2/18/2009 -- In conjunction with the Second Shot program which allows test takers to retake an exam for free if they fail -- and which has come and gone a few times -- Microsoft is now offering a Career Assist package.

This package is essentially a collection of online study materials that can be accessed online for 90 days for an additional $35 fee. It's available only in conjunction with Second Shot (which is currently scheduled to end on June 30).

Incidentally, if game shows are more your speed, you can go here and play Microsoft's "Are Your Certifiable?" game. This requires Silverlight to be installed, though, but you might find it worthwhile; despite the format, some of the questions are pretty good.

ISEB Releases Intermediate Cert in Software Testing
The Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) has released a new Intermediate Certificate in Software Testing to build on its current Foundation Certificate in Software Testing.

While the Foundation exam is currently available through both Prometric and Pearson VUE, only the latter has announced that it will be offering the new exam. More information on the announcement can be found here.

Books of the Week: 'Designing Cisco Network Service Architectures' and 'Reality Check'
The Designing Cisco Network Services Architectures (ARCH) book from Cisco Press was a pretty good offering in its first iteration. Its second edition is even better. Written by Keith Hutton, Mark Schofield and Diane Teare, it offers just what you need to study for the ARCH exam (642-873) and work for the Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP) certification. This exam consists of 60-70 questions that must be answered within 75 minutes. With about one minute per question, it's imperative that you're able to answer quickly and move on (a list of current objectives can be found here).

The content of the book is divided into twelve chapters, each ending with review questions (the answers are in the appendix). This, I felt, was the weakest part of the book. Whereas one chapter ends with 32 questions, others end with just five or eight. And some of these five- or eight-question chapters have answers that are as simple as "C." Meanwhile, other chapters have answers like this:

"In an SSM network, a receiver sends a requited to join a specific multicast source in a multicast group to its last-hop router (the router closest to the receiver), identifying the specific source in the group by using the IGMPv3 include mode. The last-hop router sends the request directly to the specific source rather than to a common RP, as is done in PIM-SM. The first hop router (the router closest to the source) starts forwarding the multicast traffic down the source tree to the receiver as soon as the source tree is built; this happens when the first (S,G) join request is received."

Sadly, there are only 162 questions in the book and far too many resemble the former.

On the non-certification route, a classic book on entrepreneurship is Guy Kawasaki's 2004 The Art of the Start. Now Kawasaki has combined the best content from that book with information from some of his other writings into last year's Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. This sizable tome is the best overall guide for starting a business out today.

The 94 chapters (that's right, 94) are succinct notes on what you need to do in order to stay relevant. Whether you're an entrepreneur or just want to keep your knowledge current, Kawasaki speaks your language. He doesn't waste time getting to the point, making it and moving on. That's a skill few have -- and one that you'll likely appreciate.