In September 2020 Opgona trainers took the MB-800 exam, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant exam. We are experienced Dynamics NAV/365BC trainers and consultants since 1999 and our conclusion is: it was not an easy exam. We prepared ourselves through the learning paths and ‘Check your knowledge’ questions on this site. To pass the exam a least requirement is to have a lot of daily practise with the application on customer site. Keep in mind that the exam is not in line with the questions as shown in the learning paths. 

For our junior training are considering to make a link between training and exam, but as the exam is still a beta-version we are waiting for the final release before making any adjustments to our current training program. Surely a challenge in this will be the fact that soft skills are not part of the MB-800 exam. Where in our junior training we are paying substantial attention to soft skills as these are, in our opinion, of great essence in becoming a professional consultant. 

Some tips and notes 

As we are not allowed to share any original exam questions, we would like to help you with some general notes and tips: 

• The exam is divided in 3 sections 
  • 38 questions are focusing on detailed information of the application. A mix of multiple-choice and multiple-answer questions. 
  • 5 questions are regarding an overall case where you have to answer these questions with yes/no (true/false). Strangely enough, in this part the go-back option was not available. 
  • 5 questions regarding a business case, mostly multiple answer questions. 
• As preparation open all pages within the application as presented in the content and be aware of the name of the page. Some questions will refer to a correct page name. 
• Pay attention to all field captions and names of functions. Some questions will refer to correct field and function names. (Knowing that sometimes these names are changed in a next release.)  
• The modules Production, Marketing, Service management and Warehouse management are not part of this exam. 

A number of question seemed to test more your photographic memory than a real knowledge of the application. In our humble opinion this feels like a missed change. 

Typical questions 

To underline and comment some typical questions, taken from this site, see the next ones: 

•  Which of the following events must occur before you post a bank reconciliation? 
  • The Total Difference field equals the sum of all lines with the Type field set to Difference 
  • The Bank Account Statement – Test Report is printed 
  • The value in the Statement Ending  Balance field must not equal the value in the Total Balance field 
  • There are unapplied entries 
• If you want to post the bank reconciliation, you must verify that which of the following fields balance? 
  • Statement ending balance and balance 
  • Total balance and balance 
  • Statement balance and statement ending balance 
  • Statement ending balance and total balance 

To answer these question you need to have a clear picture of the page of the Bank Account Reconciliation and especially of the fields at the bottom of the page.  

If the question would have been accompanied by this clear picture, you could easily eliminate some answers upfront. Like the option of the printed Test Report in the first question. But still you have to know about the field captions and often the position of these fields on the page as their names are often familiar. 

Is a certificate a guarantee? 

As learning partner, Opgona understands in some cases the value of a certificate. At this moment, however, a certificate for the MB-800 exam is not a guarantee that you can or will operate as a professional consultant. Knowing the structure of the application and knowing the names of pages and field captions is only a part of getting familiar with an application. In real life a company will execute all kind of business processes.  To understand these business processes and to align them to an application with or without any customization is a next level. That makes it difficult to evaluate a certain knowledge level by multiple choice/multiple answers questions. For that very reason, Opgona still believes in training with classroom settings where we challenge students by exercises and cases, and are paying attention to soft skills on top of that. Where evaluation will be done by a presentation to a small audience regarding a customer case. 

Maybe contradictory to the previous part we start a training day often by challenging the students with multiple-choice questions. These questions, however, do have a special reason. First of all, the questions are an  effective and playful recap of the subjects of the day before. Secondly, we try to show how difficult it is to setup proper multiple-choice questions and the relevance of these questions. 

Objectives, goals and expectations 

Overlooking the exam as a whole we tend to conclude that it misses a clear set of objectives, goals and expectations. Any formally designed educational program, be it a course, an exam or anything related, starts with these and leads to an evaluation at the end. In our opinion this should be a point of attention for the release of the final exam. If you might take the beta exam one of these days, note that you can provide feedback to any single question, as we did. You might want to take that opportunity.