AU 2009 Report – Part 1

Good morning all! Spent a nice time last week at Autodesk University 2009.

[This is the main keynote session; i was a bit early. The session was in the Mandalay Bay Event Center, you know, like holds concerts and stuff? Not sure what the head count was but it seemed to be around 6000 folks if i had to guess.]

Lots of learning, walking, chatting and more walking.  If you’re not physically active by nature, AU can certianly give that jump start.  What did i take away?  Lots to tell.  I’ll try to break it into bite size chunks throughout the week.  Today’s lesson is on certification, specifically Autodesk certification. While @ AU, the assessments and tests were offered for free! And, if you could pass 7 exams, AU 2010 would be on them!

The challenge was on…  How was i going to try and do it? How was i going to catch all my classes?  How?

First, lets define what we’re talking about. There are 2 exams – associate and professional – before Professional certification can be obtained for a given application.  These exams are only being offered in 5 core applications;

AutoCAD
Revit Architecture
Civil 3D
3ds Max
Inventor.

The  associate exam is a closed book, multiple choice & true/false type of exam made up of i think 30 questions for each application.  The professional exam is a 20 question “open book” exam and requires useage of the application to get the desired result. Oh, and they’re timed. If i recall, the associate allowed 30 minutes and the professional allowed 90 minutes. You could take them in either order to attain the Pro certification, but both must be passed.

What do you get when you pass these exams besides self esteem?  From the Autodesk website;

• Enhanced skills and recognition: Autodesk Certification provides validation of your skills and knowledge along with recognition of your achievements.
• Electronic certificate: Once certified, you receive access to an electronic certificate, suitable for printing and framing.  You may reprint this certificate as often as you like.
• Certification logo: After passing the certification exam, you will receive the official Autodesk certification logo identifying you as Autodesk Certified, which you can use on business cards, résumés, and letterhead.
• Immediate diagnostic feedback: Whether or not you pass the exam, you will receive immediate feedback on areas to improve your Autodesk application skills.
• Listing in the Certified Professionals Database: Once certified, you can choose to have your contact information and certifications listed in our publicly available database. This is an excellent way to demonstrate your certification status to prospective employers.

Enough chatter. How’d i do?  I passed both exams for AutoCAD 2010 and Civil 3D 2010. That gave me 4 exams. How was i going to get the last 3….  I focused on Revit and 3ds Max. Sadly, i did not complete the mission.  I came up short on Revit by about 3 or 4 questions total. And Max, well, it would snow in houston, tx before i passed that one.  Hear are my awesome logos i can use for print / web & email;

Oh, In case you were in a cave, it snowed in houston this past friday… 

Next time, i’ll start diving into what i learned both in class and out….