Delegates sitting Microsoft examinations will no longer receive grades, but will be awarded a simple pass or fail. According to Anne Marie McSweeney, Microsoft director of certification skills and assessment, the new system of scoring has been in effect since December 2001. However Microsoft did not make a general announcement of this change and it appears that many trainers were unaware of this change.

McSweeney states that “people will notice it most with 70-218”. (70-218 - Managing a Windows 2000 Network Environment – is a new core test for the MCSA track.) Mc Sweeney went on to explain the decision behind changing the scoring system: “ Scores are misleading. People put too much credence into what the scores means….at the end of the day pass/fail was what they cared about”