For more than 30 years, Microsoft Certifications have provided proof of world-class technical proficiency. We are focusing on innovative solutions that improve the accessibility and real-world relevance of our certifications. I am pleased to announce that we are adding a powerful new resource designed to help with all role-based (associate, expert, and specialty) certification exams. On August 22, we will begin updating our exams so that you will be able to access Microsoft Learn as you complete your exam. This resource will be available in all role-based and specialty exams in all languages by mid-September.
How often do you say in your daily life, “I’ll just look that up.”? Now, you can… with easy access to Microsoft Learn, another enhancement that we have made to improve the overall exam experience.
Because this is an exam resource, much like a calculator, exam time will not be extended. We are not changing the way we write our questions; they will continue to focus on problems or scenarios that require real world experience to solve. As a result, 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.
Here's what you need to know about this new resource:
- You will have access to everything in the learn.microsoft.com domain except Q&A and your profile.
- Extra time will not be added.
- The exam timer will continue as you search Learn for whatever information you need.
- This resource is only available on role-based exams, not fundamentals.
- This resource will be available in the same languages in which the exam is available.
To use this resource during your exam, you will select the Microsoft Learn button available on the exam question screen. This will open Microsoft Learn in a split screen to the right of the exam question. You can then navigate through the website as you normally would and expand it to full screen if you prefer. Below are a series of screenshots showing the experience.
To open Microsoft Learn, select the icon on the question screen. In this example, it’s below the question.
After selecting the icon, Microsoft Learn will open in a split screen to the home page.
You can launch multiple tabs of the Microsoft Learn website and navigate to different portions of the site, except the Q&A section and to your personal profile (you won’t be able to login). These tabs can also be individually closed.
You can adjust how much of the screen shows the question and how much shows Microsoft Learn with a splitter between each window.
You can open Microsoft Learn into full screen. Full screen mode includes the test timer and question count information in the header.
Web Browsing is restricted to the Microsoft Learn domain. While the Microsoft Learn site includes links to other webpages, such as GitHub, attempts to navigate to other web domains will prompt a message in the test window indicating the site is blocked.
To see a full demonstration of the feature set, visit Microsoft new exam resource video.
Microsoft is committed to improving the overall exam experience to ensure that everyone who wants to take a Microsoft Certification exam can do it without any barriers or hurdles and showcase your expertise for in demand job roles. I will be back in the next few months to discuss more improvements that we are making to continue to empower you on your journey to get certified and to make Microsoft Certifications the most accessible certification program in the world. Be sure to check out this new resource the next time you take a role based or specialty Microsoft Certification exam.