If you’ve been studying for 70-346 and 70-347 to get your MCSA, there’s no better time than right now to schedule those exams. As of March 31, 2019, they will both be retired. The exam page for each currently features the following notice.
“This exam retires on March 31, 2019. A replacement exam may be available. To learn more, visit our blog: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/community.aspx and review our Exam Retirement posts.”
New Exams
The retirement post last updated Dec 21, 2018, lists the two exams as follows, being replaced with role-based MS-100 and MS-101.
Retired Certifications
Along with the 32 exams slated for retirement, they’re retiring a number of certifications as well, replaced with role-based certifications.
If you’ve already gotten your MCSA: O365, don’t worry – it’s still active after retired.
“This certification retires on March 31, 2019. You will no longer be able to earn this certification after this date. If you earn it prior to that date, it will remain in the Active Certifications section of your transcript after that date.”
What should I do now?
This info-graphic illustrates the various paths available:
- You can still prepare for and get your MCSA: O365 by passing both exams by March 31. This study guide should help.
- If you’re not quite ready for 70-346 and 70-347 or are not interested in the MCSA, you can shift gears and instead start preparing to take MS-100 and MS-101 toward the Microsoft 365 Certified: Enterprise Administrator Expert certification
- Pre-order MS-100 exam prep book (May 6, 2019 release)
- Pre-order MS-101 exam prep book (June 27, 2019 release)
What if I already have my MCSA?
- Unfortunately, if you’ve already gotten your MCSA: Office 365, there is no transition exam. If you want to new certification you’ll need to start anew and take MS-100/MS-101 since the new certification is “expert” level as opposed to your current “associate” level.
- You could also consider upgrading your MCSA to the existing MCSE: Productivity certification instead of pursuing the new M365 Expert certification
I noticed for the 100 & 101 there is a prerequisite. Do we have to earn one of those other certs before if we are transitioning from 70-346/70-347?
I’ve been looking for a straightforward explanation for this since the announcement cropped up in my inbox and I’ve only just found your blog. Thanks.
Thanks for this breakdown. I saw the notice yesterday and wasn’t sure what my next steps were, so this is helpful. I’m stuck in the middle right now: I just passed 70-346 and was beginning to prepare for 70-347. So my choices now are either:
1. To finish 70-347 by March 31. I could probably get one exam in during that time, but there’s the risk that I fail and then can’t try it again so that rush would go to waste.
2. To accept the loss of 70-346 and start preparing for the new ones now. The good news is that a lot of MS-100 seems to overlap with 70-346 and stuff I’ve actually done in real world use, so it might not be as intense of preparation.
That’s my understanding as well. With 70-346 so fresh in your mind, it might be best to consider it a practice test and prep for the MS-100 to begin working toward an Expert level certification instead of Associate
is there available material for those exams MS-100 and MS-101?
There are two books available for pre-order I linked in the post, and some courses seem to be starting up in February (at a cost) but currently there’s not a lot out there
Great, thank you so much
You could check out the exam pages for each, though, and check the topics covered. That way you could start googling and studying specific topics covered in the exams