CRM 2015 Customization Exam MB2-707
February 2, 2015 14 Comments
Last week I took and passed the newly released exam MB2-707 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Customization and Configuration. The exam title does not mention CRM 2015, although that is clearly the version it is aimed at.
I guess this is because Microsoft don’t want to confuse things when the exam covers how to customise Dynamics CRM 2015 on-premises or CRM Online, which does not really include the version number as such a prominent part of the branding. If you pass this exam it should be clear that you have the skills to customise CRM 2015 on-premise or CRM online equally.
Looking at the skills measured, the only new areas covered compared to the CRM 2013 Customisation exam MB2-703 are calculated and rollup fields. There is no mention of hierarchical security, or configuring sales or service modules such as SLAs and Entitlements or the Product Catalog.
My thoughts on this exam
Disclaimer: I’m not about to break any NDAs here, so if you hope to find out exactly what is on the exam or any of the questions that I had, you are reading the wrong post. And comments asking for specifics about the exam are not likely to get helpful answers, I am afraid.
Overall, I was pleased with this exam. The questions were a good reflection of the published “skills measured”.
In the past I have seen quite a few exams in the past (not just for Dynamics) where there were loads of questions about new features, at the expense of core knowledge. This is understandable. The new features are more exciting and “sexy”. So question-writers are more interested in asking about these sorts of topics. And exams need to include questions on new things to avoid candidates being able to coast through on their knowledge of the old features without keeping up to date. But it can easily go too far in my opinion. I have taken exams where almost every question seemed to be about new features, in some case quite superficial things, without testing that candidates also knew the much more fundamental “old school” skills.
Keep calm and answer everything
There is plenty of time, so stay focussed and keep going at a steady pace without rushing. There is no negative marking, so if you are unsure about a question, you should still put an answer, even if it is a complete guess or if you can only eliminate one or two wrong answers.
If you are not certain about your answer, you can mark a question for later review, by selecting the check box at the top left of the screen. At the end of the exam, it will show you how many questions you have marked for review and indeed how many you have not yet answered. You can then click through to see a list of the questions you marked for review and go through them to make sure you are happy with your answers.
Multiple choice, multiple answers
Be aware that some questions require more than one answer. How many answers you should mark is identified at the end of the question. You will also see that the answers use check boxes rather than radio buttons so that you can mark multiple answers at once. If you do not tick enough boxes, then at the end of the exam, before you click “Finish”, you will see if there are any questions that are incomplete, how may there are and you can click through to go straight to them.
Multiple-answer questions fall into two types:
- Multiple alternative answers, each of which is a complete and independent answer. For example, name three types of a thing, or two ways to achieve some objective.
- Multiple answers that combine to a whole solution. For example, the several steps needed to get to some end goal, not necessarily in any particular order.
It seemed to me that there were more of these multiple-answer questions than I had seen on previous exams. Of course everyone gets a different random set of questions from the pool, so this could be just a statistical anomaly more than anything else. You should certainly be prepared to answer this type of question.
What should you learn and focus on?
You need to know the things covered in the “Skills Measured” list on the MB2-707 exam details page. Most of the content is exactly the same as it was for CRM 2013, so there are loads of resources out there covering this material, from blogs, to YouTube videos. You could also go through the official course 80542 Customization and Configuration in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, because this covers all the old material thoroughly (bias alert: I was the lead author on that course so my opinions about it should be taken in context). You could take the course with an instructor at a Learning Partner, but if you are a customer or partner you should have access to the PDF of the training materials for free (depending on your support contract / partner status). According to the exam details, if you know everything from that course, plus calculated and rollup fields, you should be able to pass the exam.
Personally, I would suggest you focus on things you don’t normally do in your day job. So if you often spend time customising entities, fields, forms and views, but don’t spend much time on the security model or auditing for example, build yourself a virtual environment and play around with that for a while. If you know how the security model works, including things like security roles assigned to teams from other business units, then spend some time on dashboards, or connection roles. Get outside your comfort zone and make sure you understand the whole breadth of the product thoroughly – that is really what the exam is trying to measure after all.
Use your free Second Shot to get two chances
At the moment, you can get a free Second Shot to take the exam again, just in case you fail. You no longer have to sign up for this and get a voucher code to use when you register to take the exam. Microsoft have moved all of their exams over to Pearson Vue instead of Prometric, and the process if much more integrated. You start registering for exams right from the Microsoft site, and if you take one and fail, then the second time round it recognises this and gives you a 100% discount.
Good luck taking this exam, and any others you have lined up too!
CRMguru 
Good to know that they mentioned the number of how many answers required (similar to 2013 exam). The older Microsoft exams do not mentioned the number of correct answers required. Looking forward to upgrade my certifications to 2015 🙂
Actually, other Microsoft exams such as Windows, SQL or Exchange do still use the “Choose all that apply” approach (this was dropped for a while and then re-introduced). Dynamics exams do not use this question type at the moment, but of course that could always change.
