After sitting the Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases Beta exam (71-462) on Monday, I was still a little disappointed with Microsofts approach to questioning for these exams. So I went into this exam with pretty much the same mindset that the questions were going to be vague and in some cases completely wrong.

Much to my surprise, I found the questions in this exam far far better. The exam itself was split into sections. There were 44 in total, 26 the standard multiple choice and 5 further scenario based sections, each with either 3 or 4 questions. Section one was much the same as the 71-462 exam but I felt the questions were in the majority, more concise and in my opinion gave enough information to make a valid judgement when answering. I did leave a few comments as there were a few of the questions that could do with a bit more work and had a couple of typo’s.

The scenario sections again provided enough information to select the relevant answers, the only criticism of these sections were on question 2 of my second scenario, there was a major typo on the answers of question which didn’t pry me away from the answer but requires sorting.

Now, the main thing that really got me with this exam was the amount of SQL Azure questions in section one. Is was not mentioned as a skill measured so needs looking into in my opinion, either add it as a skill measured or remove it from the exam.

A much more enjoyable exam than the administrator, mainly due to the higher level of quality in the questioning resulting in far fewer comments being left and for me, I love the scenario based questions!!

As always, I’d be interesting to hear other peoples thoughts on any of the 2012 exams they’ve taken so far…..