Latest lesson: Don’t underestimate the CRM 4.0 certification exams!

The CRM 4.0 certification exams are now available! I admit, I was a bit overconfident before I took the CRM 4.0 Applications exam. I’ve been working with Microsoft CRM for many years now, so I wondered: “Really, how hard could it be?”

I took Exam MB2-632 last Friday and got an unfortunate 60% grade. I needed a minimum of 70% to pass. This new Applications exam, along with the other two CRM exams (Installation and Deployment & Customization and Configuration), can be surprisingly tricky, from what I’ve seen and heard. There are many “gotcha” questions which at first glance seem to have multiple correct answers, but you’ll have to use your best judgment to pick what is deemed as the most efficient answer.

This does make the exam feel incredibly tough, and apparently I’m not the only one. In the comments section of Larry’s MSDN CRM Blog and at Phil’s CRM Blog, some test takers posted negative feedback regarding some exam questions.

So to wrap this up, make sure you revise the Exam Topics, which I’ve included below. For the Applications exam you will need to focus primarily on the newest features in CRM 4.0. You can also safely disregard CRM 3.0 study materials, as most of the questions deal with newer concepts. And you will need to log some practice time with the application, so download the VPC image if you don’t already have it.

Finally, don’t forget to register for a “Second Shot” voucher number, which lets you take the exam again for free in case you have trouble on the first round. Register as soon as you can, this program is valid only until June 30, 2008.

Good luck! Let me know how it went for you.

Exam Details:

• 50 total questions with a 70% passing grade (you’ll need at least 35 correct to pass)
• 100 minutes to complete the exam
• Multiple Choice and Multiple Answer Questions

Exam Topics for all three Dynamics CRM 4.0 exams are found in the below link.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Applications: Exam Topics
Prometric Exam # MB2-632

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Concepts – 34%

• Understanding Microsoft Dynamics Software
• Multi-lingual User Interface and Multi-currency
• Customer-centered view
• Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Office Outlook

Sales – 18%

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sales Concepts
• Opportunity Management
• Managing Leads
• Sales Order Processing

Marketing – 16%

• Planning and Creating Marketing Campaigns
• Managing Marketing Campaigns

Service Management – 18%

• Managing Contracts
• Managing Cases
• Creating a Knowledge base
• Managing Service Queues

Service Scheduling – 14%

• Understanding the Service Scheduling Life Cycle
• Scheduling Services
• Maintaining Users and Resources

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration: Exam Topics
Prometric Exam # MB2-631

Configuring Your Deployment – 28%

• Configuring Business Units
• Configuring Security
• Configuring Users and Teams
• Configuring Organizational Settings
• Configuring Multi-User Interface Language Packs
• Configuring Currency Exchange Rates

Customizing Forms and Views – 12%

• Customizing Forms
• Customizing Views
• Publishing Forms and View Changes

Customizing Entities and Attributes – 32%

• Maintaining Custom Attributes
• Maintaining Custom Entities
• Maintaining Custom Entity Icons
• Renaming Entities
• Translating Customized Entity Labels

Customizing Relationships and Mappings– 20%

• Relationship Concepts
• 1:N Relationship Behavior
• Creating 1:N Relationships
• Creating N:N Relationships
• Entity Mappings

Maintaining Organizations– 8%

• Core Concepts – Multi-tenancy and the Configuration DB
• Managing Additional Organizations
• Importing Organizations
• Maintaining Servers and Licenses

Microsoft CRM 4.0 Installation and Deployment: Exam Topics
Prometric Exam # MB2-633

Planning a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Implementation – 18%

• Planning for Business Needs
• Planning for Hardware
• Planning for Software

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Installation – 24%

• Understanding Installation Concepts
• Understanding Server Roles
• Understanding Security
• Understanding the Software Installation Process

Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router – 12%

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM E-mail Router Configuration Concepts
• Configuring the E-mail Router

Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Microsoft Office Outlook – 20%

• Installing the Outlook Client
• Supporting the Outlook Client

Redeployment and Upgrading – 16%

• Understanding the Redeployment Process
• Understanding the Upgrade Process

Uninstalling and Repairing – 10%

• Uninstalling Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Repairing Microsoft Dynamics CRM