The Exam Name: Microsoft 365 Certified: Fundamentals
Partner Benefits if linked with Partner Centre: Yes
The Exam Number: MS-900
Last Exam Update: Updated on January 22, 2024 (This exam Contains New Content)
The Passing Score: 700 /1000
The Type of Engineer Taking the Exam:
- Advanced User
- Office 365 Administrator
The Resources you should Use to Study:
- Microsoft learn https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/
- Skills Measured Guide for the specific exam
- Virtual Training Days with Microsoft https://mvtd.events.microsoft.com/azure
- Measure Up Practice Assessments https://www.measureup.com/?gad_source=1
- Demo Tennant for Practice https://cdx.transform.microsoft.com/
- Practice Assessments on Microsoft learn.
- YouTube John Savills Technical Training
The Score Report Sample:
Your score report will look something like the one below, this provides a candidate will a visual representation of how your scored across the exam, bars showing longer mean you scored higher bars showing shorter means you scored lower. Overall, the score report will also give you a number score exam 750/1000 this represents a pass scoring 650/1000 would represent a failure. The score report is a valuable report because it gives you data into where your strong and where you need further knowledge, remember to always look at this briefly at the end of your exam so you know what to expect you can then retrieve this from your Pearson Vue portal again at later time.
The Score Report Analysis:
Microsoft score report are a great way of identifying areas you did well in and areas you didn’t do so well in, there not meant to provide you with any sort of way to dissect and understand the exact score you received in your exam on a per section basis what they do is give you an understanding with bars as to how strong your knowledge is in the areas tested. Sometimes these reports will demonstrate a strong knowledge in areas and other times they will demonstrate low knowledge in areas.
If you Pass your exam
Congratulation you passed your exam, well done this is a feeling of great achievement and you deserve it, those long nights of study, the knowledge you have learned and the prep you have put in has paid off. Don’t stop here, reflect on the report acknowledge where you did well and take note of the areas you didn’t do so well, strengthen your knowledge further with more training as you progress to your next certification and remember your always learning.
If you Fail, your exam.
Sorry you did not pass your exam, well its ok to not pass as well , Microsoft exams are meant to test you on foundational knowledge this doesn’t mean you don’t have the knowledge it just means you need to try harder for the next exam Fail stands for First attempt at learning an believe me I’ve had a few of those , it’s how you dust yourself off and get back at it , I usually recommend where you fail an exam take a few days off , come back reevaluate the report and work on booking for your next attempt alongside focusing on the areas you need additional knowledge , usually more practice tests can help with this remember your always learning and this was your first attempt so don’t give up give it another try and see what happens
The Study Plan:
Utilising the recommended study material provides a structured approach to the exam, each fundamental certification requires the candidate to have a solid foundational knowledge about the certification they have chosen in our case here the MS-900.
When a candidate is looking at getting started on the foundational journey what I usually tell them is first start out with Microsoft learn, if reading reams of pages isn’t for you the virtual training days are a fun interactive way of getting learning in while also practicing the concepts you can do this with a Microsoft 1-year free demo tenant this will give you exposure to a free environment without costing anything.
Following on from this I would recommend candidates utilise the Measure Up and Microsoft Practice assessments these will give the candidate strong pointers to if they’re ready to take their exam.
Alongside the Microsoft learn pathway and the Microsoft practice assessment I usually recommend candidates supplement their learning with either Udemy or John Savills YouTube channel this provides for a more interactive learning experience and keeps the candidates from getting bored easily.
Microsoft offers so many resources and I would always urge candidates to check out the latest information through the Microsoft website. If your used to classroom instructor-based training Microsoft also offers this but it’s usually conducted by an MCT Microsoft Certified Trainer and there can be costs associated with it.
Last but not least , setting aside time every week can help with achieving your desired goals remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and on average candidates are studying for weeks on end to understand the material and take their exams your journey won’t necessarily be the same as others so take the time to learning something new and celebrate your achievements by sharing on social media platforms like LinkedIn.
My Opinion of the Exam
Exam was structured well it provided a good foundation for office 365 concepts , it covered everything you needed to know when getting started with office 365 administration, I did at times find the questions long worded to be prepared for that , essentials for this exam you’re an administrator working with office 365 on a daily basis , know your cloud concepts , your dashboards , your implementation of office 365 and your debugging of office 365 users and groups.