Are you a student or a professor? Lucky you! You can take Microsoft Certification Exams at a greatly discounted price!

Hello there!

Earning a certification is important in the tech industry as it’s a way to ensure that IT professionals have got the qualifications required to perform a task. Furthermore, a certification earned from well-known IT companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and others, may give you access to the job of your dreams or at least a better opportunity.

However, taking a certification exam is not cheap and most of the time, you’ll end paying for it out of your own pocket. It’s an investment after all, and while being successful at the exam does not immediately guarantee that you’ll get a better job, you’ll develop more skills and get more knowledge about the topics that you studied for the exam.

If you are an academic (student/professor) you might want to take a shot at a certification exam in order to earn some qualifications before you enter the real, professional world; however, sometimes there are things that are well… a bit scary… like the price, for instance.

If it were lower, I would definitely apply for the exam since (in this case) Azure is one of the technologies I work with!

Well, Microsoft is aware that scholars nowadays are skilled and deserve an opportunity to prove it. So, if you are a student or a teacher, you can get a greatly reduced price at certification exams in a few minutes and with little effort!

Just follow these directions:

Step 1. Sign in (or register) to the Microsoft MCP site and click on View Learning profile.

Step 2. Now click on My Profile and select Student in the Job Title section (even if you are a professor/academic staff, you have to select this).

Step 3. A “You may be qualified for academic discounts” message should appear, so click on the Get verified now link.

Step 4. Several options to prove your academic status will appear. Just choose the one that best suits you in order to get benefits from your status!

a)  If your school provides you with a .edu email account, just select this option and enter your email address twice. Then click on Verify:

b) Some schools are already included in the Microsoft directory, so you can look for it with the second option (and then you’ll be prompted to enter your credentials):

c) If you have an ISIC card you can enter the required information by choosing the third option:

d) The fourth option is for you in case you have a verification code (formerly known as Dreamspark activation code):

e) If none of the previous methods got you through, then choose the last option. You’ll be required to supply a proof of your academic status. Fill in the form with the required information, scan your document (ID, progress report, schedule or valid acceptance letter) and attach it to your submission.

Depending on the method that you chose, you’ll get immediate access or an action will be required from you. For instance, I selected the “school email account” option and then typed in the .edu email address provided by my university. Thereafter, I received a message about checking my email.

Step 5. And there it is, an email from Microsoft. Just click on the link indicated in the message in order to confirm your Academic Status!

Step 6. Congratulations! Your academic status has been successfully verified!

Step 7. Go back to My Profile on the Dashboard and select Student again. A verified message should appear.

Step 8. Scroll down and save your profile!

Step 9. Now, go back to your exam. The price will look the same. Regardless, click on Schedule Exam.

Step 10. You’ll be prompted to confirm your profile (Student is there again!)

Step 11. Finally, after a few clicks you’ll see the reduced price! 61 USD… It’s a 45% discount! That’s cool indeed, and a nice incentive.

But that’s not all…

If you have the chance to take a Microsoft Certification Exam in Beta version (which normally include an 80% discount code on launch for the first 300 attendees) you can end up paying merely 12 USD! (final prices may vary depending on your country of course; in this case, from 110 USD the price went down to 12 USD in the end, a 90% discount in total!)

So, if you want to hear more about it, don’t miss my next post, in which I’ll share information for 6 (yes 6!) new Microsoft Certification Exams which are currently in Beta phase and the corresponding 80% discount codes (and resources for study for them too)

Thanks for your visit and I hope this entry was useful for you. If so, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to receive a notification when new information is posted here =)

You can also share this information with your colleagues if you consider that it will be useful for them. Please do! 🙂

See you next time!

Luis