Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization Course and Exam Preparation

Paul Nieuwelaar, 22 November 2011

Since its initial release late last year, I have been working with Dynamics CRM 2011, performing customizations to meet the requirements of many different clients. Just recently, I sat and passed the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Customization and Configuration exam (MB2-866). In this post I will provide tips on what I did to pass the exam, including the study materials I used, which will hopefully help out anyone else who is looking to pass this exam.

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While using CRM 2011 every day was probably one of the best ways to study for this exam, going through the course material definitely helped identify areas that I wasn’t so strong in. After going back over the course material and exam categories, it is not hard to see that the Microsoft Customization Course (80294) contains a lot of information that is tested on in the exam. I found it very useful to study the course and example questions before the exam, to get a feel for the content and questions that will be asked.

If you have previously sat a Dynamics CRM 4.0 exam, you may be surprised that for the Dynamics CRM 2011 exams, there are now 75 questions asked on the exam, as opposed to the 50 asked on the CRM 4.0 exams. They’ve also made the multi choice questions even trickier, where the question will state “Choose all that apply” where there could be any combination of A, B, C, D, or even E as the correct answer. This being different to CRM 4.0 where you would be asked to “Choose 2” or “Choose 3”, so you would at least know how many to select.

The actual questions are in some cases quite tricky to get your head around as well, and I would often need to read the question a few times to make sense of it. It is important to make sure you understand the question entirely before selecting an answer and moving on, as some questions are designed to ‘trip you up’. This is why it definitely helps to have a thorough understanding of CRM 2011 before attempting this exam.

When sitting the exam, I made sure I ‘Marked for Review’ any questions I wasn’t 100% sure about. At the end of the exam, I then went back through the marked question over and over again, until I had given the best answer I could (even if it meant just choosing 1 of 2 favoured answers). I felt this technique gave me a fair indication of how my score would look, based on the percentage of questions I had initially marked.

The exam is made up of 7 different sections:

1. Configuring a CRM Organization Structure
2. Managing Users & Teams and Security
3. Customizing Attributes and Entities
4. Customizing Relationships and Mappings
5. Configuring Auditing
6. Managing Forms, Views, and Charts
7. Implementing a CRM Solution

The exam score is graded out of 1000, where 700 is a passing score. This means each section makes up roughly 14% of the exam, and each question is worth roughly 13 points.

The exam definitely focuses on the new features added to CRM 2011 (such as charts, auditing, and solutions), so it is important to understand these areas thoroughly. It is also very useful to go through the course material which will help you get up to speed on some of the areas you’re not currently confident in.

Instructor led courses are run regularly here at Magnetism for the CRM 2011 Customizations Course, so if you’re in New Zealand, feel free to contact us for more information about our courses. By coming along to one of our training sessions, you will be able to better understand CRM 2011 Customizations, which will make understanding the content, and passing the exam a lot easier.

As this is only the first Dynamics CRM 2011 exam I have sat, I will be looking to pass the Applications exam in the coming weeks. I will also be teaching the Customization Course in December, so please get in touch with us if you’re  interested in coming along to that course.

I hope this helps someone prepare for their Customization exam. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions regarding this exam or the training.

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