Created on 2020-08-02 09:00
Published on 2020-08-02 09:07
Since I passed my AZ-104 “Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate” last week I did get a lot of questions on how I did it and could I give some pointers. This made me think that it would be a good idea to write a post about this. But as the length of this post grew I understood that it cannot be a post but I became another article. I hope it helps people to prepare for this exam.
Because of the Corana virus I found myself without a contract ( I am a freelancer by trade in the IT world ). So I did have some time on my hands. After a looking for new work for a while it became apparent that the knowledge I had in Private cloud was not as much in demand as Public Cloud where I did not have any knowledge so I started looking in getting more knowledge in Public cloud.
I did look at the standard courses with a live tutor but I found that these quickly run into the 3000 Euro’s and that I could not start for at least a other month. So I started looking into other ways of doing this.
I had Linkedin Learning for a while and did some courses on it but never used it for getting a certification. I started looking into what courses there where. I found out that there where nice learning paths ( Never knew the existed ) for the AZ-103 certification “Prepare for Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-103)”. So I knew the AZ-104 is a updated version of the AZ-103 so it would do for now. I also found a second Leaning path “Becoming an azure administrator”.
At the 11th of July 2020 I started my first course of the Learning path “Becoming an azure administrator”. I quickly released that it would be a good idea to do the exercises that are in the course. So I opened an Azure account the first month is free after that you will need to switch to pay as you go but for the courses that still does not cost a lot.
I did the whole learning path in 5 days. Do not be fouled if it says the Learning path is 12 hours you will need a lot more time than that. You will need to add minimal of 50% to that so you can do the trainings in azure.
At this point I wanted to give myself an end date so I scheduled my exam for so I scheduled my test for the 21 of July. With the scheduling they ask you if you want to buy an Exam prep test. Say yes to that it will be the best money you ever spend. (At least it was in my case.)
There is an overlap of both learning paths. So when I started the “Prepare for Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-103)” I only had 3 I had not done yet So I did those in 2 days.
First exam prep test on 18th of July. What to say I flunked and not a little a lot. For this test you had to have 80% correct I had 36%. After having a bad day and a lot of thinking I rescheduled my Certification test to the 31 of July.
Okay I did something wrong but I did not understand what. So I did the whole learning path “Prepare for Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-103)” again but even with more time in azure itself. It took me 7 days this time and a lot of work in Azure and in PowerShell to just get the hands on experience I needed.
And what would you know at the 25th of July I did 2 exam preps and made … wait for it… 42%. This clearly was not working. I was missing something.
So I did all the 195 questions they have in the prep exam. And looked at all the once I got wrong. Because in this exam prep they give you an explanation of what they were asking and why the answer is what it is. They also give extra resources where you can read up on the things for that question. This took me 8 hours reading up on everything.
And on the 27th of July I did the exam prep test again and I got 86% that is passing J.
I kept it up for the next few days doing 2 prep exams a day and checking what I had wrong looking these up on LinkedIn learning and in the links that where given in the exam prep.
The day before the exam i did Exam Tips: Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) so i was up to date with the changes.
On 31 July 2020 at 08:45 CET I did my exam and I passed. There were a few surprises.
The first was that the exam prep sated that you needed 80% to pass the certification only needs 70%.
Also there where some changes to how the setup of the exam was so there was at the end a case study. I had not practised for that.
I also found the whole process of doing it from home daunting but it was very easy and relaxed.
· If you do not have hands on experience in azure yet Practice, Practice and Practice.
· Never use just one resource material. I think LinkedIn learning is the best but also read the Microsoft publications.
· Do the exam prep it is not cheap but it helps a lot to find where you are weak.
· You can do this yourself and save a lot of money. I spend in total 310 Euros not 3000 Euro’s.
I already thanked the tutors on linkedin Learning but I want to this again they are amazing.
@david Elfassy ( Do not know which one on LinkedIn)