New Question Types added to Microsoft exams

Microsoft have added several new question types to their certification exams in 2011. These new types have been designed to test your knowledge in new ways and ascertain that you know the exam material in sufficient detail.

Microsoft states that the new question types are more fun and interesting to answer. Not sure that any exam is fun but if it guarantees that candidates know the subject in greater detail then that's got to be good. The new question types can appear in any of the Microsoft MCP exams including MCTS, MCITP, MCPD and MOS.

The new question types

• Choose all that apply
• Best answer
• Extended Matching
• Code Case Studies (dev exams only)

Let's a take a look at each of these in more detail:

Choose all that apply

In this question type, there may be one or more answers that are correct. You will see a list of answers (multiple choice checklist) but you need to select multiple items.

Best Answer

Several of the answers might be correct but only one is the best answer. The others will have downsides or negative effects.

Tip: Judge for yourself which answer provides the best solution to the question and think about the pros and cons of each answer.

Extended Matching

This type of question is frequently seen on medical exams. In this question type you will see more than 4 possible answers per question. You will also see the same answer choices presented for several questions. Secondly, the same answer may be correct for more than one question or it may not be correct for any.

You are told when the extended matching questions will appear. They also appear together, one after another.

Code Case Studies

These question types only appear on developer exams. As you might expect, you will be presented with a snippet of code or a set of classes that you need to understand. Sometimes you must fill in the blanks to complete a class. In other cases you must amend a code segment to introduce new functionality.

The code case studies are designed to test your ability to understand and maintain coding.

Don't Panic

Remember, these new question types are testing the same skills as before so don't be afraid if you see them popping up in your exam. If you've studied well, you should be able to pick out the correct answers no matter what question type is presented.

You can watch a video explaining the new question types and showing examples:

New Microsoft Exam Question Types - Snackbox Video