Microsoft/Prometric Exam FAIL

Monday, December 7, 2009

Not me, Microsoft and Prometric (again). For the second time in a week, I am unable to take a beta Microsoft exam that I received an invitation to take.

The first was for 71-659: TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization. This exam I never got a chance to sign up for, even though I tried 10 minutes after registration opened. That's because some yahoos blogged about the exam and gave the registration code to everyone on the planet. Unfortunately, this was also blogged by a Microsoft MVP. Nice.

The second was for 71-663: Pro: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. This time, I was able to register and got a confirmation email immediately from Prometric. My friends markmorow and cxi on Twitter recommended that I confirm that my exam wasn't canceled. I went to the Prometric site today and sure enough, it was canceled.

No notification was sent to me about the cancellation. Nice again. The Microsoft Born to Learn website had this to say about it.

I contacted Prometric, who gave sent me the following information:

Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in the Microsoft Beta 071-663, PRO: Designing & Deploying Messaging Solutions w/MS Exchange Server 2010, examination. Microsoft authorized a registration cap of 300 registrations for this beta. Unfortunately, your appointment was scheduled beyond this cap and, as a result, needed to be cancelled. Due to this, you may have received an email confirmation of the cancellation.

Microsoft is, however, authorizing one free attempt to take the live examination at no cost to you when it is released next year. You will receive an email within a week which will include a voucher number valid for the 070-663 live examination. Please ensure to save the voucher number for use on your exam. It will be required at the time of registration to receive the exam at no cost.

We appreciate your business and apologize for any inconvenience this may have
caused.

Thank you.
Prometric

I'll be looking for this voucher when the Exchange 70-663 becomes official. If you, like me, didn't receive a cancelation email and showed up at the test site, go to http://www.prometric.com/appeals to request reimbursement for lost work and travel time.

1 comment:

  1. My last Prometric exam left me with a similar experience. I scheduled it for ~9:00am at a site nearby; showed up early, but on my cramming-cap, and then was told that the site was indeed *not* a Prometric site (their trained exam administrator had quit). To aggravate the problem the site was having phone problems; Prometric's manager insisted on calling the site to "confirm the site is not a site", and after nearly 2 hours he finally accepted me handing my phone to a frazzled employee.

    Half a day later I was rescheduled for the exam across town. Thankfully I passed.

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