Microsoft has introduced a new approach to some of its certification exams, making them open-book experiences by permitting candidates to access its learning portal during the examination.
Liberty Munson, the director of psychometrics at Microsoft’s Worldwide Learning organization, says that some of their exams have been updated. This update enables individuals to use Microsoft Learn as a resource while undertaking their exams.
Microsoft Learn serves as a gateway to a plethora of resources, including product documentation, tutorials, code snippets, and various technical materials. A significant portion of this content will be accessible to candidates during their exams, while a technical Q&A service will remain concealed.
Candidates taking exams for role-based certifications provided by Microsoft, encompassing positions like Azure Administrator, Developer, Solutions Architect, and DevOps Engineer, as well as Microsoft 365 Modern Desktop Administrator and Enterprise Administrator, will have the opportunity to participate in open book exams.
Access to the Learn portal will be granted for exams at various levels of competency, including Associate, Expert, and Specialty. This resource will be accessible for all role-based and specialty exams, in all languages, with full implementation expected by mid-September 2023.
Consulting resources on Learn will not pause the timer during an exam, and the examination process itself will undergo no alterations—except for permitting candidates to open a separate window for accessing the educational portal.
Microsoft has taken thorough precautions to ensure that granting candidates access to Learn via the web does not extend to visiting external search engines, GitHub repositories, or any other online resources.
Munson says:
This resource is intended to be used for those questions that describe problems where you may need to look something up on Microsoft Learn. It is not something you should be leveraging to answer every question.
You can find out more from Microsoft’s blog post.
