Study Guide Introduction

                With the advent of Microsoft’s revamping their certification tracks, eliminating future MCTS/MCITP certifications, there are a whole new set of exams for the new MCSA/MCSE certifications.  Because of this, I plan to start drilling down into the MCSE: Data Platform track which surrounds SQL Server 2012.  This blog post is not to go further in-depth about the new changes for the certifications.  For more information on this topic, please see Kendra Little’s blog post on the details.

                Microsoft doesn’t just thrust you out into the dark prior to taking the exam.  They graciously publish “study objectives” under a section called Skills Measured.  It’s an ordered list broken down from a broad topic, to relatively specific topics that will be expected on the respective exam.  I am a big proponent of trudging through these Skills Measured sections in order to get a good idea of what’s on the exam, what I need to brush up on, what I don’t know enough about, and what I feel pretty confident about.

                So why am I bringing this up?  Because I’m going to be spending the next couple of months going through all of these study objectives for a couple of exams (mainly the advanced exams for the MCSE:  70-464 and 70-465).  Disclaimer:  These blog posts covering the study objectives for the aforementioned exams are not meant to be the 100% solution to studying for these Microsoft exams.  These posts are simply meant to supplement experience and existing knowledge surrounding the SQL Server data platform.

                The structure of the blog posts will be a post per sub-objective.  In other words, viewing the Skills Measured for 70-464, the first blog post will be on the objective Implement Database Objects, Create and alter tables.  The second post will be on Implement Database Objects, Design, implement, and troubleshoot security, so on and so forth.  I will show examples, give some explanations, and point to more resources for these topics where appropriate.  Some will be easy, some will be more challenging.  As I progress, a back log of pertinent posts will be linked on the Study Guides page.

                So follow along!  If you are planning on achieving your MCSE: Data Platform, then this could be some well-guided learning.  If not, it will hopefully still be some valuable information.  Any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to leave a comment below or email me at sqlsalt@gmail.com.