Sunday 18 January 2009

When is an MCP not an MCP

On a couple of the forums I frequent one of the common questions is "Will I get an MCP certification and MCTS if I pass X exam".

You dont get an MCP certification from an exam that gives you an MCTS. You do however get access to the MCP community site, and the benefits of such.

You get an MCP certification if you pass certain exams namely the older generation exams that dont give you an MCTS, MCITP or MCPD.

Now in the case of exams like 70-620 and 70-431 which are used as electives on other older certs such as the MCSA or MCAD respectively they dont give you an MCP either. Now on the documentation for MCP it says

"Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) candidates are required to pass one current Microsoft Certification exam* that provides a valid and reliable measure of technical proficiency and expertise."

However this is not the case in relation to the next gen exams detailed above. If you check your transcript you will not have an MCP cert only MCTS... but you can create the logo in the Logo builder.

Looking at this blog post might help too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very true. But what should be understood is that the MCP certification has morphed into more of a community of Microsoft Certified Professionals. And if you hold any Microsoft certification, then you are a member. You essentially hold the status of belonging to the community and theoretically are an MCP - just without the certification. :)

Unknown said...

Hi Michael

Yes that is the essence, but its a case of are you a certified MCP or not, and in the case of the above examples, it shows how you can still have access to all the MCP benefits, just be able to use the title MCP