Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) Certification
This article was written by David Graham who recommends SelfTest Engine for MCSE Certification Preparation.
MCSE is a certification course designed by Microsoft to IT professionals that would measure their “expertise in designing and implementing the infrastructure for business solutions based on the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server platform and Windows Server System (Windows 2003).” (Microsoft/Learning).
There are two sets of courses to choose from: the MCSE 2000 and MCSE 2003. Each has a different battery of exams to be taken after the course. Those who will pass the exams will be granted a certification from Microsoft and will be an authorized business solution provider particularly for technical support and systems engineering, technical consultation, network and systems analysis and software engineering.
Courses
| Course | Exams | Expertise |
| MCSE 2000 | This course has seven exams, namely: three networking systems, one client operating system, one design and two electives.
This certification course is designed for IT professionals working in complex computing environment for medium-size to large organizations. |
Configuring, installing and administrating Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure and Windows 2000 directory service infrastructure. |
| MCSE 2003 | This course has seven exams, namely: four networking systems, one design, one client operating system and one elective.
Elective Exam – you can choose from various exams: Exchange, Security, SQL and CompTia A, Security +, among others. This is designed for IT professionals knowledgeable on planning, design, and implementation of Microsoft Windows Server solutions and architectures in medium size to large companies. |
Configuring, installing and administrating Windows XP Professional, Implementing, Planning and Maintaining, Windows Server 2003 Environment, Server 2003 Network infrastructure and Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure. Other topics: Microsoft SQL server, Microsoft exchange, Active Directory, Network infrastructure, network security, and topics on general networking and Microsoft products. |
Course Details
The topics covered for MCSE certification are s follows:
1. Network Security
2. Computer Networking
3. Infrastructure
4. Active Directory
5. Microsoft Exchange Server
6. Microsoft SQL Server
7. Other topics on networking and on specific Microsoft products
Other Specialization:
An IT Professional can specialize along different tracks: MCSE Security and MCSE Messaging. Requirements to obtain these are for the applicant to do an Associated Elective, Design and an extra core exam.
A specialist would have a denotation that would appear on his resume as follows: MCSE: Security and or MCSE: Messaging
Qualifications of Applicants:
Applicants for MCSE on Windows 2000 Server certification must have at least one (1) year experience in implementing and administering a network operating system and client operating system, and designing a network infrastructure.
Applicants for MCSE on Windows Server 2003 certification must have at least one (1) year experience implementing and administering both network and client operating systems. They should be knowledgeable on planning, design, and implementation of Microsoft Windows Server solutions and architectures in medium size to large companies.
Exam Fee Cost:
A registration fee of $250 (US Dollars) can be made to any Pearson VUE offices nearby or through its website.