Things I did today

At least I failed with the questions correctly marked incorrect. This test had more questions on temporal tables, another new concept for SQL Server 2016 as well as LEAD/LAG which apparently started in 2012, but I've never come across it. More to learn. I'm hoping by taking a small test nearly every day, I'll learn faster than reading a dry book. However I've been running or walking every day this week and think I'll continue doing something  every day, even if it's a 1 mile walk. Since I've run for three days in a row, I think tomorrow I'll go for a walk. It's been difficult setting up a stretching habit, though it's clear I need one. The Atomic Habits book suggests I need to make it obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. The last bit is already done - I like it when it's done. I feel good and accomplished. I'm not doing a good job with making it obvious or attractive, though. What if I move my yoga mat to the middle of the living roo...

Ugh, JSON is confusing me, and even when I stop to look for materials during the test to answer a question, I get it wrong. I'll read through the question list. Wait, I got this one wrong? Not only do I know the right answer because I understand grouping sets, but the other answers make no syntactical sense (WHERE and ORDER instead of GROUP and GROUPING SETS). How is that true? Here's my answer: And here is the answer that Measure Up provided... Heyyyy!!! That's the same! How am I supposed to pass this test if you're marking the correct answer as incorrect? I'd have passed the test today if not for this error!! What a let down. I guess I'll study the JSON questions so I can continue to get this one marked incorrect, but pass the test anyway. Off to the Castle Llyr in Prydain!

I'm pleased that I passed this one, and only missed the questions on JSON and rollups/cubes, things I've not dealt with. Today at work, I created a query that included PIVOT and dynamic SQL. I was rather proud of that - not only did I think PIVOT could work for my complex query, I was able to implement it as well. I also got in a run, took out the trash, did the laundry and the dishes, as I wanted to make sure things were as clean as possible in case I lost power due to the oncoming hurricane that'll hit in the middle of the night. If it's not raining (which is unlikely) I'll go for another run tomorrow morning. Tonight, I'll have some wine and continue reading The Castle of Llyr.

I failed another test - I only put in 10 questions, but I answered 6 of the correctly - not the 8 I needed to pass. I'm thinking I'll just take a larger practice test every day next week as the bank of questions is only 153 and eventually I'll get used to how the questions are worded (rather strangely) and more information on indexes and other concepts I'm not proficient enough in. I'm a little disappointed on how poorly I'm doing, but also with how terrible the website UI is for taking a test! It's nice to have it all online so I'm not beholden to just one computer, but I'd prefer a better laid out test. I'll still work through this one, then find a reputable test dump site so I have the best chance to pass in late August.

Better - at least I passed this time! I only did 15 questions and checked a few answers. I think I'll have to just start small like I did for 70-461 and move up. I also read the rest of Book 2 of the series by Lloyd Alexander, and will post my review of that one tomorrow.

I am exhausted, and I failed miserably. The Mindhub 70-761 test is wildly different, with many new questions. I didn't even get half of them right, and I honestly tried! I'll try again after reviewing all of the wrong answers. I figured I'd fail, just... not this badly! Bit of a disappointment, but better to find out this way rather than in the exam center!

I keep forgetting to read the chapter on Views, and it shows. I'm good at remembering what I picked, and what the correct answer was, but which one is which when I take the test seems to be the problem! I'm happy that I continue to pass the tests and tomorrow I'll buy the 761 practice test material and start on that tomorrow evening. I expect to fail that for the first few times, as I have little knowledge with the new parts of 2016 vs 2012 SQL Server, but it'll still be a good start! The Pumpernickel bread continues to be excellent! Shame the bakery is at least 30 minutes away - the loaf was only $5.75 and I'd buy their stuff all the time!

Oh man, if the oven hadn't beeped, I would have picked the right answer for the last question and therefore scored 100% on this test! The question wanted the Error State Number, and I, in a rush to get dinner out of the oven, picked Error Number instead of Error State! I guess that means I get another chance to earn 100%!