While some test-takers claim the “Choose all” type are harder or take longer to answer, Microsoft say that the statistical evidence shows that this type is a really good “discriminator”. In other words, people who pass overall tend to get these right, and people who fail tend to get them wrong. They are a good test of whether people really know what they are talking about or not.
Hi Adam, as you know I took and passed MB2-707 earlier this week.
I’d recently taken the CRM 2013 Customisation & Config exam and felt that there was ‘no time like the present’ to take the CRM 2015 exam. I assumed (correctly as it turned out) that there would be an overlap between the CRM 2013 and CRM 2015 exam content. This is no surprise, given that much of the functionality provided by CRM 2013 and CRM 2015 is the same.
The questions I got in the CRM 2015 exam were not the same actual questions as I got in CRM 2013 exam, but many questions were on the same topics. I actually felt that the CRM 2015 exam covered the ‘old’ CRM 2013 functionality better than the CRM 2013 exam.
In terms of CRM 2015 functionality (without going into specifics) I only had a handful of questions on CRM 2015-exclusive features. Of course, each exam is different (or so I’m told!) so YMMV.
Regarding the exam itself, the CRM 2015 exam was slightly longer than the CRM 2013 exam but otherwise was the same – format, pass mark, etc. I have to say that there were a few typos in the questions and (as ever) a few questions and answers that were slightly too ambiguous for my liking.
As with my previous exams, I left comments on the questions at the end of the exam. I wonder if the feedback is read or exams are updated because of it?
The comments on exams is definitely read, and MS do follow up and take action where needed. For example, if you claim that a question is invalid (none of the provided answers are right, or more than one is arguably correct) they will go off and check with a subject matter expert (either on the product team, or potentially those involved with writing the exam). Questions might then be removed from the pool or updated to reflect their input.
I went as far as following up by email after my recent exam, because I was certain one or two questions required changes, and have been told these have been resolved now. I even got an exam voucher as a reward for helping them make the exam even better. So do take time to provide constructive feedback in your comments, and if it is helpful, who knows, you might be rewarded too. If not, at least you can have that warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you have done a good thing for everyone who takes the exam after you.
I took the exam on Friday and had pretty much the same experience. There were 4 questions that I had concerns about and commented on.
In all a fair exam that measured knowledge and skills
Congratulations, Julian. Have you taken any other of the 2015 exams yet?
Adam
Yes, have taken all those that are available including MDM. The CRM Online Deployment was a little tricky
Just waiting for the Extending exam to be released for the full set
Wow! You’ve been busy!
Two in one day was a challenge, my brain was fried afterwards. I tend to take new versions of the exams with minimal preparation, normally just reading then skills measured and a quick lookup on the new features mentioned. I find it helps me when I teach doing it this way.
Thanks for the heads up on what to concentrate on with the new stuff. I take this exam this Wednesday, March 4th.
Good luck Larry!
Hi Adam,
I plan to take the MB2-707, I’m wondering, is it enough to focus my reading on PDF of training materials from Microsoft Gold partner (
“but if you are a customer or partner you should have access to the PDF of the training materials for free (depending on your support contract / partner status”)? Or should I include CRM 2013s reading as well?
Best Regards
/ Sophia
You won’t find PDF materials for 2015, you should have access to the e-learning though.
Hey Guys, Hope you don’t mind me posting that I PASSED!! But only the MB2-707 Customization & Configuration 2015 exam. Albeit it’s an older certification, but what the heck, at least now I can say “YES ~ I’m Certified in MS Dynamics CRM”! 🙂
I’m an independent and don’t belong to a MS Partner so it’s challenging to collate information spanning many different topics & websites not even knowing exactly what to gather or study, so I got very panicky and SCARED away from MB2-712 based on CRM 2016! Maybe if I can manage to arrange & collate all the 2016 information I can pass that later, but NOW I’m doing Form Scripting, Extending, SDK, Plugins, etc.
For around a week I scrounged the internet for any & all material I could muster together for 2015, including Calculated & Rollup Fields, Hierarchy Security & Visualization, some other stuff, and followed @ukcrmguru’s advice:: “So if you are yet to take the exam for 2015 (and do not feel ready to tackle the 2016 version), make sure to have practiced and be comfortable with the topics above”. After a few days I got sick of studying so just went for it! I am however a bit disappointed I scored only 825. What is the Maximum score ~ anyone know?
Passing was a HUGE RELIEF. Also, it’s cool how you can transfer the Certification and Logo directly to LinkedIn 🙂 THANKS for all your help!!
PS >>> I find that TechNet and MSDN include more clear, concise, direct, and professional, authoring & writing over the MOCs.