Microsoft has newly introduced a new certificate policy limiting the validity of the newly issued certificates to one year and enabling us to renew Microsoft certificates annually for free. Read more about Microsoft new certificate policy.
How many attempts?
If you fail the first and second attempts, you will be able to take the exam as many times for free, once a day. However, if we fail to pass the exam within the given window, we will have to retake the actual exam all over again, and extending the expiry date will no longer be an option
My first attempt to renew Microsoft certificate
Finding out that one of the certificates is expiring
While checking up my Microsoft learning dashboard, I noticed a notification that the “Sales Functional” certification is expiring in less than 6 months.
According to Microsoft, we will be entitled to renew the certifications in the last 6 months window for free before the exam expires.
Check eligibility
When we click on the “Renew this certification” button, we will be directed to Microsoft learn certificates.
And directly to the Sales functional consultant certificate page https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/d365-functional-consultant-sales/renew/.
From the certification page, we will be asked to check for eligibility to renew the certificate.
Connect certification profile
To check for eligibility, we have to connect our learn profile with our certification profile, as explained before in the Microsoft certification renewal post.
Certificate expiry
After connecting the Microsoft learn account with the certification profile, the system found that I am entitled eligible to renew Microsoft certificate. As shown below, I have 173 days left to renew my certification for free. Otherwise, I will have to pass the exams as I did the first time, I will have to pay 165 US dollars for each of those exams.
The exam
First of all, the exam was not proctored and didn’t need to be scheduled. We can sign in to the exam at any time during the day.
I received 24 questions in 45 minutes, and all the questions were about Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Insights. I was not prepared, and this is why I failed!
As the reset of Microsoft exam, the passing score is 70% to renew Microsoft certificate.
Exam report
The exam report will show my score and the areas of the exam. As this was my first time, I am entitled to another try right after the first one.
Retake the assessment
As mentioned above, we will be entitled to a second try right after the first one and on the same day, however, I intentionally failed in the first and second try to understand how the system will stop me from trying for the third time in the same day.
As shown above, a count down will control my eligibility to retake the exam. Also, I can view my previous attempts to take the assessment.
Prepare for the renewal assessment
Now, that it is obvious that I am not ready to renew Microsoft certificate and pass without preparing, from the same renewal page https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/d365-functional-consultant-sales/renew/, we will find the preparation material.
As mentioned above, the assessment focused on Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Insights.
The objective of the certification renewal
I believe that the new Microsoft policy to renew certificates annually is a great opportunity for us to be up to date with the continuous development with Dynamics 365 and other Microsoft solutions.
A couple of years ago, when I passed MB-210: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales exam, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Sales Insights were not yet released.
Now, that I need to renew Microsoft certificate, I will get updated on the new product releases.