Well, at least I am consistent! And, apparently, I get tired when it's late and I don't ever use INTERSECT or EXCEPT I miss those questions as if I'm looking for hidden meanings, then just give up and move on. Today I made bean soup, mostly because I was bored and wanted to use my Instant Pot and had a lot of dried beans. I froze three containers and tossed the last one in the fridge to eat from for the next few days. It made for a tasty dinner!

I felt good about my chances for this one. I knew I at least passed, but it'll be interesting to see if I got 100%. Let me just review the one question I was waffling back and forth on, between RANK and DENSE RANK - I never remember which one is 122255 and 122233. I think the second one is the dense version. Ok, that's what I picked. Now I'll head back to the Question List and Score the Test! Uh oh. The application is throwing an error every second or so, and I can't select them fast enough to get back to the Score Test button. I considered trying to diagnose, but was concerned that I'd run out of memory while it continued to create more error messages. Maybe if I close the application, and reenter. Ooh, no, it isn't even letting me close the application. Heck I can't even see what it's called in the Task Manager to kill it! I guess I'll have to restart my computer. Ok, back to the application. What did it save for my last attempt? Oh...

My first Certification Style test! Forty-four questions in 120 minutes. Clearly I didn't need 120 minutes. I didn't even need 20 minutes, but there were several questions where I knew I missed it last time and couldn't recall if I selected A but should have done B, or the other way around. Ah well, I'll just try again tomorrow. There was only one question where I didn't know what the answer was at all because I hadn't read the XML chapter yet, and the question asked about what query options were used to support XML docs. The other three I should have known, but clearly wasn't thinking. At least I didn't do the "Forgot to select multiple answers on the "choose multiple" questions" this time!

Another pass! I still missed a few, though. The exhibit had Modified Date in the Before picture as normal datetime, and the After was a date... but not in the format that the Date type would expect, and by using CAST instead of CONVERT, it doesn't allow for an optional style. I forgot what PARSE does, so I picked CONVERT. PARSE is for converting datetime or datetime2 datatypes between cultural formats. Oh, I was irritated at this one! I hadn't learned when the results set gets sent from the cursor, and I peeked in the book, which unhelpfully said "To deallocate a cursor, use DEALLOCATE. When closing a cursor, use CLOSE." Thanks, book. That really clears it up. I went back and forth between the two, and clearly picked the wrong one. Oh well! Maybe tomorrow I'll do even better.

I passed, but the questions that I answered incorrectly were due to forgetting to read the chapter on Views, and not reading the full questions where it said "Pick two answers that satisfy this goal" and I only picked one. Ah well. I'll do a few more, then buy the proper practice test in a few days, and work through that one.

Today, I slowed down a bit. Slept in a little due to insomnia the night before, and worked at a leisurely pace. Got the rest of the apartment cleaned up, but managed to accidentally get shampoo in my eye when I showered, and my eye's been a bit blurry when reading text like my blog post. Still managed to do another practice test, but this time I failed. However, I encountered more questions on things I'm not completely clear on. Here are the questions I missed: I swear I got the same type of question yesterday and picked ALTER SCHEMA and learned it was supposed to be ALTER VIEW. Clearly I'll need to read Chapter 9, lesson 1 in my SQL book. Clearly, I've just not committed to memory the different types of transaction isolation. I'll reread Chapter 12, lesson 1 in the SQL book. Ugh, this is one that I went back and forth on. I've only done plain SELECTs in my views, so I haven't used any of these clauses in my views. I picked COMPUTE last...

After a day of finding non-urgent tasks, like cleaning my bathroom sinks and unpacking one of the boxes from my company's office, I finally got around to starting the Practice Test. They allow for three modes: Certification Mode: where they ask a certain number of questions and 120 minutes in which you cannot pause or stop the test, only abandon. Study Mode: where you select the number of questions you want to answer, and it is untimed Custom Mode: where you select the number of questions you want to answer, it is untimed, and you can select which exam section you want the questions to come from. I selected Study Mode, and only picked 30 questions. I believe the exam will have 40 - 50 questions from a bank of 200 or so. Since I wasn't being timed (it lied!) I got up from my computer to watch my part of the building getting powerwashed for several minutes. Of the question content, some of the questions I didn't know the answer to, and some of the questions were so...