MB2-717 Exam Prep

[Ana's note] The master of Microsoft Exams is teaching us how to prep. Pay attention!

What is involved in preparing for and taking a Dynamics 365 exam

This session doesn't cover exam questions but rather explains the exam process and experience to help you be ready for when you come to take the exam.

Candidates fail exams because they are haven't prepared for all the topics covered in the exam or because they panic due to unfamilarity with the exam experience. This session aims to make the experience less stressful and so that you can properly demonstrate what you know.

Microsoft Certification

We start with how Microsoft approaches certification and some of the thinking behind exams

Microsoft has the concept of a minimally viable candidate. Such a candidate should be able to pass an exam.

For Dynamics 365, Microsoft means someone with roughly six months' experience and who has also undertaken training. You don’t need this experience but you must have hands-on with the product so when in the exam you can picture the UI in your head.

Dynamics 365 exams are knowledge based not skills based so there is a small element of a memory test but for the functional exams such as Sales you need to understand the components in the application, how it fits together and also how to perform key functions

We will cover what the questions look like later but the exam consists of around 45-50 multiple choice questions, and you will have 90 minutes to answer them. This may not seem a lot of time but many questions can be answered quickly and nobody ever runs out of time.

Preparing for am exam

To prepare for a Dynamics 365 exam, start by looking at the Objective Domain. In the OD for the Sales exam, there are six sections each with a percentage. Each section has an area and description of the skills to be tested. You will notice that the percentages add up top more than 100%. This is because a question may cover more that one area.

To plan and track your progress towards an exam, copy the objective domain into a spreadsheet and list out all the training sources you can find, mapping them to the areas in the OD. This provides a structured learning plan.

Next we look at the learning resources available. There is no official training course material for Dynamics 365, but you are well on your way with Learn Do Earn. Microsoft are being very generous on documentation for Dynamics 365; most of what you need is at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/dynamics365/customer-engagement/sales-enterprise/help-hub

On the Dynamics Learing Portal, there are three e-Learning courses for the Dynamics 365 for Sales exam; 81066AE: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics 365 https://mbspartner.microsoft.com/D365E/CourseOverview/1482 81055AE: Relationship Management in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales https://mbspartner.microsoft.com/D365E/CourseOverview/1463 81056AE: Sales Management in Microsoft Dynamics 365 https://mbspartner.microsoft.com/D365E/CourseOverview/1523

If you don;t have access to the DLP, there is a course on edX; https://openedx.microsoft.com/courses/course-v1:Microsoft+81900+2018_T1/about and you can utilise the Microsoft Virtual Academy course https://mva.microsoft.com/en-us/training-courses/introduction-to-microsoft-dynamics-365-17593

There are no official practice tests for Dynamics exams. Do not purchase anything you find on the internet. You can read my thoughts on these at https://ukcrm.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/exam-brain-dumps/.

To help you prepare the are questions at the end of each module on the courses in the DLP. There are also questions on the EDX course – focus on the Sales module and end of course assessment. Microsoft has provided a practice assessment on the DLP https://mbspartner.microsoft.com/D365/AssessmentOverview/25.

Most importantly, get as much hands on as you can; for example Create Leads and Convert to Opportunities, Create Products and add them to Opportunities, Convert your Opportunities to Quotes, Order and Invoices. Take care to look at what is on these forms and what button are on the toolbars. Terminology is important – ensure you know the difference between things e.g. Leads vs Opportunities, Metrics vs Goals, Rollup Fields vs Rollup Queries.

Signing up for an Exam

A lot of people struggle with the sign up process for the exam so we will walk through the process.

Start from the exam page https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/learning/exam-mb2-717.aspx Sign in with your Microsoft account. Use the same credentials as used for your DLP access. You will need to create a profile for Microsoft Learning. You also need to create a Pearson Vue profile. You create these by registering for the exam, so click on Register for Exam and follow the process. Important: the name in the profile must match exactly your name on your passport and/or driving license. You don’t have to book exam after creating your profiles – you just cancel - but it is best to get this step out of the way as it takes some time.

When scheduling an exam you have two options:

Take at a physical Test Centre; you can search for your nearest test centres after selecting this option. Typically you will need to book a few weeks in advance then then travel leaving enough time to arrive early and relax before exam
Online Proctoring; take at home. You normally can book 2-3 days in advance but you need a web cam and speakers and a “clean” room - see https://ukcrm.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/microsoft-online-proctored-exams. It is recommended to perform the System Test 1 week before, 1 day before and 3 hours before the exam. Start your exam from https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/learning/dashboard.aspx.

Exam Experience

The Dynamics 365 exams are currently multiple choice with between 45 and 50 questions in 90 minutes.

Microsoft has around 10 different question types used across exams but Dynamics only has the simple types; i.e. multiple choice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvpACCsv558 or best answer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z2GPTFtvjk.

If unsure of answer, select your best guess and check Mark for Review in top left https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROO_PzuXbMw. If stuck staring at a question, click next and come back to it later. Exams are about time management – you do not have time to go through all the questions twice. Do not change your answer unless you either misread the question of 100% convinced got it wrong.

When you have reached the end of the questions, ensure you have answered all questions by checking the tiles in the review screen, then review the marked questions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJygBpl_8PI, unchecking mark for review when happy with your answer. Repeat until you get a handful of questions you can now spend more time looking at. When you don’t know – and you will always have questions you don’t know - end the exam. You will get result when you end exam and you can download your results as a pdf from the Microsoft Learning Dashboard page.