I passed the Microsoft MCTS 70-445 exam!

I passed the Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Business Intelligence Implementation & Maintenance (70-445) exam this morning.

I’ve taken other MS certification exams before, and this was by far the toughest.  To prepare for the exam, I read through the Microsoft Training Kit published by MSPress along with 2 of the 4 “Inside SQL Server 2005″ series books (here & here).   Although, the later 2 books didn’t directly relate to the test but they did increase my overall knowledge of the product.  I also have been working with the majority of these elements of SQL Server on a daily basis professionally.

In the weeks before my exam, I reasearched what others were saying about the exam to get a feel from those who have already taken it.  I found people who failed & passed the exam, and the general concensus was that this exam is difficult.  And it was.

Most of the complaints about this exam are in the realm of excess Data Mining questions, but I felt each topic was covered equally.  A high level view of the topics covered on this exam are:

• SSAS
• SSRS
• SSIS
• Data Mining

And, if you have a solid understanding of these you will be able to pass this exam. 

I think the criticism about the Data Mining questions could come from the training kit not covering this topic appropriately.  Without getting into a book review, the chapters on Data Mining are theoretical and do not give enough practical details which might have tripped some other test takers up.  Fortunately, I heeded the advice of my peers and over-studied this topic and scored the highest on it.

My next steps will be to follow the upgrade path to get the SQL Server 2008 MCTS, then go up to the MCITP in SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence.