Another Test Passed

Today was the second half of the Azure exams: the AZ-304 exam for Solution Architect Design.

And I passed. Now I am a Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert. (Until October 2022, anyways)

The stress is bleeding off now. Or maybe it’s the Godfathers. 🥃 I am not sure when the last time was that I felt under that kind of long-term stress to perform. The training courses were in June, July and September and then the exams in September and October. On one hand, it wasn’t like I would lose my job if I didn’t pass, but on the other, there was a part of me that didn’t want to have to go to my boss and the rest of the team and admit that I’d failed, either.

I passed with flying colors, too. My score was 919, and a passing score was 700. Today’s test was the one that I felt was most appropriate for my job and it’s nice to know that I did pretty well. But it didn’t start auspiciously. I was scheduled to write the test at 8:30 this morning. I got a bit of exercise in and a shower to clear the mind, and at 8:15 I started the process of signing in. It involves taking photos of yourself, your ID and the place where you’ll be taking the exam. But when it came time to launch the actual test, the secure app started up and immediately quit again. The person from PearsonVUE immediately contacted me through the testing app and we tried a few different things including grabbing Ian’s MacBook Air and trying that instead of my MacBook Pro. But it wasn’t working, so a long call to their support later, I was re-scheduled for 3:30 in the afternoon.

This afternoon, the process worked just fine, and the test started. A couple hours later, I passed. I can’t say that I was particularly optimistic when I pressed the “Finish” button on the exam. Evidently I did okay, but I didn’t really feel it.

Sorry about the lack of posts here lately. I’ve been under stress. Miranda will have something coming soon: she’s been taking part in Inktober and absolutely killing it. As an apology, here’s a video of Murphy spooked by the frozen turkey.