The Gospel According To Bill' you absorbed, and not on actual competency. The key missing ingredient is a practical hands-on series of tests, tests that could prove decisively if the candidate has a clue or not. Instead we see tests designed on how well you know the rarely-used and oddball minutiae of the product itself. After all, how many people are going to set up a RRAS box with IAS and RADIUS, or tweak the schema, or implement multiple forests in their typically small network?

Getting back to The Gospel, this brings up another point: It is a common saying that "there is the right answer, the wrong answer, and the Microsoft answer." While it is admirable that MS finally admits that heterogenous networks exist and that folks do use other OSes, why is it that they continue to write tests so that you have to think like Microsoft's PR department to get the "correct" answer to a question? Removing that little bit of politics for good would go even further towards making the MCSE tests credible in the industry at large.

Again, it is much preferable to incorporate a hands-on regimen for testing, evaluated by competent Microsoft employees, and not mere subcontracted "testing centers"... it would make a hell of a lot of sense, and even if the candidate just boot-camped his/her way to the test, at least you'll know for sure whether or not he/she can actually do it.

A semi-final question: While in my opinion it is quite incomplete and suffers from being PR-centric, why not simply require exam 70-220 (Designing MS Win2k Network Security) as part of the coursework? It looks a lot as if MS may be more eager to spin out yet another 'hot cert', rather than improve the ones they have, ne?

PS: I guess this means the MCSA Microsoft was advertising so hard last year is now kaput...

/P

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