FREE UL Artificial Intelligence credit and others from Microsoft

[MNomadic]

Interesting update: reading around, I discovered that if you've attended these virtual training days in the past, you may be able to schedule other certifications in the "Role Based Certifications: Fundamentals" category(except the newer ones I tried). I found that the discount was already applied to my account and I've read from others that you can even schedule retakes for free. So I went ahead and scheduled AI 900(Azure AI Fundamentals) and DP-900(Azure Data Fundamentals).

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Searching around I found that; SC-900, Security, Compliance and Identity Fundamentals is in Beta right now and they're offering 80% off(making it $20) if you schedule and take it before March 8. Now this one isn't ACE yet and doesn't have a digital badge, but judging by the Microsoft's recent trend, I'd say there's a good chance that it will be worth credit later(of course, it may be free through virtual training days later too). You also don't get your results immediately. There are other upcoming Betas as well.

LOL at this point, I may build an entire Bachelor's of Applied Sciences in Microsoft Applications and Services out of free and discounted certifications. I'll call it the BAS MAS!

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In the spirit of this thread I though I'd also share that there are other discounts for Microsoft certs available. Employees at some corporate partners may be able to get free certs. More info here. Also, students may be able to get academic discounts using their student email. More info here and here. I haven't personally verified these yet but some of you may find this info useful.

[jch]

This is essentially what I'm trying to do right now, piecing together some kind of IT related degree largely via CompTIA and Microsoft certs. Right now I'm enrolled for the BS-Cybersec at TESU, but I may move elsewhere depending on transfer equivalencies. Thanks for all the links and info you've been providing on MS certs.

I have attempted to use all of my various edu emails in the Microsoft discount system, and none of them have ever pulled up any discount. I've tried TESU, ASU, Michigan Tech, and Strayer.

[rachel83az]

Pluralsight also has some training for MS Dynamics 365. I don't know how good/bad it is because I don't have a subscription. Tempted, though.

https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2021/q1-33-off

[TechNerd]

Just want to warn those of my experience with Microsoft certifications. Once upon a time WGU students would recommend a certain certification to get accepted into their CS/IT degrees. A lot of people made it out to be completely entry level and easy.

It wasn't. I'm not completely oblivious to technology by any means and they put a lot of questions on the exams that were not a part of the learning materials Microsoft (or the provider I was through) provides. The woman that ran the Certiport center (who also teaches the course for that exact certification) asked me why I thought I failed and I informed her half the questions were not even in the learning materials I was given.

She responded with a big sigh and "We've been getting this complaint a lot lately and our class material constantly has to be changed because of it." I had a re-do but decided against it because the pandemic hit and it just put a bad taste in my mouth in general. On top of all this WGU no longer even accepts that cert as entry and I have a feeling this is why.

So just a warning. Maybe they've changed the way their exams are, if not I'd recommened learning higher level material to whatever exam you're actually taking.

[rachel83az]

I noticed yesterday that AI-900 has a note about having changed in January. I would guess that they've taken any complaints to heart and either changed the exam(s) or the study materials.

[MNomadic]

I noticed yesterday that AI-900 has a note about having changed in January. I would guess that they've taken any complaints to heart and either changed the exam(s) or the study materials.

They update their role based exams yearly.

[MNomadic]

They updated their schedule with more events:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trainingdays

[MNomadic]

I passed AI-900 this morning with 906/1000(passing score 700). The only studying I did was yesterday and today through the associated learning material on Microsoft Learn, Linkedin Learning, a free Whizlabs practice test, and a short youtube playlist. I was going to attend the virtual training day tomorrow but there weren't schedule openings for the test until much later so I decided to just take it today.

https://www.whizlabs.com/microsoft-azure...free-test/ (they have free practice tests for other certs too like AZ 900)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...kjJbi7dva_

Honestly, once I got some of the basics down, I was able to use educated guesses and context from other questions to determine the right answers for this test.

[rachel83az]

Do we know how long the free exam links are good for? If I don't use them until the end of March or the beginning of April, they'll still be good, right? I have several projects due at Strayer and need to focus on them for a bit.

[MNomadic]

Do we know how long the free exam links are good for? If I don't use them until the end of March or the beginning of April, they'll still be good, right? I have several projects due at Strayer and need to focus on them for a bit.

I'm still able to schedule some of the eligible fundamentals exams for free after attending 1 virtual training in October of last year. If you're worried, I'd just go ahead and try to schedule now, but push the test date a month or 2 back(or whatever you need to), you can always go in and reschedule later if you need(at least 24 hours before the scheduled time). With that said, Microsoft seems to always be offering new opportunities for cheap/free exams: I see they're always adding new virtual training days to their schedule and they have the Cloud Skills Ignite Challenge regularly. I noticed that AZ-104(part of the ignite cloud skills challenge) is worth 2 UL credits in IT/IS.