Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert Exam Review MS-102 Exam Review
The Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert Exam Review MS-102 is Microsoft versions of examining your skills at office 365 Administration, for this exam there’s simply no exam like it.
This certification falls under Microsoft’s office 365 Administration certification pathway. Usually, candidates who complete this certification have a wide range of exposure to office 365 administration this can include, office 365, azure, teams, SharePoint, defender, sentinel to name a few but really its quiet an extensive coverage of not only office 365 and its sub categorise but the administration behind each of Microsoft’s technology stacks Undertaking this certification will require the individual to have experience in not only knowing the technologies but how to actually manage them day to day for an organisation.
The exam covers a wide range of topics related to manging a Microsoft 365 tenant, implementing identity controls, securing infrastructure against threats, implementing defender for 365 and cloud alongside managing compliance with Microsoft purview all aspects of office 365 administration you may have been operating under if you ever held any helpdesk roles.
If you’re preparing for this exam, you’re going to want to utilise multiple resources. Microsoft offers multiple aids in this department, they offer the MS-100 learn certification pathway, Study Guides and Practice exams, alongside being able to enrol in instructor led training.
If you’re on route to taking this certification, be sure to check out the Microsoft certification page to keep up to date with this exam, this exam was last updated on the 30th of January 2024 so there are items in it that have changed sense I last completed it. The skills measured for this exam can be found on the exam page but in short, your skills are measured over the following.
- Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 Tenant (30-35%)
- Implement and manage identity and access in Azure AD (30-35%)
- Manage security and threats by using Microsoft365 Defender (25-30%)
- Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview (15-20%)
My Overall Experience in this Exam
My overall experience based on both my 2 highest and my 2 lower scoring areas was
Over 70% of the exam was based on deploying and managing a Microsoft 365 Tenant and Implementing and managing identity and access in Azure AD both of these were really strong throughout the exam, I felt as if I was sitting more of a security office 365 administration exam more then anything. The additional 50% consisted of Managing security and threats by using Microsoft365 Defender and managing compliance by using Microsoft Purview this would lead the exam candidate to believe there a weigh or score of 120% total.
Ok so the logic behind this one is allot simpler than what the score report gives you, the first 2 section of the exam state they can possibly be 30 to 35% and the remaining two section state they can be 25-30% and 15-20%, what this essentially means is that on the exam it will present you with a varied % across all 4 sections this is clearly laid out in the score report
“Because the number of questions in each section varies, the length of the bars cannot be used to calculate the number of questions answered correctly, and bars cannot be combined to determine percentage of questions answered correctly”
My two highest scoring areas were
- Implement and manage identity and access in Azure AD (30-35%)
- Manage security and threats by using Microsoft 365 Defender (25-30%
My two lower scoring areas were
- Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview (15-20%)
- Deploy and Manage a Microsoft 365 Tenant (30-35%)
Morale of the story here this is a tough exam, and based on the report is received back my 2 strongest areas covered over 65% of the exam with my 2 weakest areas covering 35% of the exam, this leads me to believe the exam focuses more on defender for 365 and identity and access meaning you need to have a strong understanding of 365 defender and identity and access management.
My library for study consisted of
• Microsoft Learn MS-102 Certification Learning Path
• Microsoft MS-102 Practice assessment on Microsoft Learn
• Measure Up MS-102 practice assessment
Best of Luck in Your Studies
#always learning