What to Expect at the Testing Center

When you arrive at the testing center where you scheduled your exam, you must sign in with an exam coordinator and show two forms of identification one of which must be a photo ID. After you've signed in and your time slot has arrived, you'll be asked to deposit any books, bags, cell phones, and other items you brought with you. Then, you'll be escorted into a closed room.

All exams are completely closed book. Although you aren't permitted to take anything with you into the testing area, you're furnished with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil (in some cases, an erasable plastic sheet and an erasable pen). Immediately before entering the testing center, try to memorize as much of the important material as you can so that you can write that information on the blank sheet as soon as you are seated in front of the computer. You can refer to this piece of paper during the test, but you'll have to surrender the sheet when you leave the room. Because your timer does not start until you begin the testing process, it's best to write down the information first, while it's still fresh in your mind. You'll have some time to compose yourself, write down information on the paper you've been given, and take a sample orientation exam before you begin the real thing. We suggest you take the orientation test before you take your first exam. (Because the exams are generally identical in layout, behavior, and controls, you probably won't need to do this more than once.)

The room typically has one to six computers, and each workstation is separated from the others by dividers. Most test rooms feature a wall with a large picture window. This permits the exam coordinator to monitor the room, to prevent exam-takers from talking to one another, and to observe anything out of the ordinary. The exam coordinator will have preloaded the appropriate Microsoft certification exam (for this book, Exam 70-284), and you'll be permitted to start as soon as you're seated in front of the computer.

All Microsoft certification exams allow a certain maximum amount of time in which to complete your work. (This time is indicated on the exam by an onscreen counter/clock, so you can check the time remaining whenever you like.) All Microsoft certification exams are computer-generated from a larger pool of exam questions. The questions are constructed to check your mastery of basic facts and figures about Exchange Server 2003 (and Windows Server 2003) administration and to require you to evaluate one or more sets of circumstances or requirements. You'll often be asked to provide more than one answer to a question. You might also be asked to select the best or most effective solution to a problem from a range of choices, all of which are technically correct. Taking the exam is quite an adventure, and it involves real thinking. This book shows you what to expect and how to deal with the potential problems, puzzles, and predicaments.

In the next section, you'll learn more about the format of Microsoft test questions and how to answer them.