I am not one to recommend needlessly piling up on certifications, but if you have the experience and the talent, you might as well get the most for your time and money. I have been looking at the new certification tracks and I think I have your life planned out for you. I believe I have discovered a couple of different scenarios that will give you the most certifications with the least number of tests. I am waiting to hear back from Microsoft on these in order to make sure that my work is valid. I will confirm this information in our forums when I hear back.
8 exams - 4 certifications:
In this scenario, you will earn MCP, MCSA, MCSE and MCDBA certifications by taking 8 exams. You will need to take the following:
70–290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment - MCSA Core, MCSE Core, MCDBA Core
70–291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - MCSA Core, MCSE Core
70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - MCSE Core, MCDBA Elective
70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure - MCSE Core
70–270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional - MCSA Core, MCSE Core
70-228: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition - MCSA Elective, MCSE Elective, MCDBA Core
70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition - MCDBA Core
70-297: Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure - MCSE Core
Note: You can substitute 70-298 for 70-297.
6 exams - 3 certifications:
In this scenario, you will earn MCP, MCSA and MCDBA by taking the following 6 exams.
70–290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment - MCSA Core, MCDBA Core
70–291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - MCSA Core
70–270: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional - MCSA Core
70-228: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition - MCSA Elective, MCDBA Core
70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition - MCDBA Core
70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure - MCDBA Elective
Note: You can take any other MCDBA elective instead of 70-293, however, taking 70-293 sets you up to complete the first scenario if you take 70-294 and 70-297.
Hopefully, these help show some of the opportunities to maximize your certifications by taking fewer exams. I am sure that more of these will become available as Microsoft continues to make changes to the certification tracks.
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