Sunday, May 13, 2012

Earning School Credit for Passing Microsoft Exams

By Griffith Theodore


You can earn professional authentications for passing Microsoft exams, but did you know that you may be able to earn school credit? This piece of writing explains the method that you're going to have to follow to get up to six school credits for earning a Microsoft validation.

Anyone that has ever studied for a Microsoft ratification examination knows that plenty of work goes into preparing for the exam and that it's impossible to pass an exam (legitimately) without learning a lot during the procedure. What many IT executives don't realize nevertheless , is that their efforts can earn them more than simply a Microsoft documentation. In some instances it's really possible to earn school credit for taking Microsoft exams.

My Story

There are basically 2 different ways to earn school credit for your understanding. I'd like to kick off by telling you how I accomplished it. In the mid-1990s, I was working full-time as a network administrator for a huge insurance firm. Although I was putting in a large amount of hours at my job, I was also a full-time school student from University of Kentucky.

One special semester, I sat next to a girl in my history class who was working full-time as a veterinary assistant. One day she said to me that the high-school had given her free college credit based on her job experience because her job was related to her major. I was majoring in PC science (go figure), so I just had to work out if I could get in on that deal.

That afternoon I went to the administration building to find out if I could actually earn school credit for being an IT pro. To make a long story down in size, the school really did give free school credit to those that had a job related to their major.

Naturally, getting that varsity credit wasn't quite as straightforward as just telling the counselor that I used to be a network director. Somebody from the varsity had to visit my office a number of times during the semester as a strategy of corroborating my work. While they were there, they also chatted to my boss about my skills and about any areas where I continued to have a lot to learn.

At the time, I didn't have to pass a documentation examination in order to earn school credits. I did nonetheless , have to write up about 20 pages of documentation outlining things that I have learned on the job. It was not so much a log of my day to day activities, but was more like the types of articles that I write today. For example, one of the topics covered in my paper was the anatomy of an ethernet packet.

Even though I was able to earn college credits without needing to pass an authorization exam, I wanted to go ahead and share my story in case any of the varsities still provide free varsity credit to those who have a job that is related to their major.

Examination Based Credit

So what about getting university credit for passing Microsoft ratification examinations? The very good news is you can earn up to 6 credit hours after passing one or two authorization examinations. As if that weren't enough, these college credits are nearly always given freed from cost. The bad news is simply that not every university will accept Microsoft certifications instead of taking school classes.

The reason why it is sometimes, though not always, feasible to earn university credits for your certifications is that most colleges belong to the American Council on Education network. There are more than 1,500 schools and colleges within this network. Each of these colleges has agreed to consider the American Council on Education's suggestions for school credits. Eventually nevertheless , each school is an independent institution and is free to select whether or not they will grant university credit to people who have earned certifications.

There are 3 main steps concerned in earning school credit for your certifications.

Step 1: Talk with Your College

Step one in earning varsity credit for your certifications is to pay a visit to your school's acknowledgments office. You will need to find out whether the high-school adheres to the American Council on Education's recommendations for providing university credit to those who have earned Microsoft authentications.

Step 2: Determine Whether Your Validation Qualifies

If you find out that your college does accept Microsoft certifications for college credit, the next step will be to determine whether or not the authentications that you have earned are eligible under the school's programme.

It is vital to realize that the American Council on Education does not view each certification equally. In other words, simply having a Microsoft authentication isn't really enough. Only some of the. Available Microsoft authentications are commended for school credit. Similarly, you have to have earned the certification within the last three years in order to qualify.

To find out which certifications the American Council on Education suggests for university credit, visit the Microsoft web site.

At the beginning of this tract, I discussed that you could earn up to 6 credits for your certifications. The reason why I revealed that you could earn "up to" six college credits is because the American Council on Education view some licenses more favourably than others. For example, the Council only recommends a single credit for those who have earned a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) verification for Microsoft Office 2007. On the other hand, a full six credits is counseled for those that have earned a Microsoft Authorized Systems Engineer (MCSE) authentication for Windows Server 2003.

As you review the quantity of credits that the numerous authentications are worth, it is important to remember that these are only recommendations. Every individual institution is free to select which authentications they are going to accept, and how many credit hours they can award for those authentications.

Step 3: Submit a Records

The third step in earning school credit for your certifications is to submit a log to your college. Most varsities won't accept a Microsoft visible transcript. Such a records does prove that you have earned the declared certification, but most schools require a different sort of transcript.

In order to provide the transcript that your college requires, you will have to sign up to the North American Council on Education's records service.

After you have registered with the transcript service, skim the North American Council on Education course catalogue and add the examinations that you have passed to the course list. As you do, you'll need to supply the date on which you received each validation. When you have completed this process, you can push the Send Your Record for Review button. This will cause the data that you furnished to be despatched to Prometric for verification.

After the North American Council on Education has verified your authentications, use the American Council on Education website to submit a log request. There is a $40 fee that is charged for setting up your records account and submitting your transcript to the school. If you decide later to submit records to other faculties, it will be unnecessary to pay the full $40 each time, there is however an insubstantial fee for each transcript.

Getting Your Employer to Pay for Your Authentication

Even though it is pleasant to be well placed to earn varsity credit for your certifications, I have talked to a number of people latterly who have been having trouble getting licensed because their companies no longer send IT staff members to coaching classes. Even in this sort of situation, it may still be possible to get your certification, get your college credits, and get your employer to pay for it all.

Even though some bosses have stopped providing technical training, many organizations provide a tuition reimbursement programme. Some faculties offer courses that will actually steel you to take Microsoft verification examinations. Therefore , it is theoretically possible to take such a class and then have your employer reimburse you for it thru the tutoring repayment programme. After that, you may be in a position to take the authorization examination and earn extra college credit by passing the examination. As I said earlier though, every university does things differently, so before you try to utilise this approach I would recommend speaking to an acknowledgments counselor at your school to find out if you can still earn credit for passing the examination if you have recently earned credit for taking the class that prepared you for the exam.

Conclusion

As can clearly be seen, you have got to jump through one or two rings to get school credit for your authentications. Even bearing that in mind the mandatory effort could be easily worth it, especially if you stop and consider what your college routinely charges per credit hour.




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