Passed AZ-104
How I gained the 'Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate' certification, and how some exams allow you to access Microsoft Learn resources.
I forgot to mention this a few weeks ago but I passed the AZ-104 - Microsoft Azure Administrator exam, and this means I now have the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.
It’s been just over 3 years since I took my last Microsoft exam, and this time there was one thing that was a pleasant surprise, that I wasn’t even actually aware to start with.
It turns out that back in 2023 it was announced that all role-based exams now provide access to Microsoft Learn content within the exam!
I was already a few questions in when I happened to notice a curious icon on the exam toolbar. That’s when I discovered the Learn content. So the exam isn’t totally ‘open book’, but it’s a big change. It’s also ‘sandboxed’ - you can only browse the content from the Microsoft Learn website. Nothing outside of that.
Obviously having access to that content is a big change, but you still need to be able to understand the question and interpret the correct answer.
One criticism of a lot of certification-style exams is they just encourage memorising random or obscure facts. I think giving access to Microsoft Learn from within the exam goes some way to dispelling that criticism.
Be aware that you still have the same time limit for an exam, so it’s really important to manage your time well.
It would be quite easy to find you’ve spent 10 minutes trying to confirm the answer to a question, only to then discover that you’ve run out of time to finish all the questions!
I’d suggest unless you can quickly check a question in under a minute, you’re better off selecting an answer but also mark the question for review. Only then if you have time at the end of the section make use of the Learn resources.
I’d been wanting to take this exam for quite a while. I’d been working my way through the self-directed training modules and also reviewed some of the courses on Pluralsight and LinkedIn Learning. I’d also made use of the practise questions.
In the end I figured I just had to take the plunge and have a go. After I’d answered all the questions I really wasn’t sure if I’d made it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that I’d passed 😊🎉